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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 28, 2007

GORE GORE GIRLS:

GET THE GORE

(BLOODSHOT) **½

The garage-dwelling Gore Gore Girls don't really add anything new to their rewrites of '60s punk songs, but they deliver them with enough energy that a lack of originality isn't much of an issue.

The girls could learn a thing or two about sequencing as well - lead-off tracks 'Fox in a Box' and 'Loaded Heart' are rote riffs-by-numbers. Things get going with Track 3, a dust-up with Phil Spector's 'All Grown Up,' followed by the wonderfully sleazy Kim Fowley co-write, 'Pleasure Unit.'

Terry 'Seasons in the Sun' Jacks' 'Where Evil Grows' is the album's peak, although the Amy Gore-penned 'Casino' and 'Don't Cry' are supreme rave-ups.

Download this: 'Where Evil Grows'
Curtis Ross
MINISTRY:

THE LAST SUCKER

(13TH PLANET) ***

After 26 years, Ministry - the brainchild of Al Jourgensen and a cornerstone of the industrial genre - is calling it quits with this last studio album.

The band regained its relevance in the last seven years by becoming more political. Jourgensen's anger at, and relentless drubbing of, the Dubya administration gave Ministry a newfound vitality, if not hit singles.

'The Last Sucker' wraps its anti-Bush screed in meaty, muscular guitars and pounding drums to complement the sound-bite samples and razor-sharp lyrics.

It's an angry, fitting swan song for Al and Co. They will be missed.

Download this: 'End of Days, Pt. 2'

John W. Allman

MANU CHAO:

LA RADIOLINA

(BECAUSE) ***½

World music performer Manu Chao mixes genres, languages and politics on his fourth album, 'La Radiolina.'

Chao uses his signature blend of Latin folk-rock, reggae, punk and ska to tackle issues as light as lead - social inequality, misguided government and love.

As on past albums, he reuses backbeats and lyrics in several songs. The lyrics for 'Mundoreves' ('Upside Down World'), on which he criticizes the Bush administration, are revisited in 'Y Ahora Que?' ('And Now What?'), with a heavier use of guitar drawing from his 1970s punk beginnings.

Drawing on such varied genres and languages (including Spanish, English, French, Italian and Arabic) may sound like a recipe for chaos, but the simplicity of Chao's music holds it all together.

Download this: 'Tristeza Maleza'

Deborah Meron

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