Tetsuo Kitame is known as the "Japanese" Jim Morrison and All Tomorrow's Party is his group. The band name references The Velvet Underground and the title, Yoo Doo Right, Yoo Doo Slide, derives from prog-rockers Can. So what does a recombination of The Doors, VU, and Can sound like? Maybe it's just the product of the trans-oceanic divide merging with time lapse and cultural differences for All Tomorrow's Party amazingly comes out resembling bad Mudhoney, Beatles, and 13th Floor Elevators. The biggest problem seems to be that can't seem to decide if they want to be the Strawberry Alarm Clock or The Creation.
There's not a hint of the "Lizard King" hiding in Kitame's vocals which are blander than most English as a second language singers. The very first track on the album is somnolent instrumental dicking around that gives no promises of future good things to come of which there are few. Maybe the boredom it produces is just meant to replicate the state of being strung out on heroin, hence the title "Sympathy For The Junkies". If I ever get stupid enough to try some, I'll get back with you on whether or not that's what All Tomorrow's Party were attempting. If you can manage to stay awake for the entirety of the song, you will get treated to some proto-punk crud with "Love Can Bring You Down" which is powered by what sounds like a classic Big Muff distortion pedal. So for a couple of tunes we rock out in a not terribly disimilar way to those halcyon days of the early 90's when Mudhoney would rock all its good alternative babies to sleep at night.
The "Japanese" Jim Morrison has to show us some variety or perhaps that he's heard a few of The Elephant 6 artists's work. We are treated to some rather limp psychedelic 60's shadows flickering with too much homage and too little personality. Big drums save "In Shade Of Blue" from complete oblivion. It's only when All Tomorrow's Party has the urge to turn up the distortion and wail with a decadence normally not allowed in Japanese society that the record becomes engaging; see "Bad Bee Says" for reference. They need to drop the drippy pop music touches and just go for a punitive punk rock assualt on the senses. As it is, Yoo Doo Right, Yoo Doo Slide available from Alive Records, doesn't feature enough meat for this carnivore.
This platter was also reviewed by these two esteemed rock critics:
bmarkey
Jones Violet
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