Customer Reviews

Gods & Sods

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

 

 

This album is a must have for TMJ fans...

I think this album combines the TMJ sounds of all of their albums (except for Finally...)

It also offers a background of each song (inside the jacket).

These guys are by far the most under-rated band in the land....

This band needs to re-market "Cereal Killers" and "Mutiny", though.

They are my favorite albums of any band I have ever heard. (and I date back to the 70's).

If it wasn't for college, I would have never heard of them.

Luckily, the Newport Music Hall in Columbus does things right.

Cherio...

While these songs are not new songs to TMJ, they are new to us because they had never been released before. Mary Matalin, is by far my favortie, although Barney Garden(lame title) is a great driving power chord song. Also Hello Love Tractor is a great tune. Overall there is more than enough to warrent buying this disk. TMJ is one of those great bands, who a lot of people have missed out on. Do yourself a favor and don't be one of them!!

"Gods & Sods" is an odd collection of rare TMJ tracks and some songs you may recognize if you caught the band in concert in the early '90s. Spanning their entire career, "Sods" shines on certain tracks (Big Gringo, Death Ray Machine) and falters on others (Even the Queen, Gods Make Love). One listen will have you tapping your feet, but after multiple listenings, you'll be dancing around your underwear on a Friday night with visions of Melissa Joan Hart bopping in your head. Turn this mother up.

... that is what this album is. Gods & Sods is far and above an album just for the core fans out there, the interesting thing is that it doesn't try to be... the music is varied due to it spanning most of their history and I love every track from start to finish- AND these are supposed to be B-Sides and such, not finished recordings. I can pick out a dozen and one metric boat-load of albums that were supposed to be major, anticipated releases that can't even SEE the caliber of musicianship in Gods & Sods from where they are. I let a friend borrow it shortly after I bought it and had REAL trouble getting it back; he now owns it and ALL the other TMJ albums, many of which are no longer in print. Underrated is certainly what these guys are! Fors Godsnsods sake, give'em a listen so we can turn this car around. With any luck they'll be famous by the time they're dead!

Too Much Joy has been gone too long from the alternative/punk/call it what you want scene since their last album. This album rocks! If TMJ calls these songs "unreleased studio tracks, rarities and mistakes," I would love to see an album of new material they would consider worthy of publishing. It's obvious they have high standards for what they will offer to their fans.

This album keeps growing on me, and I get something new out of each time I listen to it. It's a great road trip CD - keeps you distracted and awake with the lyrics and music. The combination of styles and sounds represented here are just astounding.

A must if you are a Joy fan, or if you are a fan of the Clash, Green Day, or even Limp Bizkit, I think you'll get a hell of a lot out of this album.

This is a strange release this one. It contains some songs that previous outings would have truly benefited from.
Take "Gods Make Love" for instance. Had it been included on the unfortunately lackluster (and pooorly produced) album ...finally it would've provided the band with a seemingly elusive great song. "Mary Matalin", although subject wise it dates itself really well, is a great song and shows the band really evolving (something that ultimately ended as the band decidely took a few scissor steps backwards when co-founder Sandy Smallens left in 1994). Again, the live favorite "A Texas Sunday" could've replaced tracks that should've died on the vine like "Skyline" or "Weak".
I guess the real reason why a lot of songs from 1992 - 1996 were never released ("Hello Love Tractor" - possibly the BEST TMJ song, "Drunk & In Love" and "No Reason" - all stellar tracks) was because they were very Sandy-heavy. Meaning he sang a good portion of the song and no one else could sing the parts quite like him. I mean Bill Wittman singing "Strong Thing" or "Making Fun Of Bums"? No, sorry not with that whiney, nasaly voice he won't. It's also unusual, given the nature of this relaase that they didn't include other great songs like "Perfect Criminal","Just Around The Bend", "Sunroof" or "Never Work". Or covers like "Pretty Baby" and "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" (before The Ramones covered it on Acid Eaters).

Again this a great release from a great band just wished they could have included more interesting Sandy material ("My Brain Hurts"...anyone?). Which is more than just a preference - His playing, singing and contribution was successfully one-fourth of the Too Much Joy sound.
As opposed to a producer who's primary instrument is guitar and voice matches Davey Jones - hey, whataya know another Brit in
an American band - and whines his way through the material.
Okay well The Monkees were a prefab "band" but anyway.
Obviously I really used to care a great deal about this band.
Oh, the silly youth of yesteryear.

All in all a better release than most bands could even hope for.
You gotta love the bad Who pun of a title.

Frankly I don't get the bunch that Too Much Joy is usually lumped in with. I mean, they have much more in common with Blink 182 or Lit or Green Day than with the type of boring joke bands they tend to get mentioned with. For %^&* sake the American Hi Fi video even looks like a TMJ show! And I'm not one of those who prefers their goofier, more 'alterna' albums. I saw them rock unbelieveably hard and loud and long live and that's the band I came to love. So for me, it's ...Finally that's their best record (followed by Mutiny, followed by Son Of Sam I Am. I don't like Cereal Killers at all. Sorry.) Having said all that, this isn't their best record but that's really no surprise. It's honest about it being a collection of odds and ends that didn't make the cut on other records. Now we can see why (although I know some diehards disagree) this isn't their A list stuff or performances and some of the recording is beyond amateurish. In fact, it's brave and maybe dumb to even let some of this stuff even see the light of day. But I have to admire the brave part and forgive the stupidity because it gives us an insight into the sometimes brilliance that goes into their better records. So if you've never heard them, buy ...Finally (their best by FAR) but if you've already liked them ever then this is well worth owning. At least it was for me. Now if only they'd tour again.

For those TMJ Fans who can't get enough, a must have. For the casual fan, it comes off a bit too rough to be accessible. Many tracks are in demo form, some forgotten B-sides. As always, the liner notes are infinitely entertaining. Lucky number 23 bonus track is a "2 Live Crew" ( I guess you call it a song). Sadly, this disc has the feel of a garage sale before some one moves. This could be the swan song for the greatest band nobody has heard of.

I remember when I first heard TMJ, many years ago, and thought them to be as necessary to music as a fly at a picnic. After hearing this album it confirms that belief--many times over. This album is nothing more than maintenance. The lyrics are trivial; Tim Quirk couldn't write a letter, much less a song. The guitar playing is of amatuer quality; what else is new?

I'm sure TMJ must mean something to people--at least to the members of TMJ themselves--to think that this release was greatly anticipated, which it wasn't, obviously. TMJ are just a group of old men with a lot of time on their hands, thinking they represented a pioneering moment when alternative music reigned. Unfortunately it was groups like TMJ that belly flopped the entire indie-alternative movement head first into the sewage.

This album only works for TMJ's core following. Like a cop at a crime scene; go on your way people, there's nothing to see here.