Chicks on Speed

press the spacebar is a little more experimental than the past albums by COS, but one also has to consider that COS was working with another band nameed Noheads. This collabration has created an interesting collection of songs. If you do appreciate Chicks on Speed I would suggest to buy this album, but i am warning you some songs are a hard listen (especially the last three songs) but the the first part is pretty good and my friend also suggests not to listen to this while driving. The better songs on this album are Tracks 1,2,3,4,7 (i would buy this album used or half off the regular price since you might just end up listening to half the record.

so this is pretty crappy. maybe it's a response to the overly-commercial-sounding "99 cents". it's mostly a bunch of b.s. "ambient" "experimental" music with some random vocals thrown in. very disappointing. there are a few ok moments, but ultimately just pass on this one. it sounds like wierd demos. i don't know who "the noheads" are, but suffice to say the record does, in fact sound like it was recorded by people with no heads.

LOVE THE VARIETY ON BOTH DISCS AND WHOEVER COMPILED THIS SELECTION, HAS EXCELLENT TASTE!! BUY IT IF YOU LOVE GOOD, CHILL MUSIC.

I liked everything on the disc. Eclectic blend
that works great together. Laid back but not sleepy.

This double CD compilation naturally comes from Quango, who introduced the world to Zero 7, Kruder & Dorfmeister, and Koop. Zero 7's enchanting Sia contributes a rare remix of "Where I Belong" and ill tracks from Moloko, Chicks On Speed, Truby Trio and a ton others are included on this collection of cool downtempo grooves, electro-house and hip hop soul.

A must to add to any chillout playlist!

the only album that will make you jump and scream in excitement, no one but the Chicks On Speed will ever give you such a similar feeling actual Speed can give you!!!
COS Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuules!

I put off buying this album forever as I was hoping there would one day be a domestic release that wouldn't be so cost prohibitive, and here it is! I would say it's definetly more accessible than The Unreleases, and is a perfect follow up to Save Us All. Fashion Rules, We Don't Play Guitars (featuring Peaches) and Sell-out are worth the price of the cd alone, and more than make up for the very few filler tracks. the remix cd is allright, it's a nice bonus but nothing amazing. If you've never heard COS before, or think why should I care since electroclash or whatever is so 2001- COS represent the best of their genre, crazed electronic pop halfway between the go-go's and nina hagen. And they're funny as hell, and put on an awesome live show.

I dug the "Rereleases of the Unreleases" album on many levels -- including the hilarious cover photo and the band's name. The music also had an anarchic mish-mash aesthetic that was very appealing and playful.

This album is something different. It sounds like they went back and cleaned out everything that was fun in "Releases of the Unreleases," and what's left leaves only the songs themselves, which are weak. "Glamour Girl" is a dumb song mocking the fashion industry in the most obvious way possible.

"Warm Leatherette," is a cover of the old (and rather monotonous, though cool as a one-off) electro song by the Normal, which reference the JG Ballard book "Crash." Chicks on Speed don't update the song in any diverting way, and one can only guess why they bothered covering it.

"Mind Your Own Business" is among the biggest disappointments. There were several amusing versions on "Releases," some of them experimental and purposely messed-up, but entertaining. Here, once again, the funky knob-twiddling-in-a-garage aspect is gone. Instead you get pure song -- and realize how weak it all is.

This garage-electro-punk thing can only go so far in the hands of the uninspired, and Chicks on Speed are fumbling here. I'm curious about their follow-up album....hopefully they found the right mix. But on this album all they have is attitude, and it isn't enough.

You know, i always wondered where they got that music they use in mobile phone adverts, and i think this answers my question.

If your into listening to a bunch of incoherant nioses, by all means this is probably the album for you. Just don't be expecting to hear any music.

If your buying it because you were at hyde park and you want to remind yourself of when they unfortunatly became a walking joke, don't bother, because the novolty wears off.

