A Drug Problem That Never Existed

Nick Oliveri abbreviated is NO, and this second Mondo Generator album is one big yowl of wild and wilful negation. After the somewhat uncharacteristic sampladelic hardcore of ‘Meth I Hear You Calling’, Oliveri and pals (including fellow Queens and Kyuss personnel) get down to business with ‘Here We Come’, which is The Kinks’ ‘All The Day And All Of The Night’ fed through a DC woodchopper, with Nick singing like a guy who’s just been found in a cave squatting over the gnawed bones of his relatives.

It gets weirder. ‘Like You Want’ is the mutant lovechild of Mickey Newbury’s ‘Condition’ and Hanoi Rocks’ ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Girl’s Like Christ’ does death metal comedy, while ‘Do The Headright’ showcases Oliveri’s fascination with builder’s arse glam, previously betrayed by parts of Songs For The Deaf.

So what separates this Mondo bazaar from, say, Murderdolls? Well, try a sense of humour and an appreciation of the finer points of light and shade. ‘Day I Die’ is an injun brave death threnody by way of acoustic Iggy, while ‘All I Can Do’ echoes the theme from some lost spaghetti western, albeit the kind of three-week old spaghetti cooked up in a curtained hovel in back of the redneck store in Pulp Fiction or JT LeRoy’s ‘Natoma Street’. And blow me if there aren’t some fine tunes at the centre of the stinking sonic morass that drips from titles like ‘Open Up And Bleed For Me’, ‘Detroit’ and ‘Four Corners’, the latter blessed with the grave(l) tones of Mark Lanegan.

What lies ahead? Probably psychic burnout, nervous exhaustion, rehab and a stint in some Spahn Ranch-based new age cult. Until then, Nick Oliveri and friends are free to walk these grounds unattended.