By Jonny Bakes
Sometimes an album just doesn’t get the attention it deserves the first time round because it gets overshadowed by something else, whether that’s just the wrong place at the wrong time, or because it never manages to elevate itself from cult following to a wider audience. The latter is probably the case for the debut album from Mondo Generator which was released 20 years ago.
Now, if you haven’t heard of Mondo Generator, there’s every chance that you will have heard of main man Nick Oliveri’s other band at the time, some little band called Queens of the Stone Age. You’ll probably recall that QOTSA were pretty active in the early 2000s with the release of ‘Rated R’ in 2000, then the follow up smash ‘Songs For The Deaf’ in 2002. With Nick and Josh Homme (who guested on a couple of tracks) involved in both QOTSA and Mondo Generator, something had to give, and that meant that debut album ‘Cocaine Rodeo’ didn’t get the touring support and push that it rightly deserved.
Have no fear though because, for the 20th anniversary, ‘Cocaine Rodeo’ is back again with a bang with the undivided attention that it deserves, because let’s face it we’re all a pretty captive audience right now. Available in several different formats, including a pretty sexy vinyl, ‘Cocaine Rodeo’ deserves to be in your record collection, because it is a banger of an album.
QOTSA fans will likely recognise the first track on this album, ‘13th Floor’, as it was re-recorded to become ‘Tension Head’ on the ‘Rated R’ album. Overall it is, as it always has been, a pretty great blend of stoner rock, psych and punk to give a slightly different direction out of the ashes of Kyuss than the one taken by Queens of the Stone Age. If you’ve ever been a fan of any of Oliveri’s bands, then there’s a distinct chance that you should like this one too.
But what’s different about this reissue? Erm, well not a whole lot really! Other than possibly being a bit more polished, this reissue is very true to the original. Unlike the 2009 re-release, there’s no bonus disc or even bonus tracks; in fact, the US and EU exclusive bonus tracks from the initial release are both absent from this version. For first time listeners this will probably not be a huge loss but it also means that there’s not a huge incentive for current fans to purchase this new edition for any other reason than to say that they have it. But, fans may be glad to know that this isn’t the only Mondo Generator reissue hitting the shelves this year, in fact I have the other one sat on the desk next to me ready to check out in my next review, so watch this space to see if there’s anything more exciting to offer there!
- ‘Cocaine Rodeo’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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