By Kevin Smith
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday February 13, 2003
Bombshell Rocks
From Here And On
(Burning Heart Records)
See what Green Day started? Everything that comes out these days by any snotty-nosed whiny brat(s) is labeled "punk." Avril Lavigne is a punk? Maybe that's because she spells skater with an "8" and wears visible Fruit-Of-The-Looms. Sum-41? "Still Waiting." Blink-182? Kind of, seven years ago. New Found Glory? Another no. Sweden's The Hives? They're rock, not punk, but closer, same geographic location and (former) record label. Bombshell Rocks? Yes, they do. They are punk rock, actually.
Back in the day, Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious must have sired a few love children while on tour in Sweden because lately it's been a hotbed of punk activity. The thing about Bombshell is they make punk music that could be played on a radio station if said station had a set of balls, which none in Tucson really have. Sorry, KFMA (Not really sorry. KXCI excluded).
Unlike flavor-of-the-month-pseudo-punks, these guys seem to have some serious passion toward their music. They make songs that could be accepted by many, even though that doesn't sound like their initial intention. This third album is full of the group's musical experience.
Their music isn't hardcore, scream-until-a-lung-comes-up, crack-some-skulls punk. It is melodic, quickly played, with decipherable vocals ÷ and all that is a good thing here, especially for current punk music. True punk. Clash punk.
Ice Cube
The Predator (Re-Issue)
(Priority Records)
Believe it or not, "Next Friday" viewers, Ice Cube used to be scary to suburban America. Let's just say nobody wanted to run into this guy in a dark alley during the early '90s.
After he left rap pioneers N.W.A., Cube went solo and released Amerikkka's Most Wanted and Death Certificate, both venomous, angry records. Cube didn't relax on The Predator, but it began his slow acceptance into the mainstream through radio/MTV hits "Check Yo Self" and "It Was A Good Day."
This album is Cube at the peak of his game, in the high times of gangster rap. Unfortunately, today most of Cube's rhymes sound aged and outdated next to those of a current Definitive Jux crewmember.
Although he never had a timeless album like Dr. Dre's The Chronic, Cube has made timeless songs. "Good Day" still sounds as classic as when it was released.
The remix of the album's original "Check Yo Self" with sampled Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" is included in four bonus cuts of this re-release. Its safe to say the remix is miles better than the Salt 'N' Pepa "Shoop" - sounding original. A lighter remix of "Good Day" that loses the immediacy and power of the original but still remains consistent is included, as well as "24 With A L" and "U Ain't Gonna Take My Life" from the 1994 album Bootlegs and B-Sides.
