Supercop

After N-Trance put a rap twist on a cover of the Bee Gee’s Saturday Night Fever classic “Stayin’ Alive,” I thought I had heard it all. Now the song appears on Jackie Chan’s Supercop soundtrack, only this time in full-fledged techno.

Siobhan Lynch not only recaptures the disco feel lost in the rap remake, but she brings a sort of ‘John Travolta doing the grind’ feel to it.

Tom Jones and Ruby combine for a cover of “Kung Fu Fighting” to open the record. Leslie Rankine’s alterna-dance remixes save Jones’ annoying as ever opening vocals on the track.

New wave originators Devo contribute two tracks to the record, including the most unusual cover in Nine Inch Nail’s “Head Like A Hole.” Hearing “bow down before the one you serve” by anyone but Trent Reznor seems unusual, but thinking back to the early days of MTV and Devo’s video for “Whip It” paints an even uglier picture. I love it.

Rocket From The Crypt put forth their best effort to date with the single and accompanying video for “On A Rope.” Black Grape still sucks while Gwen Stefani and No Doubt are a little disappointing.

2 Pac, Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, No Doubt and Warren G complete an impressive variety, a rare thing in the soundtrack industry.

None of the new bands on Supercop leave lasting impressions, keeping the focus on the covers. If the movie can be half as original as the soundtrack, it may be worth seeing.

*** 1/2

—Corey Moss

The Crow; City Of Angels

It’s hard to imagine that the first CD to the Crow could be topped, with such unforgettable songs like Stone Temple Pilots’ haunting “Big Empty.” But its follow up disc to the sequel, City of Angels, does just that.

This CD is all out rock. With Hole, Filter, Bush and Seven Mary Three, to name a few, contributing, City of Angels is a pure adrenaline rush.

Hole performs a chilling rendition of the Fleetwood Mac classic “Gold Dust Women.” Lead singer Courtney Love, for some reason, makes the lyrics sound more convincing than Stevie Nicks. Go figure. The song about drug excess could be her theme.

From there it gets hard. White Zombie jams, PJ Harvey moans and Bush whines. Sixties acid queen, Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, is featured with Linda Perry on track eight called “Knock Me Out.”

The always-malnourished-looking Iggy pop sings “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” recorded live. Pop also co-stars in the flick as the villainous “Curve.”

Bonus. The disc linernotes include a glimpse at The Crow comic creation by James O’Barr. O’Barr says in the notes that music was the fuel that sustained him “as he worked through the pain of his fiancee’s tragic death.”

Sounds like the plot line for a movie.

—Kris Fettkether

Bordello of Blood

When it comes to soundtracks, usually I’m impartial.

There are those soundtracks that showcase up and coming bands with new material that may, or may not, ever make it. These are the soundtracks that excite many listeners, myself included.

Then there are the soundtracks that are merely scrapped together to coincide with a theme of the movie. More often than not, these soundtracks wind up at the rock-bottom of the sale box in your local record store.

Bordello of Blood, the soundtrack to the latest Tales From the Crypt film, is destined for that box.

The soundtrack leads off with Anthrax’s “Bordello of Blood”. The song seems fitting for the movie, and isn’t a bad tune. But then again, it is Anthrax, and only die-hard Anthrax fans would appreciate the effort.

The majority of the soundtrack is made up of bar room tunes as Thin Lizzy’s “All Right Now”, Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz” and Humble Pie’s “30 Days in the Hole”. These are all great songs, but have been overplayed for the last 10 years.

The comical twist to “Bordello of Blood” is the collection of songs with “love” in the title. First there is the Kerbdog’s previously unreleased in the U.S. “This Is Not A Love Song” (which I did enjoy), followed by the Scorpions’ “Still Loving You” (loved it in high school) and ending with Cinderella’s “Love’s Got Me Doin’ Time” (super cheesy).

The problem with the soundtrack is that the classic rock selections aren’t that classic. All of the tracks are decent tunes, but a buyer wouldn’t miss anything by leaving it on the shelf.

* 1/2

— Chad Calek

Escape From L.A.

Bad movies leave room for great soundtracks. Clueless, Tank Girl, Mallrats, to name a few. Escape From L.A. is no exception.

While clips in the Gravity Kill’s video of “Blame” were enough to deter me from the movie, the song was enough to turn me on to the soundtrack. The remixed track is part of a montage of industrial tunes on the soundtrack which includes intense tracks from Stabbing Westward and White Zombie.

The underground hip-hop metal act Sugar Ray win top honors with “10 Seconds Down,” a song they first released a year ago. Tool makes a rare appearance with “Sweat,” a song recorded back in 1992.

Toadies’ “Cut Me Out” and Butthole Surfers’ “Pottery” bring a one-two punch of distortion rock to the first half of the record. Tori Amos, Deftones, Sexpod and CIV fill a nearly flawless second half.

“Escape From The Prison Planet” lacks anything close to a respectable singer, but overflowing energy surrounding the Clutch song makes for a good cover-up.

Escape From L.A. would probably fit somewhere in the middle of the many trance-industrial soundtracks of the past few years. Considering only seven of the 14 songs on the record are in the movie, you can only wonder if Interscope is promoting the flick or a few of their bands.