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Trans Am - You Can Always Get What You Want
Trans Am, America's favorite party band, offers up a singles compilation just
in time for your Memorial Day cookouts. The compilation offers some of the
bonus tracks that appeared on the band's Japanese releases. You see, in Japan,
albums cost a lot, so in order to persuade people to buy the Japanese release
instead of the US/UK import that is usually cheaper, Japanese releases often
have bonus tracks. So, when Trans Am released their 4 Thrill Jockey albums in
Japan on Tokuma, they tacked on most of their early 12" and compilation tracks
to the end of the albums to aid Tokuma's hope of ever selling any of
them.
|
| Original Release | Songs on Compilation | % of Original |
|---|---|---|
| SKAM split 7" | "American Kooter" "Simulacrum" "Man-Machine" |
100% |
| Illegal Ass 12" | "Illegal Ass" "Koln" "Randy Groove" | 100% |
| Strength split 7" | "Now You Die Thriddle Fool" | 100% |
| Tuba Frenzy split 12" | "Strong Sensations" | 50% |
| In Flux US comp | "Asian Taste" | 50% |
| In Memoriam Gilles Deleuxe comp | none | 0% |
| Who Do We Think You Are? EP | none | 0% |
The album may be a singles compilation, but it reads a lot like a greatest hits compilation. A lot of the tracks on the album are just earlier demo versions or live versions of the better songs off Trans Am's first two albums, like "American Kooter," "Illegalize It" (née "Illegal Ass"), and "Cologne" (née "Koln"). The early versions of these 3 songs, along with the rest of the 2 EPs they were culled from, are the highlight of the compilation. The first EP (the band's debut release) is taken from a live show in Chapel Hill and was released in 1993, about 2 and a half years before the band's first album. The songs are raw and Tonebank-heavy, a much better picture of Trans Am's live show than the four live tracks that end the compilation. The other EP contains the two early versions of the Surrender to the Night tracks and a song called "Randy Groove." Really, how can a song by Trans Am called "Randy Groove" be bad? "Illegal Ass" and "Koln" are different animals than the tracks that appeared on the US albums, recorded before Trans Am made the transition between the band captured in their first album to the one captured in their second album.
The rest of the album has its interesting points but isn't essential. "Now You Die, Thriddle Fool" sounds like audio taken directly from a horrible sub-Ed Wood science fiction movie (fun but not the best music), "Nazi/Hippie Empire" is a fitting knock/tribute to Alec Empire, and "Monica's Story," the only new track on the compilation, is a pleasant Thomas Dolby-esque synth pop song with plenty of preprogrammed beats.
The more of this material you've heard already, the less this album is worth getting. If you are a fan of the band and don't have any of the releases this compilation was culled from (especially the SKAM and "Illegal Ass" EPs), by all means pick it up.
| jim steed 2000 may 26 |
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