Considering he has about eighty-two jillion different bands (best known of which: Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves), it's not quite clear why Mike Muir found it necessary to issue a "solo" album. This becomes even less clear when you listen to it and discover that most of it is fairly disposable midtempo punk rock songs that all go on for way way WAY too long (only 4 of the 11 songs are under four minutes!!!). But fat the whuck - the dude has an enjoyably oafish football player voice, the music all sounds like late-period Circle Jerks (aside from the Suicidal-sounding psychopower ballad "Save A Peace For Me") which isn't a bad thing since most of the cute little riffs are catchy enough and you can find the disc in every cheapy bin in America, so whack the fut?
Interestingly, the very next Suicidal Tendencies album sounded like this, a complete 359 from the previous funk metal outing. But now they're back to funk metal so enjoy your Mike Muir punk rock sellout fix whilst you could! If you missed it when it actually occurred, all you need are 13.21 jigawatts of plutonium to get Christopher Lloyd's time machine to work.
It would be fantastic if this were actually a legitimate second Cyco Miko album as it claims to be, but instead it's a loosely disguised sampler disc of all his different bands, most of which feature the same members and sound exactly the same! This wasn't always the case - No Mercy was once a thrash band led by Ric Clayton and Mike Clark, Suicidal Tendencies a metal band featuring the excellent lead guitarist Rocky George, Infectious Grooves a funky side project with bass god Robert Trujillo, and Cyco Miko a punky aside with Adam (Bomb) Siegel. But by the turn of the century, the entire Mike Muir universe had shriveled up into this:
Suicidal Tendencies - Mike Muir, Mike Clark, Dean Pleasants, Josh Paul,
Brooks Wackerman
No Mercy Fool! - Mike Muir, Mike Clark, Dean
Pleasants, Dave Nassie, Brooks Wackerman
Infectious Grooves - Mike
Muir, Dean Pleasants, Robert Trujillo, Adam Siegel, Brooks Wackerman
Cyco Miko - Mike Muir, Adam Siegel, Dav - oh who fucking cares, they
only play on three of these songs anyway
In short, there's absolutely no reason for No Mercy Fool! to exist, but whatever. So here's what you'll find on the so-called second Cyco Miko CD:
- "Hippie Killer" - pulled directly from Suicidal Tendencies'
Freedumb
- "Citizen of the Nation" and "Just A Lil' Bit" - pulled directly from
Infectious Grooves' Mas Borracho!
- "Straight From The Heart" - pulled directly from Suicidal Tendencies'
Free Your Soul And Save My Mind
- "Animal" and "Pop Songs" - alternate mixes of songs on Suicidal
Tendencies' Free Your Soul And Save My Mind
- "I'm Your Nightmare" and "Waking The Dead" - old No Mercy songs
re-recorded by (sigh) No Mercy Fool!
- "It's A Cyco Thang" - a new No Mercy Fool! composition that,
shockingly, sounds 0% like No Mercy and 99% like Infectious Grooves
- "How To Kill A Rat" - credited to 'Suicidal Grooves' (!?)
- "Born Again Problem Child," "Coming Back" and "If You Really Want Me"
- presumably actual new Cyco Miko recordings
So if you think it's worth 30 dollars to hear five new songs, feel free to buy that copy on Amazon.
Mike Muir began his career as Mr. Hardcore, then became Mr. Thrash, and finally wound up as Mr. Funk Metal. However, he never lost his taste for his earlier musical loves, so young people getting 'turned on' to his latter-day work at this point are like to be awfully confused by its constant merging of these three styles - usually in the same song! "I'm Your Nightmare," for example, is no longer a straightforward thrash song; it now features a(n arguably out-of-place) wicka-wicka wah guitar break. Likewise, "It's A Cyco Thang" alternates between a vomitously dopey funk-metal verse and hooky punk rock chorus, "How To Kill A Rat" suddenly switches from super-catchy hardcore to playful slap-funk halfway through, and both "Born Again Problem Child" and "If You Really Want Me" are simple midtempo pop-punk songs played with a thick thrash metal guitar tone. These stylistic mergings can create some awkward moments for the listener, particularly when you're headbanging like a maniac and suddenly some faggoty-ass Red Hot Chili Pepper beat pops up and you sit there looking like an asshole waiting for the fast part to come back. FUCK YOU, THE PARTS THAT AREN'T FAST
Whatever the point (or pointlessness) of Mike Muir dividing his time between four bands of near-identical membership, it certainly didn't pay off in the long run, as he has released nothing at all in the 7 years since this thing came out. I know he had back problems that needed to be addressed, but I have to assume that financial difficulties played a role in his sudden silence as well.
I feel similarly about ex-Beatle John Lennon. I know he had back problems that needed to be addressed, but the main problem is that Yoko Ono stole all his money and locked him in a box under the earth. A box! Can you believe that? After he wrote "Oh Yoko" and "Dear Yoko" for her, and let her ruin like six of his albums with her terrible songs? Come on you one-legged whore, stop sitting on Clapton's face and set 'the funny Beatle' free to give us more great hits like "Two Virgins Side Two."
Incidentally, it would be great if there were some place online where you could read reviews of Suicidal Tendencies' discography, but unfortunately the Internet (still in its infancy) does not yet provide such a service.