FRANKENSTEIN DRAG QUEENS FROM PLANET 13
"Little
Box of Horrors" (Restless; 2006)
Reviewed by R. Scott Bolton
"Little Box of Horrors" is a colossal, terrific collection of Wednesday 13's (of Murder Dolls fame) earlier work. It's a collection of five CDs and a DVD featuring Wednesday's delightfully named previous band, the Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13.
Included are four original studio CDs, "The Late Late Late Show," "Night of the Living Drag Queens," "Songs from the Recently Deceased" and "Viva Las Violence," along with a previously unreleased collection of tracks, including outtakes and rarities ("Rare Treats") and a bootleg quality DVD featuring the band performing nine tracks live in 1998. Don't get me wrong: the bootleg quality works here, probably better than a full-blown video production would have.
The music on all four CDs is fun horror punk, falling somewhere in between the Misfits with Danzig and the Misfits without Danzig. The lyrical content is horror or sci-fi based ("Creature from the Black Lagoon," "Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun"), blasphemous ("Goddamn, I Am,") or just plain funny ("Galactic Chicken Shit," "Full Metal Jackoff," "Smother My Brother" and "Twist My Sister.") The collection is thicker with the latter category and that's fine by me.
Although fans may already own the four studio CDs, the "Rare Treats" CD is almost worth the price of purchase alone. Here you get demos of several tunes, acoustic radio performances (my favorite was the "Purposely out of tune" version of "Kill Miss America") and more.
The artwork is awesome throughout. The CD covers are kitschy and fun and the box cover appropriately macabre.
Fans of Murderdolls and Wednesday 13 in particular will want to add this killer box set to their collection, as will fans of the horror punk genre.
For more information, check out http://www.frankensteindragqueens.com.
Rating Guide:
A classic. This record will kick your ass.
Killer. Not a classic but it will rock your world.
So-so. You've heard better.
Pretty bad. Might make a nice coaster.
Self explanatory. Just the sight of the cover makes you wanna hurl.
Copyright © 2006 by R. Scott Bolton. All rights
reserved.
Revised: 26 Feb 2024 13:06:29 -0500.
