Day 0773 - G.Love and the Special Sauce

G.Love and the Special Sauce "G.Love and the Special Sauce" (1994)

Interesting sound.  G.Love were a white hip-hop group, but made the wise move of not trying to fake it like they were 'legit gangsta'.  The group instead combine guitars, upright bass and drums to create a sound that would be more at home at the beach or the skate park than in the ghetto.

There are touches of jazz and blues backing the tracks about girls (Baby's Got Sauce), brews (Cold Beverage) and even a touch of conscious rap (This Ain't Living).   Wouldn't be out of home in your record collection somewhere between Sublime and the Fun Loving Criminals.

Day 0490 - Fire of Love

The Gun Club "Fire of Love" (1981)

Another album that I'd listened to when I first read through the 1001 albums book a few years ago.  I'd judged it by its cover and thought it was going to be something like "Dr John the nighttripper", a bit of voodoo-laced New Orleans rhythm and blues.  Much like the Cramps and X though, this is more of a rockabilly-meets-punk stripped down sound.  This album takes the stripped-down thing a bit further with the music being laid almost bare, with very little studio trickery to airbrush it.

The lyrics are occasionally in-your-face and uncomfortable with racial slurs and lines like  "I will fuck you till you die" thrown in to the mix.... possibly delivered with a sense of humour, but it's hard to tell.