There’s nothing cooler for a heavy metal journalist – and Venice, California bred white boy – than to be sent a double live CD to review that just happens to be from one of your idols in life. Suicidal Records has released a must have for fans of legendary punk/metal vocalist Mike Muir of SUICIDAL TENDENCIES fame. INFECTIOUS GROOVES/CYCO MIKO’s “Funk It Up & Punk It Up: Live In France ’95” double CD is so rocking it will have you slamming around your living room. With twenty-five highly-energetic tracks, “Funk It Up & Punk It Up” is one of the better live recordings I’ve ever heard in my life. As the story goes, it was captured live in Lyon, France during 1995 by sound guy Tom Abraham directly from the board with NOT ONE single sound alteration. Take some lessons from a real rock n roll gangster, Gene Simmons!
Jamming through killer tracks like “Lost My Brain… Once Again” and “Nothing To Lose”, I started feeling like a teenager all over again, which isn’t so bad for a dude who is about to turn forty goddamn years old in nine days from now. Bassist Robert Trujillo (now with METALLICA) incredible slap-pop playing can be heard so clearly that you’d think he was in the same room with you. The performance also includes guitarist Dean Pleasants (SUICIDAL TENDENCIES), drummer Brooks Wackerman (BAD RELIGION) and guitarist Dave Nassie (Ex-NO — USE FOR A NAME; now in BLEEDING THROUGH). I swear to God if you aren’t moshing around by the end of disc one with the forever classic “I Love Destruction”, you need to have your head examined… by Lindsay Lohan!
Disc two kicks off with a funny comedy skit between Muir and reptilian lover Aladdin Sarsippius Sulemenagic Jackson the third, then launches into a string of serious musical ass-kicking with “Popcorn”,
“These Freaks Are Here To Party”, and “You Lie… and Your Breath Stank”. How is it at all possible that the second disc could outdo the first? Well, that’s what you get with “Funk It Up & Punk It Up”, man… yah dig? My personal favorite is “Funk’n With My Head” off IG’s super Sui-Cyco debut from 1991. This shit is serious balls to the walls playing that you just do not get from most musical acts out there nowadays, no matter what genre they are in. The power of Muir’s music was so incredible for me as a kid that it prompted me to tatt “Venice” on my upper arm at twenty-four in straight up honor to this genius. I can’t wait for new material from INFECTIOUS GROOVES and if you know what’s good for you, you can’t either. So in the meantime, get your asses off the couch and buy this bad boy… you feel me?
ROCKET REVIEW:
[starreview tpl=16]
CYCO MIKO/INFECTIOUS GROOVES
“Funk It Up & Punk It Up: Live In France ’95’ (2-CD)
(Suicidal Records/2010)
(Disc 1)
1. Intro
2. Cyco Miko Wants You
3. F.U.B.A.R.
4. All I Ever Get
5. All Kinda Crazy
6. Lost My Brain… Once Again
7. Nothin To Lose
8. Ain’t Gonna Get Me
9. I love Destruction
(Disc 2)
1 Sarsippius Intro
2. Popcorn
3. These Freaks Are Here To Party
4. You Lie… and Your Breath Stank
5. Turtle Wax
6. Punk It Up
7. Funk’n With My Head
8. Boom Boom Boom
9. Rules Go Out The Window
10. Do The Sinister
11. Monster Skank
12. Back To The People
13. Therapy
14. Running With The Bass
15. Violent And Funky
16. Infectious Grooves
http://www.myspace.com/infectiousgroovesofficial
http://www.myspace.com/cycomusic
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