Untitled Document

Most of the point of listening to themes from old shows is the nostalgia value, so I figured that not knowing half of the shows would ruin a lot of the intended fun. For the most part, I was wrong, though. Of the American shows, Miss Marple, Baretta, Laverne and Shirley, Wickie, Cheers, Spiderman, MASH (Suicide is Painless), Duck Tales, Magnum, Friends, The Flintstones, and Beverly Hills 90210 are represented. Of those, the highlights are the ripping MASH cover by Swedish band twopointeight who sound almost exactly like Rancid minus the slur of Tim Armstrong. The pure ska instrumental Flintstones cover is pretty fun as is the '80s sounding "Spiderman" despite weird vocals popping up every now and then in the background. Bigwig's version of the Cheers song is decent, though no substitute for the original. "Duck Tales" by Die Optimale Harte is one of the more interesting covers. It starts out sub-par because the vocals suck and are being drowned out in the background. But a minute in, the song breaks down into a much slower German singalong, which I have no clue where it's from, but it's catchy as hell. Surprisingly, I ended up liking the German songs more. Each and every one of them rocks in its own right and it wasn't long before I was singing along with them and making up my own words. If you like TV themes I'd recommend this in a heartbeat, and you get to hear some good European bands to boot.

	VARIOUS ARTISTS TV SUCKS WOLVERINE	LINKS: wolverine-records.de
	As with many compilations these days, this one has a gimmick. Twenty four bands take a crack at covering their favorite TV show themes. Wolverine Records is based out of Germany, so half of the disc consists of covers of American TV themes and the other half are what I assume are German shows.
Most of the point of listening to themes from old shows is the nostalgia value, so I figured that not knowing half of the shows would ruin a lot of the intended fun. For the most part, I was wrong, though. Of the American shows, Miss Marple, Baretta, Laverne and Shirley, Wickie, Cheers, Spiderman, MASH (Suicide is Painless), Duck Tales, Magnum, Friends, The Flintstones, and Beverly Hills 90210 are represented. Of those, the highlights are the ripping MASH cover by Swedish band twopointeight who sound almost exactly like Rancid minus the slur of Tim Armstrong. The pure ska instrumental Flintstones cover is pretty fun as is the '80s sounding "Spiderman" despite weird vocals popping up every now and then in the background. Bigwig's version of the Cheers song is decent, though no substitute for the original. "Duck Tales" by Die Optimale Harte is one of the more interesting covers. It starts out sub-par because the vocals suck and are being drowned out in the background. But a minute in, the song breaks down into a much slower German singalong, which I have no clue where it's from, but it's catchy as hell. Surprisingly, I ended up liking the German songs more. Each and every one of them rocks in its own right and it wasn't long before I was singing along with them and making up my own words. If you like TV themes I'd recommend this in a heartbeat, and you get to hear some good European bands to boot.
----Ollie Candypants