CITIZINE REVIEWS
Go-Kart Records Unleashes MP300 Revolution
Go-Kart's new release with 300 songs, 150 bands -- and only two discs. Plus The Control, Cougars, and The Little Killers.

By Mark Prindle
www.markprindle.com

Various Artists
Go-Kart MP300 Raceway
(Go-Kart, 2003)

This is a double-MP3-disc, featuring 150 bands and 300 songs from all walks of Go-Kart life (mainly phenomenal hardcore punk and sweet pop-punk). If your ears can deal with seven billion songs in a row, this is the double-disc for you!

It's a little worrisome though, this new-fangled MP3 technology. Remember how albums used to be 30 or 40 minutes long until CDs came along and made it possible for "artists" (like me) to cram 74 minutes worth of HUMAN FECES onto every release?

Well, what happens now? What happens when Billy Corgan finds out that there's a disc out there that'll hold 150 songs worth of his pig-headed bullshit? I'll tell you what happens -- a listening experience even more tedious than The Melon Collie Sickness Of America or whatever it was called. Talk about WASTING your LIFE!

The Control
Glasseye
(Go-Kart, 2003)

Hardcore punk is BACK! Not that mopey bald-headed metallic stuff from NYC, but classic high-speed energetic exciting 4/4 yelling and playing great chord sequences!

Bang your head, mosh around, cry, scream -- this was what my teenage years were all about. Minor Threat, DRI, Seven Seconds -- The Control have that classic fast, catchy, angry, adrenaline-pumping, furious, wonderful sound, with a singer that sounds as pissed off and insane as that dude that was in Last Rites. Thank you again Go-Kart, for keeping music like this ALIVE AND KICKING!

(*is presented with a cease and desist order from Jim Kerr's attorneys*)

Cougars
Nice, Nice
(Go-Kart, 2003)

Usually when you bring a horn section into punk-influenced rock music, you get ska. But not today! The Cougars play upset angertones of violent emo grrrrr, but with HORNS on top of them! Strange effect, odd idea, and one I'm proud to have heard for myself!

It's a little unnerving to hear Fugazi-style angst with a high school marching band playing along, but then again, this is the '90s: The "Beck" era, where everybody merges everything into a musical stew, and the only true heroes are dead firemen. What's your favorite Cougars song title? Is it "Close To Fast, Loud & Big"? "Mustard Is Pissed"? "Slow Pants Changer"? "A Friend To Dogs"? Or is it "Kelly Has Sweater Breasts"?

And more importantly, what the hell is a "Sweater Breast"? AND DON'T TELL ME "A BOOB MADE OF YARN" -- I'M DONE LISTENING TO YOU!!!!

The Little Killers
The Little Killers
(Crypt, 2003)

If Root Beer was a genre, The Little Killers would be the Kings of Root Beer! Because their rock and roll goes "Chug-a-Lug-a-Chug-a-Lug-a etc.!" The guitars, bass and drums lock into a chuggling distorted heavy fuzzy garage punk rock groove in every song, with a '60s scum rocker man-voice spitting, drooling, dribbling and allowing saliva to drip down his shirt with such headbouncing originals as "Butterfingers," "Spider" and "Choppin' Block."

You'll feel like you're listening to a big ornery collision between the Ramones, the Dead Boys and the Standells who all thought that the announcer guy had said their band name (when in fact he said "Genesis, Featuring Phil Collins" -- that's what's so funny about it!!!).

Another great thing about The Little Killers is that their name may or may not be a reference to la petite mort -- the orgasm as "the little death." Because who else would give you the little death besides a little killer? And luckily for us men in the audience, two-thirds of this band is comprised of people with ovaries!!!!

No, that's not the right word. What are those things that girls have when they -- ah yes! Genital warts. So rock on down to your local cafe and bring the Rock and Roll!

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