Customer Reviews

Drugs I Need

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The only reason I withheld one star is that too many repetitions of a couple of the songs make me feel like I've spent too long cruising blogs. Xmas Time For Visa and Exxon-Mobil don't inspire a lot of re-plays for that reason only. I can get depressed over that stuff on my own, but the messages might sink in with other folks.

The rest is gold. One True God is perfect for these troubled times. I DARE you to quit playing Wer Ist Da?, even though, y'know, the whole German hip-hop swing thing has just been done to death. A Spanish-fluent friend cracked up when I played her Buenos Dias, Budweiser -- apparently the English translations provided don't match up to the Spanish 100%. She LOVED it. (And there may be no better reading of a line, ever, than, "I would risk hell.") Conrad sounds fine on Arnold, which is just silly and fun, and Hank's voice is at its hike-up-your-socks-and-start-living-again best in Crappy Times Before. And Neighbor of the Beast always works.

You don't even have to ask your doctor if The Drugs I Need is right for you. Available without a prescription from Amazon.com.

Those masters of musical mirth, the Austin Lounge Lizards, turn their attention to corporate America in "The Drugs I Need" with mixed results. As mentioned in the product description, five of the songs were commissioned as satirical pieces about various industries--health insurance, pharamaceuticals, financial services, big oil and communications. Of these, the last three fall kind of flat--I find myself skipping past them to other tracks that are much fresher and funnier. "Go Ahead and Die" (a pirate song sung by health insurance executives--"I've got mine and I feel fine, so go ahead and die.") has a fun tune and clever rhymes of various diseases and injuries. The title song "The Drugs I Need", is the best of the commissioned songs and a highlight of the CD. The drug is the fictional Progenitorivox, "a life-enhancing miracle, but there are some things you should know", the boys tell us, leading into a musical recitation of the drugs many side effects ("male lactation" and "rust-colored urination" are my favorites (rhymingwise that is)). The second verse describes the financial risk of taking "two twelve dollar pills each day for fifty years", including "debtors' prison" and "life as seen in Dickens fiction." As good as the song is, the spoken disclaimer at the end is even better--an all-time great Lizards moment as we learn among other things that Progenitorivox "may not be reproduced without the express written consent of Major League Baseball", that "if death occurs, please discontinue use of Progenitorivox" and that finally "batteries not included".

As a whole the uncommissioned songs are better than the commissioned ones. Highlights are "Buenos Dias, Budweiser"--a Tex-Mex alcoholics love song to his favorite beer, sung in Spanish, and translated (loosely) into both English and German ("Guten Morgan, Budweiser"). I laugh 'til tears flow every time I listen to this one. Newest Lizard Korey Simeone contributes "Wer Ist Da?", a "schwingin'" bluegrass beer hall hip hop number that you won't hear the likes of again soon. For their obligatory religious number, the Lizards offer "One True God", about who gets to decide which of many "gods" is the true one. It concludes with the cheery sentiment "even some people who call God God/worship God in a way that's odd/We have to kill them, it's a shame/They only have themselves to blame". Also on the religious side is "The Neighbor of the Beast", the story of child 666's upbringing as told by the boy who lives in 667.

Four stars for the mixed content of "The Drugs I Need"--still a must-have for fans of the famous, fearless and flamboyant band from Austin. Newcomers to the band might prefer the more consistently funny Employee of the Month or Paint Me on Velvet

I've been following the Austin Lounge Lizards for decades, and find this recording a refreshing return to their original perennial subjects for satire: drugs, beer, alienation and religion. How American... What makes these guys different is their highly intelligent wit AND quality musicianship. Harmonizing beautifully, articulating effectively so you can understand the lyrics, and including banjo, fiddle and slide guitar puts these guys a cut above. As with many maturing musical groups, they've finally added a female voice - a welcome change. So glad they're still keeping us laughing and singing along!

I must confess to being totally ignorant of the Austin Lounge Lizards until I happened upon this album at a friend's place - unfortunately, many of the great artists of Texas don't get a play Down Under, & as a result, if we don't go looking on the internet, we miss out on so much. With "The Drugs I Need", I didn't know quite what to expect, but I sure got a lot more than I anticipated. This is really, one fun album. OK, not every track is outstanding, but they are all fun, and if they are not poking fun at some area of the establismnet, then they are just entertaining the listener. And on "The Drugs I Need", they do that very well. From the title track, to the riotous, one-of a kind Bluegarss hip-hop number, "Wer Ist Da?" (which I encourage listeners to play over & over again for full appreciation), to the story of the resident living at house number 667 (street & city un-named), who is "The Neighbour of the Beast", this album just gets better & better. My personal favourites however, are "Banjo Players in Heaven" & the absolutely brilliant "Arnold", the saga of an armadillo that falls head over heels for a somewhat inanimate object that he confuses as one of his kind. It's absolutely hilarious, especially when you try to picture in your mind, what happens in each verse. What is also good about the Lizards, is that they are great performers also - great voices, great harmonies, & great musicians - something most often than not, lacking from comedy records. This is one drug that will do you good.

This is the funniest AuLL album in years, packed with tart, pointed social and political satires. The Lizards tackle media consolidation, pharmaceutical companies, the health care meltdown, and the American electoral crisis... Heavy topics, but dealt with humorously and handily... Some pretty funny stuff! (DJ Joe Sixpack)

The lyrics are too funny. The band has a fun sound and the performances are good also.