That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice?

Friday, May 4, 2001

Those of you out there who are big Chucklehound Entertainment fans will notice that the corporate headquarters for Chucklehound relocated about a year ago from sunny Claremont, California (heart of the unstoppable Inland Empire Lo-Fi Rock Revolution) to cold and boring Harwich, Massachusetts. Even though there is plenty to complain about, one of the worst is the lack of availabilty of product from the afore-mentioned Inland Empire scene, most notably Shrimper Records releases. There is an undefinable thrill at being able to go down to your local record store and pick up the latest cassette by the Amps for Christ or Furniture Huschle. Sadly, this thrill is completely lost to me now.

Or so I thought....

This morning, I popped into the local Border's to get a birthday present for my dad and caught, out of the corner of my eye, a Dennis Callaci record cover. "Huh?" I said aloud. "Did I really see that? I am just going through Shrimper withdrawl hallucinations?"

At this point, numerous people were staring at me as I sprinted towards the music section. "Hell, yeah!" I bellowed at the top of my lungs, as I plunged my hands into the CD racks and withdrew the CD version of Dump's That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice.

After spending a few minutes trying to convince the Border's staffers to let me make my purchase before they forcibly ejected me from the store, I took a good look at what I had acquired. It appears to be a CD-reissue of the seminal Shrimper cassette of the same name that was released back in '99 (a cassette, it is worth mentioning, was the first factory-duplicated cassette release in Shrimper's release). A quick glimpse of the track listings reveals that it contains not only the fabulous tracks from the cassette, but bonus tracks! Who doesn't love bonus tracks? (though, in an ideal world, the cassette would have more tracks than the CD...)

I must say, though, for all my avowed love of magnetic tape and vinyl, there is something to be said for the peace of mind of knowing that I can leave this in the car without it being melted into plastic scrap. (I've gotten in the habit of buying multiple copies of Shrimper tapes for exactly that reason...) The bonus tracks are nice, but draw from some of the weaker selections in Prince's catalog.

Did I forget to mention that the whole album is a selection of Prince covers? That's the sort of thing you're supposed to mention in these things, right?

Huh?

I'm supposed to provide interesting info about the band as well? But that's so boring!

All right, all right. I'll give you band info.

Dump is James McNew.

There! You happy?

Who's James McNew? You're kidding, right?

You need to get out more.

Hey, there's no need for violence! Fine, James McNew is the bassist and sometimes guitarist and vocalist for Yo La Tengo.

You don't know who Yo La Tengo are? To quote Flavor Flav, "I can't do nuthin' for you, man."

To further quote Mr. Flav, "Yo mama's got brass nipples."

No, I don't know what that means either. Leave me alone, I've got a review to finish here.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, this album is a collection of Prince covers done in Dump's usual lo-fi wall-of-sound approach. The production works well on all the songs, but after a certain point, there's only so much you can do with A Love Bizarre. However, the attempts at the more accessible Prince songs (When U Were Mine, Raspberry Beret, 1999) are fabulous and certainly worth having in a nice digital format.

Rating: B-

Reviewed by Padgett Arango
Contents
The Hills Have Eyes 2

Hostel Part II

Six Degrees

Shark

Jericho

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Justice

The Hills Have Eyes

Love Monkey

Out of Practice

Head Cases

Crunchwrap Supreme

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Batman Begins

Garden State

Hero

13 Going On 30

LAX

Starman

quirkyalone.net

Kill Bill, Vol. 2

Line of Fire

We Shall All Be Healed

Happy Family

Arrested Development

Love Actually

A Minute with Stan Hooper

Tarzan

Karen Sisco

Stop All the World Now

Cold Case

Skin

10-8

Joan of Arcadia

Eve

Luis

Lost In Translation

House of 1000 Corpses

Bubba Ho-Tep

Darkness Falls

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Amazing Race

Treasure Island

FearDotCom

Adaptation

To Hit Armor Class Zero

Without A Trace

8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter

Life With Bonnie

JalapeƱo Cheeseburger

The Mothman Prophecies

Happy Campers

The Man Who Wasn't There

Kiss of the Dragon

Josie & the Pussycats

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Dr. Pepper

Know By Heart

Waking Life

L.I.E.

Thirteen Ghosts

Earthlink presents Chang and Eng

New York and Country Bar

Change

Motivation and Water Tower Grammar

Crossing Philly

Makeout Club

Undeclared

The Gap

The Abolition of Work

3000 Miles to Graceland

Kolobos

Duets

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Diesel Sweeties

The Cold Six Thousand

The Grilled Stuft Burrito (Rebuttal)

60 Second Wipeout

The Patriot

Grilled Stuft Burrito

Cowgirls

Crystalline

Frankenfinger E.P.

One Force Down

Shake

Both Our Secrets

Happy Birthday Captain Columbus!

Fight Club

Whatever It Takes

Committed

That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice?

Joe Dirt

The Veggie Whopper

Taco Bell Nachos

Palmetto

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero

The Terror of Mechagodzilla

To The Center

Infiniti+Infiniti

American Psycho

The Del Shredder

What Lies Beneath

The Cheesy Gordita Crunch

Bring It On

Chill Factor

Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars

Bad Company

The Blair Witch Project

Hyacinths and Thistles

Lake of Dracula

We'll Have a Time

Home Depot

Snow Day

The Virgin Suicides