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Munkey Juice:
Music from the Motion Picture, Moscow
Double-albums have always been a trying undertaking for rock bands, and few have carried them out successfully. Its quite unusual when a double-album comes out that most listeners dont wish it had only been a single disc. With this in mind, trying to make a double-album film soundtrack almost qualifies as an act of insanity. Soundtracks are hard enough to keep interesting, as they tend to lack the congruence of regular albums. Add to this the challenge of making a soundtrack with tunes by a single musical group playing in a straight-rock format a real rarity and youve got one ambitious project on your hands. The latest entry by super-excellent, super-underground Ohio trio Munkey Juice is just that: a two-disc film soundtrack written and performed entirely by this one very ambitious band. I wish I could say that Munkey Juice somehow pulls the whole thing off, but damn, I gotta give em credit for trying! Disc one is a nearly-flawless collection of twelve tracks that effectively synthesize all the elements MJ like to bring to the table: New York-style late-70s punk, 80s new- and no-wave, lo-fi indie rock, Nirvana-esque grunge, and quirky forays into unexpected genres like folk and roots music. The first track, Cold, Cold Days, is an instant MJ classic, housing a beautiful melody in a bed of deliciously distorted guitars that eventually dissolve into a gorgeous synth-piano coda. Track 2, Celebrate, is another keeper, featuring sick non-wanker axe theatrics and perfectly punked-up vocals. In fact, Id say only three of the 12 tracks here dont succeed: I Cant Stand You mainly because of the poor way its mixed (too much voice, not enough everything else), Pornography because it sounds a lot like G n Rs Patience, and My Last Resort because the two lead vocals dont mesh well. But the other nine tracks arent just good, theyre great, and this makes for a disc thats nearly as strong as MJs last album, the wonderful Mafia Cornfields. Things dont go as well on disc two, however. Also twelve tracks in length, this batch of tunes is hit-or-miss, with a few excellent entries brought down by their less-inspired neighbors. The lead-off track, Big Scene, has an uncharacteristically empty pop-punk feel, all power chords and shouts. Track six, Frost, has a problem analogous to disc ones Pornography: the main riff is just a bit too similar to that of In Uteros Milk It. Theres also an over-reliance on the flange effect a favorite of 80s guitarists in many of these songs and some bear a dated quality because of it. Finally, the vocalists dont always seem to be working at full-strength, sounding strained on several numbers. But unsurprisingly, you will find some real diamonds in the rough here, especially in the latter part of the recording. Comin Down the Line has that Richard Hell-meets-CCR vibe MJ manages so well, and the soundtrack closer, Short in Stature, slays you as its sublimely simple piano riff goes head to head with wicked guitar and coarse vocals while the drummer ecstatically batters his skins. Yes, itd be hard to argue that this double-album wouldnt have been better off coming in at half its length, but perhaps hearing these tunes in their proper context with Moscow rolling in the foreground would help bring life to those numbers on disc two that dont seem to stand so well on their own. At the end of the day, however, there remain plenty of reasons to cheer this enormous effort from Munkey Juice.
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