Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Eugeology: Eugene's List of Hard Rock Albums and Possible Gems Part 27 - Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction 'Tattooed Beat Messiah'

First of all, we shouldn’t take this album seriously when it comes to the lyrical content. The band was meant as a parody of misogynistic, sexist hard rock.

Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction’s ‘Tattooed Beat Messiah’ came to me through Jeff Kay from The West Virginia Surf Report. We worked at a massive record store in Greensboro known as Peaches Music & Video.

Jeff came back from a weekend trip to visit friends and family in wild and wonderful West Virginia. I remember him working the night shift upon his return and he slid the cassette tape across the work station that I was standing at. He told me that I would love it.

I popped that thing into the cassette player of my 1987 Ford Escort EXP and IMMEDIATELY fell in love with it when I went to lunch. The guitars, the vocals, and the over-the-top lyrics that bordered on sexist and absurd.

You wanna ride, baby
This is a special car
Two accelerators, no brakes
You wanna know about love?
Lemme teach, yeah
Come to church, I'm the preacher
Jump in the motor
Let the kisses cascade
I'm the love commando, this is a raid
If love is an art, baby I'm surreal
With you by my side
Can't keep my hands on the wheel
Unbuckle that strap jump in the back
Let's steam up the windows of my Cadillac
-“Backseat Education”

Isn’t it obvious they were joking??

But the music was no joke on this album. This album kicks more ass than one hundred rodeos. And talk about hooks? Every song has more hooks than a slaughterhouse. Great choruses to sing along with if you’re willing to keep that tongue firmly planted in your cheek.

My favorite lyrics come from the beginning of “Driving On Holy Gasoline”…

Consecrated By The Reverand James Brown
I Just Drove Out Of Crazy Town
You Talk About Life
Here's An Injection
A Steel Cage Jockey
With A Star Born Connection
Drop Your Halo Baby
I Got A Mission
I Got The Keys To Your Ignition


I think it’s pure genius!

The majority of the songs are of the “biker metal/hair metal” variety with choruses that you can sing along with. “Untamed Stare” is two and half minutes of hard driving hard rock that doesn’t let up. “Kids Stuff” is the only throwaway track for me. It’s a power ballad and thankfully they saved it until the end. Otherwise, the placement would have felt completely out of place.

They’re cover of “Born To Be Wild” COMPLETELY kicks ass! I like it better than The Cult’s version on another album (‘Electric’) that made this list.

Since this album isn’t readily available on streaming sites I recommend these songs from YouTube for your listening enjoyment…

“Prime Mover” (The 12” “dance mix” is great. I’ve only seen it on vinyl. And yes, I own a copy.)

“Skull Spark Joker”

“Backseat Education”

“Tattooed Beat Messiah”

“Driving On Holy Gasoline”

Sadly, they never quite captured that same kind of lightning in their bottle again. They made only one great album, in my opinion. I’ve tried and tried to get into their stuff after the release of their debut, but it just lacked that certain something.
Check out what Tim had to say about it RIGHT HERE.

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