Life A little Lesser on The Foodchain
3 Out Of 5 Stars
Tonio K had the familiar catch 22 of any artist who cuts a brilliant meisterwerk on the first try; where do we go from here? His second album (on a second label, Columibia dumped him after the incredible "Life In The Foodchain" and Arista picked him up for this) is in the same chaotic, angry but sardonic style of the debut but without the shock and awe that the debut brought forth.
After all, when you've written perhaps the greatest all time Eff-Off song ("H-A-T-R-E-D") to close your debut, the closest match you have is the one here called "Go Away," well, the new one seems almost polite by comparison. The punk-frantic "One Big Happy Family" tries to see the ties that un-bind (and it's darn good at it), but the title song of "Foodchain" said it better and with more of a boogie attitude. The real kicker here is the dour but rocking "Trouble," complete with a police siren guitar riff and apocalypic lyrics.
Which is not to say that "Amerika" is a poor album. By any other standards, it's a barn burner. The ultimate in teenaged death songs is here by route of "The Night Fast Rodney Went Crazy," sending all others into pretenderland. Then there's "Merzsuite," a three part Dada-ispired collision where, as the liner notes said, Tonio was doing a take on a play where on the stage was an entire liferunning its course; nothing happens but ultimately everything happens, and then culminates with the everyone chanting 'futt futt futt' as the band spatters cacophony all around each other.
"Amerika" may have been subtitled "Cars Guitars and Teenaged Violence," and it lives up to that moniker. (The original title, "Too Cool To Be A Chistian" is rumoured to be what got him the boot from CBS, but is just as likely a title as "Amerika" would be.) Yet let's not confuse the titles with the facts. Tonio had a mild sophomore slump with this platter, but for an album originally released in 1980, it's got plenty of bite for a 32 year old.
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