Cocaine Rodeo

Mondo Generator

Southern Lord Records, 2000

http://www.mondogenerator.net/

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/03/2000

If I ever wondered why I never let myself get into the drug culture, I now have the second CD that answers that question.

The first, o faithful reader, you may remember as Jerusalem by Sleep - possibly the only band ever to feature a lead bong player. The second album is Cocaine Rodeo from Mondo Generator, a side project for ex-Kyuss and current Queens Of The Stone Age member Nick Oliveri. Unofficially labeled as featuring the final recordings of Kyuss, this disc is nine parts cacophony to one part music, and is as unpleasant as it is unlistenable.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

Oh, sure, I realize that to speak negative of Kyuss or Queens Of The Stone Age is about as blasphemous as using a Bible to start a hibachi grill. And I don't mean to slam either band, since my exposure to both has been very limited. But the ten tracks on Cocaine Rodeo makes me wonder just what the hell these guys were smoking when they wrote this stuff.

On one hand, you have the short blasts that leave you scratching your head as to what you just heard - tracks like "Shawnette" and "Uncle Tommy" fall under this category. Then you have your regular-length songs which are part stoner rock, part speed metal (thanks to the rapid-fire vocal delivery of Oliveri, performing as "Rex Everything," and Burnt Mattress), like on "Miss Mary Gets A Boob Job".

And then, there's the spacey jam of "Simple Exploding Man (Extended Version)" - 11 minutes of make-the-dog-howl-with-pain noise. One of the unofficial Kyuss tracks (featuring Oliveri, guitarist Josh Homme and drummer Brant Bjork), this one is so far over the top that it's gasping for air. If only the fadeout around the seven-and-a-half minute mark had kept, and not allowed the song to fade back in. Oh, well... I can dream, can't I?

This all said, there are two decent moments on Cocaine Rodeo, both of them short-blast songs. "I Want You To Die" and the title track actually have enough musical substance to keep the listener interested, as well as make them stop trying to claw their eardrums out.

Yeah, you could sugar coat this and call Cocaine Rodeo a collection of one-off tracks that is meant to be a bit of a goof. But somehow, I think that Oliveri wouldn't put his name on any project unless he was serious about it - and that's what makes me all the more scared of Mondo Generator and Cocaine Rodeo.

Rating: D-

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© 2000 Christopher Thelen and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Southern Lord Records, and is used for informational purposes only.