It’s no secret that many of the soundtracks I’m sent to review
\nare for movies I’ve never seen. It can’t be helped; I have so much
\n“free” time during the day (and so little spending money) that I
\ncan’t possibly see every film I get a soundtrack to. Add to that
\nthe fact that my wife doesn’t often want to see the film, or it’s
\nnot appropriate for our almost-five-year-old… or maybe I just
\ndon’t have any interest in the movie. (Hello?!? I’m
\noff<\/i> the dating market… I don’t have to sit through any
\nmore chick flicks!)<\/p>\n
In the case of
\nFrezno Smooth<\/i>, in all honesty, I have no frickin’ clue what
\nthis movie is supposed to be about. I’ve even visited the official
\nsite and read the story… and I
\nstill<\/i> am in the dark. All I’ve been able to gleam from my
\nresearch is it involves BMX bicycling, hardcore rock music, some
\nlevel of violence, graphic images of vomiting – oh, and women with
\ngrapefruits for breasts. (I gather the last item from both the
\npackaging and the, aah, “jiggle-vision” that is part of the
\nofficial Website.)<\/p>\n
While I can’t say I have any interest in this film, the
\nsoundtrack is something else entirely. Piecing together groups you
\nknow (and groups you’ll probably soon know), this disc more often
\nthan not hits the mark, and is proof positive that hard rock\/heavy
\nmetal has not only survived, but it has evolved.<\/p>\n
So what does this soundtrack have going for it that the movie
\ndoesn’t necessarily explain? For one thing, both the soundtrack and
\nthe film have Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister – and, let’s face it,
\nLemmy is the epitomy of cool. I’d love to know who the backing band
\nis on Lemmy’s “Hardcore,” a track that has similarities to
\nMotorhead, but is unique in its own way. (Motorhead does make an
\nappearance with their self-titled song – if you’re paying
\nattention, you’ll recognize it as being the version from
\nNo Sleep Till Hammersmith<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
Similarly,
\nFrezno Smooth<\/i> features a Go-Go’s cover that threatens to
\noutdo the original version. 4 Gasm’s cover of “We Got The Beat”
\nthrows a punk attitude on the track that makes one think this is
\nthe way the song should have always been performed. The soundtrack
\nalso features Alice Cooper and “Gimme,” a track from his criminally
\nignored
\nBrutal Planet<\/i> release. Here’s a hint for you: if this track
\nfrom Cooper impresses you, run out and buy
\nBrutal Planet<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Adding to the “impressive” list are Testament (“Riding The
\nSnake”), Sixty Watt Shamen (“Fear Death By Water”) and 96 Decible
\n(their spelling) Freaks (“Freak”). Motley Crue reminds people why
\nthey were impressive early in their career with the inclusion of
\n“Shout At The Devil”. Even Black Label Society impresses me with
\nthe inclusion of “Counterfeit God” – surprising, seeing their last
\nalbum didn’t do anything for me.<\/p>\n
This isn’t to say that
\nFrezno Smooth<\/i> is perfect. Dee Snider’s live version of
\n“We’re Not Gonna Take It” reminds me just how good the original
\nversion from Twisted Sister really is. (Sorry, Dee, but this
\nversion pales in comparison.) And whoever included Convoy (“Chevy”)
\non this disc – what the hell were you
\nthinking<\/i>?!? Putting this song on a disc with such
\near-shattering music is like sending your grandmother to sell
\ncookies at a biker rally. Something’s gonna happen, and it ain’t
\npretty.<\/p>\n
Still, the strengths of this soundtrack easily wipe out the weak
\nmoments, and while one might not immediately want to go see
\nFrezno Smooth<\/i>, you’ll have a tough time taking this disc off
\nyour stereo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5729],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39512","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soundtrack","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39512"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}