Illegal Foreign Object

It’s hard to take a band seriously when the perception is that the members themselves don’t take it seriously. Such was the case with Ugly Kid Joe, the California-based rock band with “that song about hating everything.”

After Mother Love Bone signed with Polygram Records subsidiary Mercury in 1988, Polygram created the Stardog Records imprint exclusively for the Seattle-based band. Through it, the band released the EP Shine, hit the road to do showcases, and then got back into the studio to record the band’s only full-length album, Apple. Tragically, singer Andrew Wood overdosed and died shortly before the album’s release, and Mother Love Bone fell apart (before being reborn as Pearl Jam). Still, the blueprint for breaking the band into the mainstream was sound, and when Mercury Records signed Ugly Kid Joe in 1991, it followed the same course it had set for Mother Love Bone three years earlier.

In September of 1991, Ugly Kid Joe went into the studio and churned out the As Ugly As They Wanna Be EP in six days, then hit the road opening for New York hardcore/comedy thrash band Scatterbrain. When radio picked up “Everything About You”, club shows that previously sold a few hundred tickets now had lines around the block.

Two million in album sales later, Ugly Kid Joe hit again with the band’s first full-length record, America’s Least Wanted. Buoyed by the Harry Chapin cover “Cats In The Cradle”, Ugly Kid Joe sold another two million records.

Then, the bottom fell out of the traditional hard rock scene.

The mid-’90s was a weird time for music. Grunge was dead, punk rock put a smile on its face and marketed itself as pop, and Metallica put on makeup and started writing country songs. 

When the band’s third album, the unfortunately titled Menace To Sobriety, was released in 1995, it was to an abundance of yawns. That it remains the best record in the band’s catalog was of little importance back then — no one bought it (well, except for me, my buddy Frank, and around 60,000 other people).

I had a CD store (remember those) back then and kept a 10-disc changer behind the counter — Menace To Sobriety lived in that stereo for months. I played that album for every last person who asked me for a hard rock record recommendation.

Poor sales aside, Menace To Sobriety is a well-made album full of songs that show a hungry, mature band. Producer Garth “GGGarth” Richardson nailed the sound — it’s heavy. Guitarists Klaus Eichstadt and Dave Fortman are riff-writing fools, and nowhere is this better displayed than on songs like “God”, “Clover”, and “Milkman’s Son”. Bassist Cordell Crockett shined on “Suckerpath” and “V.I.P.”, while former Souls At Zero drummer Shannon Larkin’s brilliant kit destroying held the whole album together.

Singer Whitfield Crane is an entirely separate conversation. He is inarguably the most underrated vocalist of his era — a multifaceted talent with seemingly endless pipes to match his buckets of charisma. His snarl on “God” and “Tomorrow’s World” is vicious, “Oompa” is unholy in every way, while “Cloudy Skies” shows off Crane’s dialed back, almost crooning style. It’s no surprise that legendary guitarist Glenn Tipton once offered him the job of replacing Rob Halford in the mighty Judas Priest. Crane didn’t take the gig, figuring it an impossible task, but any questions anyone might have on whether he could have pulled off the vocals get dragged out behind the barn and shot after a single listen to the outro screams on “10/10”. Those howls are positively Halfordian!

When your name is a goof on the hair metal band Pretty Boy Floyd and your first album, As Ugly As They Wanna Be, is a goof on, well, you know, you’re asking for the ridicule. The jokiness has remained a theme throughout the band’s career — I’m not entirely sure it’s always been the right call. It’s a shame because Ugly Kid Joe, for all the surface silliness, took its songwriting damned seriously.

Menace To Sobriety is a band at its creative apex — at precisely the wrong time. As Ugly As They Wanna Be was a fine debut, and America’s Least Wanted was a great second album, but Menace To Sobriety is a beast from beginning to end. Unfortunately, despite bonafide hits on each of the band’s previous two records (“Everything About You” and “Cats In The Cradle” went to #9 and #6 on Billboard’s Hot 100, respectively), everyone (including the band’s record label) had moved on.

Perhaps the novelty had worn off, or maybe it was waning interest in traditional heavy rock — whatever the cause, bands like Korn, Oasis, and Radiohead stepped out of the shadows and into the mainstream. Or, maybe it was just time for something different. Sometimes, things just are, you know? Still, when I’m in the mood for a little mid-’90s metal, I never reach for Korn or Filter — I throw on Menace To Sobriety and bang my head around with as much fervour and zeal as a person with two herniated discs in their upper back can muster.

Tracklist:

1. Intro 10/10
2. God 10/10
3. Tomorrow’s World 10/10
4. Clover 10/10
5. C.U.S.T. 7/10
6. Milkman’s Son 10/10
7. Suckerpath 8/10
8. Cloudy Skies 10/10
9. Jesus Rode A Harley 10/10
10. 10/10 9/10
11. V.I.P. 8/10
12. Oompa 9/10
13. Candle Song 10/10

Grade: 93