THOSE DAYS ARE GONE

Got the latest Fishbone album, Still Stuck In Your Throat, in today's mail. (Original member roll-call's down to two - ultimate frontman Angelo Moore and bass deity Norwood Fisher.) Man, I used to worship these guys in the late '80s/early '90s. They were the stage-dynamiting, brain-melting live act of all times - their show at the (long-gone) Palladium in NYC, with an unannounced 2 Live Crew opening up, is a memory that'll keep a grin on my face till my last moments on earth. But they lost it on record with Give A Monkey A Brain..., and this album is not the recovery I kinda dimly hoped it would be (and knew it wouldn't be) when I popped it in the player. A double bummer, since their new lead guitarist is Rocky George, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies and a hidden black-rock hero his ownself for decades. I mean, it's certainly got its moments - "Party With Saddam" isn't bad, if a little deflated by recent history, and "Frey'd Fuckin' Nerve Endingz" and "Premadawnutt" feature some seriously metallic guitar-bass action from Norwood and Rocky that's worth the purchase price all by itself - but it's just not Truth & Soul or In Your Face. And they really shouldn't need to grovel to frat-stoner morons by covering Sublime's "Date Rape." I've got my memories, though - three shows by the more-or-less original lineup (shortly before and shortly after The Reality Of My Surroundings) and one Trulio Disgracias gig in L.A. That's enough for one lifetime.

Got the new Tomahawk disc today, too, and they're finally living up to their name, at least if the press release is to be believed - it's called Anonymous, and all the songs are supposedly versions of uncredited Native American songs. They've all got titles like "War Song," "Antelope Ceremony," "Mescal Rite 1" and "2," "Crow Dance," etc. Could be for real, could be an excuse for Patton to do his vocals-but-no-lyrics thing while Duane Denison and John Stanier throb along ripping off Caspar Brötzmann's Mute Massaker (itself a series of six variations on Jimi Hendrix's "Peace In Mississippi"). I've never spent much time or attention on Tomahawk, so maybe this is as good as their previous two records (two, right?), maybe it's not.

The most rewarding item in today's mail: the Soul Jazz comp New York Latin Hustle!: The Sound Of New York, which gathers two CDs worth of Latin funk, salsa, bugalu, etc., etc. from the late '60s through the mid-'70s. Worth it for Al Escobar's version of "Tighten Up" alone. Might make this one part of the whole "Learning Latin" project.