Groovie Ghoulies - Born in the Basement

 

Another wild selection of the Ghoulies patented brand of "scary"-cartoon-bubblegum-pop-punk from one of their best line-ups of Kepi, Roach and Wendy. This is rightfully considered one of their classic albums and is chock-full of some of their best and best-known numbers.

This audio amusement park ride starts off with a short "Blood Intro" before forming an opening call to rock (idea kinda/sorta borrowed from Cheap Trick's "Hello There" - actually, the other way around as this is a cover of a Partridge Family song!) appropriately titled "Hello, Hello" that moves into a hip, punk rock cover of the 13th Floor Elevator's "Levitation" followed by a mutated Bo Diddley-beat-driven ode to "My Car" and then one of the GG's all-time fan-faves, the sing-along, boppin' beat (with truly clever lyrics) of "The Beast With Five Hands" ("I don't think we'll married cuz I can't afford five rings"! Genius!). 

They slow things down for a stripped down version of Love's "Message to Pretty" but bounce back for the peppy, Halloween-y "Pumpkin Head" and the rockin' back'n'forth progression of "Back to the Garage" that blends into a damn catchy, harmony-laden and relatable love song "I Wanna Have Fun (With You)". "Born in the Basement" changes course regularly from a cool, slow groove to a frantic rush, then Bob Dylan's "Walk Out in the Rain" is done as a mid-tempo punk-rocker, "Hell Time" is simplistic but melodic and I just found out that this almost-throwaway number is another Bob Dylan tune, written for the soundtrack of a movie called Band of the Hand and backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers! Weird! More successful - for the Ghoulies anyway - is the hypnotically sassy riff-rocker, "I Ain't Talkin' To You" that moves into the closing hyper-speed "Hyper Generate".

There is a "hidden track", a power chord ballad title - per the internet - "Think Of Me", a kinda Dylan-ish number - ironically, considering the two Dylan covers they already did on this album. As there are no credits, I presume this is an original and it's a good one!

Certainly among my favorite Ghoulies albums! Super fun stuff!