If you like attending raves and sitting quietly at the back where the ecstacy dealers are and musing over the music they play, this is the album for you. Other wise, run.

I'd like to point out that this album shares it's title with a great record by a man called Chino XL.
I'd also like to point out how ridiculous the cover is.

With a name like Chicks On Speed, they are bound to grab the attention of the on-looker passing by in a record store or even achieving a catchy headline in a music magazine. And, for that name, they certianly do look the part. They album sleeve in itselfis enough to showyou hommuch of a crazy bunch the female trio are. By fusing electronica with modern art, Chicks On Speed have manged to cook up a formula that is not only unique,but interesting too.
Although they have opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers,they sound nothing like the rock outfit. They actually have been booed off stage a couple of times because they're music is of no classification, flirting with cheesy pop on "Euro-Trash Girl" to electronic hard beats on "For All The Boys In The World."
Thier image is a that of fashion-weary punksters, which really undermines the meaning of punk. However, they are very much into the city-fashion-art mode assthey display on the only track worthy of release asa single "Glamour Girl," boasting mid-90's Rupaul-esque catwalk beats.
The rest of Will Save Us All, is a sorry mush of being weird for the sake of being weird. From "Yes I Do!" to the irritatingly long titled "Floating Pyramid Over Frankfurt That The Taxi Driver Saw..." Basically, the wholealbumis a number of shoutsand rants and an attempt at being punk yet in moderation. They have also releaseda book to go along with the albumthat should demonstrate the attempt at being meaninglessly artsy.
The packaging of this product is stellar and their look is just as fabulous.However, don't be fooled by the cover, there is nothing of content in this release. The underdog has lost its flavour since the days of Ani DiFranco.

I saw chicks on speed live in hyde park in london during the red hot chilli peppers tour in 2004.
Because they'd been booed off the stage the night before in Manchester, John frusciante and Anthony keidis came on before hand and told us to be nice to them.
They said that the first band were cool and had cool clothes, make-up, style etc. At that point i realized they hadn't said anything about there music.
a techno beat started up and they started flailing their arms. the crowd scratched their heads.
The first line was ''can i lick your ice-cream'' and every-one corpsed with laughter.
Their music displays to talent whatsoever and dispite the 'popular' opinion, it is by no means artistic. This is a band with nothing to say and all the hype they need not to say it.
They even hit paint strippers together.
The violinist swore at the audience and they were booed off in just under half an hour.
I will give them this-
They are true punk.

Sto aspettando al varco le Chicks on Speed da circa due anni, precisamente dal memorabile concerto alla Royal Festival Hall di Londra (una serata di elettronica, con Pan Sonic e Sonic Youth). Stupirono tutti con sonorità elettroniche travolgenti a supporto di melodie pop molto anni '80. Amore, nostalgia, parodia? Musica ma anche performance: le cinture suonate a mo' di chitarre, gli abiti assurdamente autoprodotti, una serie di gadget dal gusto dada (tutto acquistabile su www.chicksonspeed.com). Incontrai Alex (l'australiana del trio) sulle scale. Donna aggressiva. Parlammo per mezz'ora, bevemmo un Martini. Chiesi un'intervista. Accettò. Quando scoprì che si trattava di Vogue Italia cominciò a negarsi. Scoprii che avevano appena maltrattato Shame Kodwo di Vogue UK per delle domande a loro sgradite. Dunque proposi un'intervista all'incontrario (a loro le domande, a me le risposte). Prima dissero si, poi forse. Sto ancora aspettando. Bello l'ultimo disco, ma passa un po' troppo spesso su MTV. Che le sovversive stiano cambiando atteggiamento? La musica, per ora, è splendida. Tuttavia, temo che un giorno avrò la mia intervista. Quel giorno le Chicks on Speed non saranno più quelle di una volta.

