that's right, hammerhead - "is when I'm sick and throwin' up."
Every Dictators release is a five star release - there is not a better rock and roll band on the planet.
The first three albums are must haves for any rock fan, but their latest stuff is just as awe inspiring - great lyrics courtesy of The Wizard of Oz himself - Adny/Andy Shernoff, buzzsaw guitar pyrotechnics from Ross The Boss and Avenue A vocals from Handsome Dick.
Not to mention Top Ten and JD.
Do yourself a favor and pick up any or all of their stuff.
You won't be disappointed - or double your money back.
(Send all correspondence Attn: Richard "China Cat" Blum).

Now that major labels are deleting catalog and doing digital-only reissues you better get this pronto if you don't already have it. It's a stone classic.

Also check out Mighty High...In Drug City.

If you've never heard "Go Girl Crazy" its a real treat. The Dictators were doing the whole "big dumb hard rock that pokes fun of big dumb hard rock" thing long before Spinal Tap ever made it cool. The album is hilarious and catchy and well performed and everything else you'd hope it to be.

But the real reason I'm writing this review is this: I thought this album was a remastered release. Kind of along the lines of recent remastered re-releases of "Manifest Destiny" and "Bloodbrothers" a few years ago.

So I'm warning fans right now:

This is NOT a remastered edition of the album.

Its the same edition Elektra released in the 90's. It's just extra-budget priced now.

Is it a great album? You bet! But if you already own the original CD version, don't buy this, its literally the exact same thing.

A year before the Ramones' debut, the Dictators made it okay for rock to be stupid again, and in doing so, gave it back to the teenagers. You see, during the mid-70s, popular music had been moving in a very strange direction. It was being taken over by stuffy corporate bigwigs, self-important prog-rockers, egotistical showboaters, and cookie-cutter lite-rock groups. It was a dark age in musical history, a period in which the mainstream had turned its back on the very kids that allowed it to flourish. The glory days of the 50s and 60s- when people not only recorded things like "Surfin' Bird," "Louie Louie," and "I Want Candy," but actually managed to hit the charts with them- were dead and gone. Gone too was the aesthetic, the glorious hedonistic freedom that was the Elvis-given right of every single kid to be born in the rock `n' roll era.

Enter the Dictators.

Formed in 1973, the `Taters blew a big wet raspberry at the pretensions of the `70s, and made music that hearkened back to the aforementioned glory days. Armed with three chords, a couple of lunkheaded vocalists, and not much else, the group got down to the business of saving rock `n' roll. And they were just the write men for the job: Andy Shernoff, in addition to writing the songs and playing bass, provided some of the most heroically brain-damaged lead vocals ever put on record. His greasy, cocky whine of a voice positively dripped with teenage sarcasm and cheesed-off attitude. Guitarists Ross "The Boss" Funichello and Top Ten churned out riff after riff of Black Sabbath meets the Beach Boys goodness, and drummer Stu Boy King gave the proceedings a delirious, drunken lurch. The band's "secret weapon" was the awe-inspiringly awesome Handsome Dick Manitoba, a deranged lug who lent his beer-bellied backup vocals (and, on occasion, lead vocals) to several o these songs. He's also the good-lookin' chap who graces the album's front cover.

Go Girl Crazy is the group's debut album, and it's simply one of the greatest chunks of teenaged cheese-rock ever recorded. These nine songs evoke a beautiful world, a teenaged fantasyland of hamburgers, surfing, fast cars, T.V., garage bands, and professional wrestling. It's a place where it's always Saturday, your parents are out of town, and you actually know how to talk to girls! Songs like "Weekend" and "Teengenerate" are pure seedy joy, while Manitoba's vocal showcase "Two Tub Man" is a grease-covered anthem for cocksure morons the world over. The hilarious (and hilariously catchy) "The Next Big Thing" sees the group making a bid for their fifteen minutes of fame in brilliantly idiotic fashion. Just listen to Shernoff bellowing "And I won't be happy/ `Til I'm known far and wide/ With my face on the cover/ Of the T.V. guide," while the band hammers out a cowbell-laden punk-metal rock-out groove in the background. There are also two cheese-laden 60s covers: A totally bozo "I Got You Babe" and a rendition of "California Sun" that pre-empts the Ramones' version, and throws in some totally cool metallic guitars for good measure. "Back to Africa" and "Master Race Rock" are satirical pounders that prove it's possible to be smart and stupid at the same time. The album closes out with the amazing "(I Live For) Cars And Girls," a utopian masterpiece that describes some sort of teenaged paradise. The song has got it all: an irresistible chorus, sun-splashed Beach Boys harmonies, great lyrics ("The fastest car/ And a movie star/ Are my only goals in life") and fist-pumping guitars. Does rock get any better than this?

So, a totally awesome album for totally awesome people. Enjoy!

It's funny to imagine some trendy hippie finding this at a record store in the 70's and seeing song titles like "Master Race Rock" and "Back to Africa". It's even funnier to imagine some white supremacist buying this album for exactly those songs only to hear "They didn't know we were Jews" on the first track. It's hilarious to hear the way they make fun of the Beach Boys with the harmonies on "(I Live For) Cars and Girls" or the even more hilarious Sonny & Cher cover. They send up everything from the transience of rock stardom to hippies to the idiocy of 70's hedonism. But for a band that plays it up for laughs, they're a lot smarter than they let on. You have to be in on the joke to enjoy this band, but enjoy them you will!

What about the music? It's somewhere between early Alice Cooper or Kiss and the New York Dolls or MC5, with chunky riffs and guitar leads and pounding rhythms. The punk elements of the band are more in their attitude on this album because they have a definite 70's hard rock vibe. But hey, it was 1975, "fast and loud" sounded totally different back then. It's quintessential rock n' roll -- music for unpretentious dudes who just want to raise hell and have a good time.