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Run DMC, Crown Royal (Arista Records)
It's been a while since Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell put out a disc. 1993's Down with the King to be exact. But the trio, Run, DMC, and Jam Master Jay, respectively, collectively known as Run DMC, are back in the new millennium. And while most people are at least familiar with the boys (they just played at halftime during a conference final football game), they might not know the influence the group has had on music in general. A flurry of bands today mix rock with hip hop, heavy guitars with scratching turntables, and they have Run DMC – who've been doing it since the early eighties – to thank. Indeed, take a listen to "Rock Box" off their '84 debut, which intersperses rap with wailing distorted guitars. Seventeen years later, it still sounds fresher than 90% of the crap out there today. Then there was the collaboration with Aerosmith on "Walk This Way,"
a song that either you loved or hated, but still proved a groundbreaking mix at the time.
So now that mixing elements of rock and rap is common, what does Run DMC bring to the table? On Crown Royal, the trio continues blending genres, and extends their hands to others to assist in the fun. Fred Durst, who seems to be everywhere these days, raps along on "Them Girls," a swinging cut that has a sixties feel to it, with clean guitars going chinka-chinka-chinka over a jazzy beat. Think Austin Powers party and you'll get the idea. On "The School of Old," Kid Rock sits in, and the song's throbbing beat recalls the group's early days.
Not all the cuts are chart busters, and in spots the raps are unrelenting in their praise of the group. There are also moments when that annoying bass boom – the one that rocks in a big club – rattles through the home speakers and seems a bit too much. Also, the cover of Steve Miller's "Take the Money and Run," with Everlast, is a stretch, given the group's history.
Minor misses aside, when they rip into a cut like "Rock Show," with Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind, the guys prove they can still mix it up in more ways than one, and do it better than a host of groups who drew on them for inspiration.
The Donnas, The Donnas Turn 21 (Lookout Records)
So the disc goes on, the bass thumps, the drums kick in, and then a heavy Les Paul/Marshall crunch cuts across, followed by monotone vocals. Then it's into the chorus, with Donna A sneering, "Are you going to move it for me?" It hooks you, and strangely enough, is reminiscent of Sweet's "Fox on the Run," which came out, oh, six or seven years before the Donnas each turned one. And that's the strange attraction to their music, where you'll hear influences, or at least shades of AC/DC, the Ramones, Kiss,
and heck, even Bachman-Turner Overdrive, among others. Coincidence? Perhaps, but odds are the girls know how to play, know how to write hooks, and can rock hard as well. On Turn 21, the Donnas seem more confident with their songwriting abilities, injecting humor and attitude while they rock merrily along. In "40 Boys in 40 Nights," Donna A throws a spin on the male rock idol hedonistic ideal, gleefully singing,
"Makin' out all night in Hollywood/ You know I'd do 'em all if I could/ My honey in Stuttgart doesn't care/ That I collect their underwear/ I got boys all over the road/ I got boys helpin' me unload." Take that, guys.
As for their names, they've taken a page from the Ramones book, and are all called Donna with the following initial for their last name – Donna A. (Brett Anderson, vocals), Donna F. (Maya Ford, bass), Donna R. (Allison Robertson, guitar) and Donna C. (Torry Castellano, drums).
Their sense of humor is evident, as is one of their influences, with the cover of Judas Priest's "Livin' After Midnight." And sure, Donna A sounds a bit like a young Joan Jett, a comparison that's inevitable, and one she's probably grown to hate. But if you think about it, there aren't too many girl bands out there that rock. Well, there are more now, but if you're looking for a comparison and look back in time, there are even less groups to measure against. I suppose a greater question is how did the girls find Sweet to be an influence? Never mind. The girls know how to rock, and in the end, that's all that matters.
Various Artists, Strait Up (Immortal Records)
This disc is a tribute to the late frontman of Snot, James Lynn Strait, who was killed in a car accident in December of '98. Strait was on his way to the studio to begin work on the band's second album, and it's possible they could have risen to the level of similar bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn, and a host of other heavy ones. The impetus behind this project are former bandmates, bassist John "Tumor" Fahnestock and guitarist Mikey Doling. Essentially, the music was there, and the guest vocalists, donating time in honor of their friendship with Strait, provided their own lyrics. So you'll hear the words and voices of Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Jonathan Davis (Korn), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Brandon Boyd (Incubus), and Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray), to name a few.
While it's tragic when a musician dies before his time, it's a bit hard to feel empathy via the lyrics on some of the songs on this tribute disc. Perhaps it's the collaboration aspect, of trying to put words to someone else's music that just doesn't gel. For instance, on "Take It Back," Jonathan Davis of Korn begins, "It's so fucked I am here doing this/ It's bullshit things don't end like this." Not exactly the most lyrical of eulogies, although I suppose you get a sense of his anger at the loss. Similarly, on "Forever," the lyrics penned by Fred Durst are simplistic, as he belts out, "You don't know what you got until it's gone/ And you don't know what you lost until it's gone/ Until someone you know goes away and dies/ They're gone forever." Elemental, I suppose, easy enough for a sixth grader to grasp, but as a send off to a friend? Oh, and he keeps shouting "shut the fuck up" a lot too.
There are, however, songs that are more than just profanities and heavy chord changes. "Angel's Son" finds Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust singing over acoustic guitars, giving the song a haunting sound. On "Divided," with Brandon Boyd, heavy guitars predominate, but the pacing is slower, more melodic and dynamic.
On the whole, the music is heavy, loud, the vocals are guttural and belted out, and the lyrics express sadness at the loss of Strait, though sometimes in a child-like fashion. There are also 13 seconds of Ozzy saying goodbye, along with "Sad Air," an except from an interview with Strait by Ro Kohli back in '97. Is this a fitting tribute to the former frontman? Hard to say, since I never knew the man, yet those closer to him may appreciate it.
February 2001
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