Ugly Kid Joe?

Eyesore wrote:

Menace To Sobriety is an album I recommend all the time. It's killer!

Right on. See, Eyesore knows the deal. I love MENACE TO SOBRIETY as well. And as I said earlier, it can usually be found pretty cheap cuz it sold approximately a dozen copies upon its initial release.

Now, MOTEL CALIFORNIA, on the other hand... not so much. Although that song "Sandwich" is pretty damn funny. ("She was a good witch, she was a bad witch, but all I wanted was a muthaf***in sandwich!" - sheer poetry!)

Motel California was a good album, but seemed something like a contract filler. They peaked with Menace. But hey, I dig all their albums. They've always been underrated because of that one goofy hit single. A lot of people think The Offspring are a goofy punk band, but they just have a goofy song now and then, and generally the mainstream public eats it up. So people assume. Too bad The Offspring is a great punk band, and not at all goofy outside of four or five songs.

America's Least Wanted is one of my favorite albums of the early 90s. Everything About You and Neighbor are two of my favorite songse ever and I always break out the air guitar and scream/sing along with them (one time I threw out my neck while banging around to the fast part after the guitar solo to EAY). I would never have been able to get it without the censored cover (my dad would never let me get something could be percieved as mocking America or containing the middle finger). Strange how SNL's Pat was in the video for Neighbor and was featured in the intro to EAY. And I agree that Crane is an awesome vocalist.

I used to worship these guys. When I started playing drums I always wanted a picture on the front so when these guys came out they had the little kid with the middle finger on their front cover so I painted it on a bass drum head.

I miss these guys I wish they would have stuck around. Whitfield sang in Life Of Agony for a while and I was hoping they would have recorded something with him singing but that never happened. Hes also been in a lot of other bands but still havent heard any of them either except for one song. Hes a good singer.

I think they're a great band. One of the few great bands that can pull off killer covers of standards in rock/metal and also write amazing original work.

Iced Earth September 22nd! had to throw that in there lol IE OWNZ!!!

I don't care for their novelty tunes, but hidden behind that is some fine music. I have everything they ever did, and I like something off each album. I even like Motel California.

I heard they came up with their band name from a joke about the band "Pretty Boy Floyd".

troublezone wrote:

I heard they came up with their band name from a joke about the band "Pretty Boy Floyd".

Yup, before they were signed they were known as "S.W.A.T." (Suburban White Alcoholic Trash) and got booked to open for Pretty Boy Floyd. They thought that naming themselves "Ugly Kid Joe" for that one show would look funny when both band's names went up on the club marquee. The show ended up getting cancelled but they liked the name so much that they stuck with it.

troublezone wrote:

I heard they came up with their band name from a joke about the band "Pretty Boy Floyd".

That's the truth.

Eyesore wrote:

Motel California was a good album, but seemed something like a contract filler.

There are a couple of OK songs on MOTEL CALIFORNIA but most of it just kinda sits there. They seemed to be trying to bring back some of the "funky" element heard on the EP, but at the expense of the heavier side heard on MENACE. It came out sounding like a plain ol' nothing special 90s rock album.

Thanks to this thread I listened to the only Ugly Kid Joe cd I own " America's Least Wanted" and it has been a long time since I spun this disc and enjoyed the hell out of the album, so thanks for making me reevalute this ignored gem in my cd collection.

manny wrote:

Thanks to this thread I listened to the only Ugly Kid Joe cd I own " America's Least Wanted" and it has been a long time since I spun this disc and enjoyed the hell out of the album, so thanks for making me reevalute this ignored gem in my cd collection.

You're welcome. That's what we're here for, to shine light on the lost gems of metal!

Picked up three UKJ cds lately: america's, menace and motel.

The first 2 are particularly enjoyable.

Such an underrated band. Really looking forward to the new album.