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Artist: 2 Skinnee J's Title: "Supermercado!" Label: Capricorn Reviewed By: Dave Merrill Rating:

Ordinarily when I review a CD or band, I like to give some band biography to go with it, but 2 "Skinnee J's" is no ordinary band. If you do a web search and check out some of the pages devoted to the "J's" you'll see what I mean. I think their bios probably change on a daily basis. Their bios remind me of the ones that writer Harlan Ellison uses on his dustjackets. The "skinnee" of it is that you just can't pin these guys down. With them hopping all over the stage, don't even try. I'm going to settle for introducing them by "name." Special J and J. Guevara, the  2 Skinnee J's of the band, provide vocals, rapping and jumping. Keyboardist, The Spice; guitarist, A. Mays and bass player, Eddie Eyeball all jump too. Andy Action, the drummer holds down the fort, staying mostly in the background. I'm sure he also jumps on occasion. A. J. "Stumpy" Johnson contributes atmosphere. He doesn't jump, he mostly just stands there drinking and smoking, though he'll dance when encouraged to do so. The first song on their self- titled album is "Pluto." It's an awesome rap influenced song about discrimination. The song has a science fictional base in which Pluto is discriminated against because of its size. "Who do you represent?/ I represent the smallest planet/Attorney vs. attorney and those who try to ban it /. . .like my parents and grandparents/ this planet is an immigrant/ to deport it's an offense/ it's an upstanding member of the solar system/ abide the laws of Earth that make it a victim. . ." The anthemic nature of the song makes it highly infectious. It will stay in your mind long after the song is over. Not only does it carry a message, it's downright fun! And that's what "2 Skinnee J's" is all about - being conscious, yet still able to have fun. It works! "Wild Kingdom" has a great bass beat that dominates the song, though it opens with just a few drum beats. There's definitely a reggae influence here too. It's far more complex than most rap. There's an energetic chaotic nature to these songs, yet the chaos comes together to form a cohesive whole. This song is about transformation from life in the wild as early man to life in the city as modern man. It realizes that in some ways there are few differences, exploring the similarities in explicit detail. Awesome! Up third is "The Best," which begins sounding like it's on a transistor radio. After a short time the music surfaces to full volume. Who is "The Best" from the song? "2 Skinnee J's," of course. This one is a bit more like other rap songs in the message of its lyric, but with references to Odysseus, they really do it better. "Ball Point Man" starts off with guitar influenced by surf music. Of course they use it quite differently. Once the other instruments come in, the surf aspect of it becomes sinister. The song is about using the pen as a weapon, instead of fighting. It places the writer in the role of a superhero. Musically I don't like this one as much as the others. "In the Clutches of the Diabolical Sgt. Stiletto" brings us back to the radio, but it's a forties radio show outtake. Campy music with a heavy hint of foreboding serves as a backdrop to the words. A rap overlays the show, pushing it out, as a heavy bass beat joins the vocal. "The Whammy," starts out the same way, with an old time radio show, this time with the voice saying, "I happen to be master of the ancient art of hypnotism." The rap vocal is distorted, and the pace in this song is even more frantic than the others. It's disturbing, intentionally so. "You're a Champion" has a great bass beat and an eerie synthesizer backdrop. The title is repeated over and over to a siren sound. It gets a bit too repetitive at this point, but once the main part of the song takes over, it's quite effective. The song ends with the crowd cheering for the champions. The song "(718)" is about changes in phone numbers as a result of our growing phone system, but it's more than that. It's also about changing neighborhoods and moving from one neighborhood to another. It starts off with funky drum sounds and shifts into high gear almost immediately. The vocals go back and forth between the two J's, from one speaker to the other. One voice is distorted, like it's far away. Soon, the distorted voice clears and takes over, finally leading into the shouted refrain. "People live in 212 now live in 718." "The Good, The Bad and The Skinnee" begins with a spaghetti western influenced guitar piece, immediately bringing to mind, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." There's a great guitar piece that comes up in the middle that really stands out. I'm not thrilled with the rest of this song, though. It fades out at the end. "Riot Nrrrd," is the albums first single. I think either of the first two songs would work better as singles. Siren-like synthesizer brings manic immediacy to the opening of the song. There's a crazy patchwork feeling to the song as different parts have different types of sound, but somehow it all meshes together. "Organic Machine" opens with bass cello and horns. It's a jazzy sounding rap song. Some of the synthesizer parts sound a lot like stomach noises, representing the organic machine from the title. The last track, "Mind Trick," begins with the sound of wind and video games in the background. The song mentions, "an old Jedi mind trick." They repeat "These are not the J's yer lookin' for." I'm not really sure what this one is about. "2 Skinnee J's" is a good debut album from an exciting new band. They have an unbelievable amount of energy. The songs make me want to get up and move, not sit here and write about them. I found myself squirming around in my seat because their beats grabbed me on many occasions. They're definitely worth a try, even if you don't  like most rap.

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