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Punk Chartbusters
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| By
Paul Autry
If you're a fan of punk
music...and even if you're not...you need to be
introduced to Wolverine Records. They're a rocking label that's putting
a
safty pin into the cheek of all that is musical and, with the "Punk
Chartbusters" compilation CD's, they're doing a damn fine job of
it.
What they've done is nothing less than brilliant. Each album that
they've
released features over an hours worth of music. But, not just any old
music...each release features a collection of punk bands doing cover
songs.
What's even more interesting are the songs that these bands choose to
cover. In order to allow this review to do these releases justic, I'll
give
you a brief run down of some of the songs that are covered as well as
what
I feel are some of the finest moments on the albums.
"Volume Four" is the latest release and it's a two disc
set...twenty seven
songs on disc one and twenty six songs on disc two. Starting with disc
one,
we find a wealth of material including Second Floor Daycare doing
"Baby,
One More Time" (Britny Spears), The MC Rackins with
"Talk Dirty To Me"
(Poison), Peace Brothers with "Frozen" (Madonna) and Tagtrum
with "Eternal
Flame" (The Bangles). Other artists that are covered include The
Beach
Boys, The Cars, Kim Wilde, Human League, Roy Orbison, Pet Shop Boys,
Ricky
Martin, John Denver and Blondie...to name a few. Personally, with this
collection, I found the second disc to have the better selection of
songs
that you could sink your teeth into. Some of the artists covered include
Starship, The Doors, Abba, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly,
Backstreet Boys, Eric Clapton, Hanoi Rocks, U2 and Tracy Chapman. Some
of
the finer moments include Sewing With Nancy with "Time After
Time" (Cyndi
Lauper), Apocalypse Hoboken with "Darling Nikki" (Prince),
Blastcaps with
"The Saftey Dance" (Men Without Hats), and Mensen with "Jumpin'
Jack Flash"
(The Rolling Stones). The true gem in this double CD set is 0 Eight 5
Teens
doing their version of the USA For Africa song, "We Are The
World." If you
like what you hear...which you will, I guarantee it...you can get in
touch
with the bands that float your boat...you get e-mail, web page and snail
mail addresses.
If you like "Volume Four," which, like I said, you
will...there's three
other releases that you can sink your teeth into and each one is just as
good as the next one. Just take a look what you'll find on these
releases.
"Volume One" is a single disc that features 25 songs and a
total running
time of 70 minutes, 43 seconds. You get covers of songs by artists such
as
The Cranberries, The Rolling Stones, Abba, Elvis Presley, Depeche Mode,
Bananarama, EMF, Marilyn Monroe and The Talking Heads. This is a cool
release and it's the one that caught my attention....yeah, beacuse it
was
the first release and this is where the idea started. But, little did I
know that the best was yet to come.
"Volume Two," which was also a single CD, arrived featuring
twenty eight
songs with a total running time of 74 minutes and 36 seconds. The
variety
of the artists these bands decided to cover really grew with this
release.
You get Oasis, Eurythmics, J.D. Shannon, U2, Bob Dylan, Sammy Davis Jr.,
Suzanne Vega and Bill Ramsey. Warnstreik's version of "Video Killed
The
Radio Star" (The Buggles) was cool. But, the real highlight on this
release
what Yeti Girls doing "Don't Bring Me Down" (E.L.O.) I would
suggest buying
this disc for that song alone.
"Volume Three" was the first double disc set in the series
and, talk about
a wealth of material, this album just totally blew the first two away
and,
in my opinion, it remains the best of the bunch. Disc one features 25
songs
with a running time of 67 minutes and 39 seconds and disc two features
yet
another 25 songs with a running time of 64 minutes and 48 seconds. This
collection covers material from Elton John, A-Ha, Bryan Adams, Billy
Joel,
Leonard Cohen, Frank Zappa, Randy Newman, The Beatles, Chuck Berry,
Madonna, Pat Benatar, Madness, Simon And Garfunkel, Sweet, Pia Zadora,
The
Kinks, The Police, Elvis Presley, Fine Young Cannibals, Golden Earring,
and
Neil Young. As far as highlights go, there's plenty of stand out tracks
to
choose from. The best of the bunch includes Untergangskommando doing
Cyndi
Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," Mars Moles doing Aqua's
"Barbi Girl,"
and Yeti Girls doing "Der Hund Von Baskerville," which sounds
like Black
Sabbath's "Paranoid" in a different language.
Compilation CD's are a dime a dozen these days...there's plenty of them
out
there. The same goes for tribute albums...everybody and their mother has
one. But, in this day and age, people are looking to get the most for
their
money, more bang for the buck. Well, when it comes to "Punk
Chartbusters,"
you can't go wrong. Every album is worth picking up. Besides, your
collection wouldn't be complete if you didn't have 'em all!
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