Published on Jun 19, 2000
Just when you thought it was safe for corporate rock to come out
of the woodwork, the third volume in the ever-growing catalog of
A Fistful Of Rock N’ Roll leaps forward to deliver a serious
ass-kicking.
The brainchild of executive producer Sal Canzonieri, this third
volume picks up right where
Volume 2 left off – that is, not quite as strong as the
original volume, but impressive nonetheless. In this particular
disc, you can hear the influence of some modern-day bands in the
work of the newer groups – and some of the influences might
surprise you.
Unlike the previous two volumes,
A Fistful Of Rock N’ Roll Volume 3 does not have a single
weak track on it. (Not that the other two volumes were filled with
’em; each probably had one – two, at most, that were a little
subpar.) It’s nice to be able to sit down with this particular disc
and know that I don’t have to worry about getting up from my easy
chair and go running towards the “fast forward” button on my CD
player.
But what this third volume doesn’t quite have is the infectious
manic energy that made the first two discs so spectacular. Sure,
there’s plenty of music you can really get into on
Volume 3, like the cuts from New American Mob (“Liberty”),
Hookers (“Ride The Dragon”) and The Pollys (“Damn”). But I found
myself really caught up in the first two discs; I didn’t have quite
the same feeling this time around.
If you listen to this disc, don’t be surprised if you find
yourself saying often, “Gee, this song sounds like [insert band
name here]”. Libertine’s track, “Beautiful Disaster,” sounds like a
cross between Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs and Smash Mouth –
and it’s beautiful as hell. Likewise, I hear more than a little
Smashing Pumpkins (pre-
Mellon Collie) on “Let Me Out” by Fumes, and Rocket 455’s
“Ain’t Right Girl” sounds like it could have come from the early
days of The Misfits.
Yet each one of these songs does the ultimate honor by taking
the influences of the groups and tailoring it to their own styles.
Don’t dare say that these bands are copying the bigger names; if
anything, they are putting what they learned into action, and are
doing it well.
As I’ve said for each of the volumes so far, this is the kind of
disc that anyone who has ever enjoyed punk rock, even in the
smallest doses, will appreciate far more than someone who has been
raised on a diet of strictly Top 40. After three volumes of this,
you have to wonder how Canzonieri can continue to find bands of
this high-caliber quality… and next week, we’ll see if he can
continue the trend with
A Fistful Of Rock N’ Roll Volume 4.