Buddyhead Presents: - Gimme Skelter

The idea of Buddyhead assembling a compilation CD is a pretty sweet one. I've always enjoyed reading the contents of Buddyhead.com; I've always enjoyed their rants on awful bands and I've always respected their taste in music. For their first compilation disc, they tried to assemble a great CD with artists they really like that aren't necessarily on their label. The idea seemed like a really good one, especially when the names of Weezer, Cave In, Primal Scream, Iggy Pop and Mudhoney are involved. Unfortunately, what we get is, more or less, just a glorified mix tape courtesy of Travis Kellar et al. Don't get me wrong, though; this CD has some really really awesome songs. Cave In's "Harmless Armless" is possibly better than any of the tracks on 2003's Antenna, and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's song "Shot Down" is a great minute and a half gem. Weezer contributes a demo version of "You Won't Get With Me Tonight," part of their 1996 Blackhole demo tape, where River's sings two separate dialogs intended to be a nerd trying to convince a recently-dumped beautiful girl to sleep with him. Classy stuff, right up Buddyhead's alley. The rest of the CD just falls kinda flat, feeling as though a lot of the tracks are forced upon you. Beehive and the Barracudas and Buddyhead's own Icarus Line contribute decent tracks. Primal Scream's live version of "Shoot Speed/Kill Light" is only "alright". Even bands I really like, such as Le Tigre and Burning Brides, submit sub-par songs that just don't get this disc going. Again, this is a decent CD, but unfortunately that's all Gimme Skelter is. Buddyhead is poor though, like they always advertise. If you like even three of the above mentioned bands, go out and give this one a try. At least then you know you'll be helping Buddyhead purchase more drugs. And to help Jeff Wood's Shat record more genius songs like "What The Fuck Do You Think Christina Aguilera Is Doing Right Now?" [www.buddyhead.com]