The re-releases of the the un-releases is like audio LSD. COS have blended a medley of sounds and genres on one album that are very different but flow suprisingly well together. My only descerning criticism of this album is the really annoying yelps and screams that seem to sparatically jump up through the album. All shreeks aside, it has become a fast favorite in my music collection. I'd reccommend this album to people who enjoy new wave and electro-clash style music. :)

This one doesn't know whether it wants to be filed under comedy or punk or electronica or WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT there it goes again! It's all the things I like best about music, it bends genres like hot pink pipecleaners, it turns stubborn housepets into attractive Thanksgiving centerpieces!

It's dense but fluffy, weird but accessible, threatening but fun stuff. It has the energy and euphoric gluesniffing insanity of '77 punk, the attack dog politics of Dead Kennedys before Jello turned into a hectoring fishwife, the sonic inventiveness of the likes of Add N to X, Nina Hagen and the Tigerbeat6 crew... these chicks, they've been to art school but they're not FROM art school, you know what I mean? There's also something going on here that reminds me of the best aspects of Subgenius before it turned into the insipid cult it was mocking.

Did I mention that it's hooky like crazy? Oh yes! It also works as pure pop music of an insidiously clever and catchy variety. Think of Check Your Head by the Beasties. Buy it today and enjoy a light, crispy cognitive dissonance. Listen to it on Really Good Headphones for the bonus revelation that it's got a lot of neat elusive little details, enough to keep any IDM head slow and fat and dumb and happy for yonks. Beware of Track 20 though--it will rip through your eardrums like kleenex.

L

Everything about The Re-Releases of The Un-Releases is unsettling at first: the weird cover, the even weirder liner notes, the at times brilliant retro-electropop, and some twenty minutes of pretentious knob-twiddling that rivals Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music as the most exasperating dreck in rock history. Add the fact that Chicks On Speed aren't musically talented at all, and you'd probably wonder why I give this album a four-star rating.

See, The Re-Releases of The Un-Releases takes a bit of effort. You have to give it a cursory listen, and sort out the garbage. When that's done, you have fifty minutes of thrilling, artsy, deadpan music. All the songs have similar characteristics: early eighties techno beats that echo Kraftwerk and Art Of Noise behind hoity-toity, droll, almost cold, vocals.

The best songs on the album are the covers, which should be no surprise. The Chicks On Speed versions of Cracker's 'Euro-Trash Girl' and the B-52's tunes 'Gimme Back My Man' and 'Song For A Future Generation' overflow with dry humour. Best of all the covers is their version of the German punk band Malaria's 'Kaltes Klares Wasser'. In this song, meaning 'Cold Clear water', it all comes together. The pulsing beats combine with the trio's supersultry spoken vocals, making it sound like if Nico narrated the Velvets' 'Venus In Furs'.

There are original compositions that are standouts as well, like the cacophonous 'Turn Of The Century', 'Warm Leatherette', 'Yes I Do!', and especially, 'Glamour Girl'. The latter song is the closest thing to a potential mainstream hit Chicks On Speed have. With a bouncy disco beat and thrumming bassline that sounds like it came straight from Ibiza, the song parodies the plasticity of today's culture ("Burlesque attitude/nightttime thrills/she's a glamour girl/and her look just kills/beware of her kiss/she'll suck you in") in its portrait of said glamour girl with creepy, processed vocals.

But oh, this cd can annoy like no other. The filler, which sometimes is no more than a few seconds, serves no purpose whatsoever, other than to suddenly fill your room with static, screaming, and plain noise. And the liner notes are the most useless notes I've ever seen. Not that I've ever been able to read them...they're printed on the inside of the cd liner! Unless you want to totally destroy the cardboard cover, you'll never be able to read the entire thing, let alone know what song's what (this amazon page is the best source for song titles). Useless...K Records is to blame. What were they thinking?

