1 [FROM THE CRATES #18] CKY - Volume 1 (2001)

Review by Matt Abramson

CKY - Volume 1
(Original release 1999 Teil Martin Int'l, mass release 2001 Island)

A truly great band will always develop a signature sound and stick with it. They might grow, expand, vary or try different things but the recognizable core sound will remain. Case in point no band, ever, sounds like CKY other than CKY. And they sound fucking good. Deron Miller's guitars are prominently harmonized to make each note sound like a power chord, with the bass adding yet another synchronized layer of thickness. The vocals are subtle while maintaining direction in the song. This is all anchored by the no-frills drumming of Jess Margera, brother of Bam Margera of Jackass fame. In fact, many early episodes of Jackass feature CKY songs.

What? I think Jackass is totally fucking awesome. Kiss my ass.

'Volume 1' stands out as a great album because it sounds fantastic (and loud!) in spite of being rather low budget. Lesser bands need a shit load of money and some dickface producer to conjure up a usable sound in the studio. Thanks to the DIY ethic, good bands produce great recordings that rival - and often usurp - their major label counterparts. Start to finish, 'Volume 1' (making extra note of the Sabbath reference here) is an exercise in lean, punctual ass-kickery. The Godzilla-stomp riff of "Rio Bravo" paired with its clever editing of massively pitch-adjusted snippets make it one hell of a rock song. Even the brighter sounding "Disengage the Simulator" packs a visceral punch of tight riffage right along the almost doom-sounding "Knee Deep".

Let's face it, band write lyrics that are pretty damn funny without going completely over the top into novelty, so you're almost not sure if humor was the intention. Shit, look at half of Iron Maiden's lyrics (Flight of Icarus, Fear of the Dark, Powerslave, the entire Piece of Mind album, etc...) - those records contain some pretty righteously funny shit. But nobody can deadpan lines like "I caught my daughter giving head to my brother" or "I've seen it done like the way the dogs do" the way CKY does. It's the kind of spooky post-metal meta-gloom that was ahead of its time in 1999.

I saw CKY at El Corazon (then the Graceland) in 2002. They took the stage visibly and admittedly sporting crippling hangovers from Portland the previous night, but within thirty seconds of opening the set they built a head of steam and played tight as fuck. A band is really only as good as they are live. CKY delivers.

And a final note, hidden tracks are usually a little annoying to me. Fifteen minutes of blank space for a half-baked jam really fucks up the pace of a record. But the "Rio Bravo" reprise on 'Volume 1' totally rules and gives the album a thematic through-line that makes it almost like the soundtrack to your most campy, weird-assed nightmare. Despite of, or maybe because of, their best efforts, the tunes are remarkably catchy yet heavy as fuck. CKY's other releases are all solid and listenable, but nothing has quite touched the originality of 'Volume 1'.