One of my favorite post-Dead Kennedys efforts from Mr. Biafra. The first time I listened I was just floored by the musical style. It had been the first time I heard Mojo Nixon and I was used to Jello being all about punk because of DK and his collaborations with NoMeansNo and D.O.A.. But Mojo's cow-punk style was a nice change from all of that.
This first listen the most I got out of it was the wonderfully done music and only a few of the lyrics, namely the Phil Ochs remake "Love Me I'm a Liberal". I was still impressed. Then I gave it a few more passing listens and didn't get much more from it, but still loved it.
But I recently bought the album on vinyl and listened again and this time I feel I took a lot more from it. I finally paid attention to the lyrics more and understood their meaning. Jello throws out a lot of bitter remarks to his old DK band mates, namely in "Buy My Snake Oil" he states "Give in/Ride the punk nostalgia wave/For all it's worth/Recycle the name of my old band/For a big reunion tour/Sing all those hits from the "good ol' days"/'Bout how bad the good ol' days were" and in "Nostalgia For An Age That Never Existed" (Probably my favorite Jello fronted song on the album) he says "Why can't all the bands reform/Stick to playing their old songs/It ain't punk/If it ain't just like the old days" This is understandable knowing when this came out the argument and battles between the band members was still heated, but hearing it now and hearing the same remarks from a Podcast from Jello recently makes it all seem tired and drawn out and that Jello just can't get over it.
Mojo does an excellent job on his share of songs as well, most notable "Are You Drinkin' With Me Jesus?", "Let's Go Burn Ole Nashville Down" and the CD exclusive "Plastic Jesus". He is really a fantastic artist and thanks to this album I was able to fully realize this fact.
The strongest songs on this album are "Nostalgia For An Age That Never Existed", "Love Me, I'm a Liberal", "Mascot Mania" and "Are You Drinkin' With Me Jesus?" All these songs offer fantastic, well thought out lyrics with fun country music backings. Jello's voice perfectly matches the subjects of Nostalgia, Love Me, I'm a Liberal and Mascot Mania, while Mojo's overall bitterness towards to current country scene is fantastic in Let's Burn Ole Nashville Down, and Are You Drinkin' With Me Jesus? is just classic Mojo humor.
The weakest of the album have to be Buy My Snake Oil because of it's drawn own music, Atomic Power for it's really annoying chorus and Burgers of Wrath which is nothing really fantastic.
But the overall catchiness and uniqueness of the album earns it a classic rating/
