GG Allin and the Criminal Quartet

Carnival of Excess (Ponk Media)
by Craig Regala

Wonderful reish of GG Allin‘s country-rock move fully remastered for pure and beautiful effect. Odd to hear GG with this level of clarity, but certainly what he wanted. The guy was only “lo-fi” or “mid-fi” for non-musical reasons ($, essentially), the music that inspired his desire to do this record was not part of any “art” or “punk” or “conceptual” scene. The dude loved the outlaw country thing, the early ’70s Stones drug/blues stuff and shit, he covers Warren Zevon’s “Carmelita” for the pure and simple reason that he loves the song. This disc links him with his spiritual forefathers. Now that Kramer (he drove the Shimmydisc label previously, and Secondshimmy now), has remastered with the clarity to let the accordion breath, the background vocal ring, and the bass resonate. Gotta dig the commercial with the other well-known Ponk Media heavy-hitter, Tiny Tim (yep, that one!) as well as GG’s musings on the recording, and three nude GG tunes (man, guitar, a bit of backing vocals, that’s it). See www.secondshimmy.com for what Kramer’s been up to, and www.ponkmedia.com for the next step from those guys.
(www.ponkmedia.com)