If this was a vinyl LP, I'd give The Re-Releases of The Un-Releases a lower rating, but thanks to cd programming, it isn't so bad, and the album becomes very enjoyable. If you need help, try programming these tracks: 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 29, 30, 31. Sit back and enjoy. And be afraid of the other tracks. Very Afraid.

Blurring the distinctions between art and slop, avant-garde and pop, album and compilation, "ReReleases" has the scope and humor missing from Radiohead's "Kid A" (even if it lacks that album's beauty). Not typically a fan of this type of music, Chicks on Speed caught me off guard with their Le Tigre via Atari Teenage Riot, Laurie Anderson and B-52's style of catchy pop hooks, state of the art technology, chainsaw-annoying noises and deadpan humor. A brilliant track like "Glamour Girl" (previously on "Chicks on Speed Will Save us All") might not stand up on its own, but following such ear-scraping songs as "Turn of the Century," "I Wanna Be a DJ" and their brilliant cover of "Gimme Back My Man," it comes off being both a brilliant satire of house music and a sincere celebration of it. The sprawling, homemade mix tape collage technique this album uses reminds me of albums as disparate as "The White Album" (the Beatles) and "Double Nickels on the Dime" (the Minutemen). I can only begin to wonder what these Chicks will be doing next.

i thought le tigre was going to be a radical techno album. instead they were an indie rock band w/ keyboards. this is what i wanted le tigre to be. and now this is what i want all music to be. amazing.

Art rules is a great song. It really is sucky that the art world is all about wealth and naive talent, but thankfully the Chicks have put it down in their own genius analysis.

excellent CD.If you must own one CD from Chicks on Speed than this is the one. Very well crafted,a up beat album with smart lyrics. Fashion Rules is my favorite song, but all of them are extremely good. Why haven't you bought it already;quit reading this review and purchases it.

I bought their first CD while in Germany, touring with my parents, waaaayyyy back then. I loved their music then, though some people would think it was just too strange and disjointed.

Well they have come out with this CD. This album is much more mature than the first, but it still captures a lot of CoS weirdness which I love. The addition of Peaches in my favorite track, "We Don't Play Guitars", is just perfect! The video included on the CD is great.

Most of the songs I love, though some of them just go on for too long and it gets monotonous after awhile. But this album will certainly appeal to a broader spectrum of listeners, due to their matured sound, and a more rock feel to their music, rather than random songs, and lyrics that just fly all over the place (which I still loved immensely!)

If you're looking for something TOTALLY different in the electronica scene, this is certainly worth checking out.

My dad gave this CD to me for working hard at school.
I love my dad.
This is one of the greatest albums ever created. All of the songs are great, and you notice how much effort has been put into making the songs as good as they could possibly be, and "Culture Vulture" is probably one of the ten greatest songs ever (including Bruce Springsteen's songs).
When listening to this CD for the first time, I had not heard much of the Chicks other work, which is why I didn't rate this CD depending on how COS-style it is, but instead depending on if it is good or not. Therefore, long-time fans of COS may have a different opinion about this CD. 'Tis a pity.

No question about it - Chicks on Speed are a wild little group. But, oddly enough, this album seems to be their stab at mainstream success. Gone are the majority of their rough edges and in are vaguely Garbage-inflected pop tunes. A decent stab at popularity, but I expect more from this group. On 99 Cents they don't sound like they're on speed - more like Chicks on Light Refreshments.

O yeah, they're goddesses in this electro-age! This cd isn't as edgy as Re-Releases, more of a take off from Will Save Us All, but egg-cellent nonetheless... I got the cd last month and I couldn't stop listening to it! Shooting From The Hip simply rocks! Though I miss the egg-xtended version of We Don't Play Guitars, the version with more of Alex's vocal. Saw them last year with Peaches and I still wonder why Peaches didn't open for COS instead! :o)

The video for We Don't Play Guitars is a riot, and don't forget the hidden track at the very end of Fashion Rules! Overall, I think they're brilliant individuals and deserved to be heard. 'nough said!