I never really got into punk rock much. I knew who The Sex Pistols where, and I was exposed to The Ramones from a guy in my freshman civics class. But I did have MTV, and that's where I heard of The Clash. Back when the network was little more than a clearance house for hard rock videos, here were these three ugly British guys dancing around in an oil field...right there in the middle of Quiet Riot and Krokus videos. Needless to say, I was intrigued. And after buying up all The Clash material I could find, I was more or less satisfied.
Then, in 1990, a friend gave me some of her unwanted CD's. One of them was Megatop Phoenix by Big Audio Dynamite. After looking through the liner notes, I became aware that this was the latest band from Mick Jones, the same guy I remembered dancing around in fatigues on MTV all those years ago. Once again, I was intrigued. And after listening to the album, I was still intrigued. But with F-Punk, the latest release from Big Audio Dynamite, I'm no longer intrigued by the group. In fact, I'm becoming pretty bored.
Jones (lead vocals, guitar), along with Nick Hawkins (guitar, vocals), Gary Stonadge (bass, vocals), Chris Kavanagh (drums, vocals), Mickey Custance (DJ, vocals) and Andre Shapps (keyboards) have put together an album that fits no known category. Again. Big Audio Dynamite has always been a mix of punk, techno, funk, and about three other genres, and while that is interesting, unless it's done well, it wears thin after a couple of listens.
Of course, I wasn't smart enough to only give it a couple of listens and be done with it. I listened to it while driving, while cleaning my house, etc. What was eluding me was the purpose behind the album, if any. I felt that I was missing something, and even now, I still feel that way. Only now, I accept it.
While I got some moderate pleasure from songs like "Push Those Blues Away", other tracks like "It's A Jungle Out There" and "Vitamin C" were doing less than nothing for me, aside from making me want to hear something else. The "mystery cover song" is "Suffragette City" by David Bowie, and I actually found myself longing for a previous version done by L.A. Guns, which I've compared to various dental operations.
But the one thing you notice if you're familiar with Big Audio Dynamite (or B.A.D. or B.A.D. II) is that all of these songs sound like all the other lesser songs from the previous albums. As the frequent name changes suggest, what is lacking in this band is creativity. Perhaps by incorporating so many different genres into their sound, Jones and his band have lost a focus in their material.
There's nothing fresh on F-Punk and nothing that even comes close to being exciting. And considering that Jones was one of the freshest and most exciting performers in rock at one time, that's a shame.
