5 / 10
Mondo Generator lynchpin Nick Oliveri was kicked out of sociopathic grunge-core band Dwarves - sample LP title, 'Blood, Guts & Pussy' - for being too sick a fuck. Bloodied but unbowed, he found a dysfunctional home in now-legendary heavy-desert band Kyuss. Now, he's the often naked bass player in the best rock band in America, the sensational Queens Of The Stone Age. Mondo Generator is their redneck alter ego, with Oliveri in the saddle instead of Josh Homme.
So this is almost another Queens record. Homme plays guitar, and two tracks are Queens live regulars: the seismic-riffed '13th Hour' (known in the Stone Age as 'Tension Head') and the unhinged 'Simple Exploding Man'. It's also something of a stoner rock Holy Grail: drummer Brandt Bjork (now of Fu Manchu) hits things throughout, pulling off a Kyuss reunion. But mostly, it's a Nick Oliveri record: uncouth, ugly and indulgent.
And no, that's not always a compliment. The deconstructed Queens songs aside, 'Cocaine Rodeo' provides a country-fried wheeze, while 'Miss Mary Gets A Boob Job' recalls Mudhoney, but without the English degree. The rest is a vast tar pit, full of grungy fossils and decaying grindcore that even the glamorous prospect of steer-roping on drugs can't quite gussy up. Yee ho hum.
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