THE VICE PRINCIPALS - After School With...

THE VICE PRINCIPALS  After school with ...  CD  2000  
Jack The Ripper / When Girls Collide / Hostility / Satellite Dish / Glad All Over / Splitsville U.S.A. / Donkey Girl / Snitch / Price Of Love / Switchblade / After Detention / I Can't Wait Until Tommorrow .
Produced by the Glitterati .
The Vice Principals: Scott "Deluxe" Drake : vocals / Jeff Drake: guitar, vocals / Billy Burks: guitar, vocals / Rocko: bass / Adonis Von Streicher: drums + Greg Kuehn: piano, organ / John Wahl: saxophone.

High school may be some sort of distant bad memory for you these days, but The Vice Principals are here to show you another side of school that ain't so downright awful. Those looking for some seedy gossip about these particular schooling officials need look no further than seminal punk rock band The Humpers, as Billy Burks and Scott Drake continue in the same vein as their former band. And this time Scott invited his brother Jeff (The Joneses) to play with him !

Jeff Drake (Joneses/Amanda Jones/Vice Principals...)

The Humpers and the Joneses were known for their simple, dreadfully catchy tunes that were laced with smart-ass words of wisdom. The Vice Principals stick to dishing out round after round of this familiar-sounding formula, rocking without racing down your throat at ungodly speeds or attempting to be musically so-fis-tee-cated. It's rock, baby, and the guitars are the Head of the Student Body here. Side A starts out alright as The Vice Principals do a decent job of covering "Jack the Ripper," stalking the streets with a gutsy, raucous energy. However, the band's rendition of "Glad All Over" may cause aural distress for some of you in the listening audience, as it's lethargically played and utterly forgettable. Should the Vice Principals find another line of work?

The Vice Principals

Hold on a sec kids, you don't get off that easily. Think you can just go off slamming your locker door like some piss-poor freshman? Flip the vinyl over, because side B is like hearing a spiritually revitalized group. Squawking horns and R&B piano spike up "Donkey Girl" to give "After School With The Vice Principals" a strong injection of soul. Other promising numbers include the rousing "meet me at the flagpole after school" action of "After Detention," with its ass-kicking, bullying quality, and "Snitch", a mass of chaotic guitar notes and emphatic lyric lines that could easily have fit on a Humpers album. They may be a bit older and set in their ways, but The Vice Principals will not only have you cleaning chalkboards after school, but give you multiple musical ruler rappings that you can't help but enjoy. This could indeed be the first likeable lesson you've had in years!

I don't know much about History, but I do know that when Scott Deluxe Drake grabs the microphone in his right hand and criss-crosses the stage like a possessed Superintendent, you're going to hear an assembly speech that you won't forget any time soon !
Source: A. Magilow - Splendid E zine .
Buy It HERE!
Here's an interview of Jeff Drake talking about The Joneses, Amanda Jones, The Vice Principals and many other things on Sugarbuzz Magazine.com. Take a  look HERE!