Oblivians

It made a lot of sense to end the '90s by putting out a posthumous release by one of that decade's best bands, the Oblivians. Best of The Worst is made up of a selection of unreleased songs, alternate takes and live material. It was a big surprise to hear that this was going to be a double-length album, as the Oblivians always seemed to have a new record out whenever you walked into your local store. How much stuff could there be left over from all those great singles, ten-inches and albums? Well, the answer is that there wasn't that much material, with almost a quarter of the songs, including "Kick Your Ass," "Live The Life," "Hey Ma, Look At Sis" and "Mad Lover," all having been heard before in other versions. The familiar songs are kind of a drag, but the "new" (to us) songs like "Siamese Purse," "Robot Blues" and "Don't Haunt Me" are what makes this record worth having. There are also some covers here as well, with "Road Runner," "Peepin' and Hidin'" and "Locomotion" all being given the Oblivians treatment. The final portion of the record is a live session recorded for radio that is pretty lo-fi, even for these guys' standards, so if you don't really know these songs already it's kinda tough to tell what's going on. The whole album could have easily been about half as long, but as they always did things (i.e., their live sets and recorded output) in excess, the bloated Best OF The Worst makes for a fitting final tribute to this great blues/garage/punk band.