Velvet Monkeys

Listening to Rake is like listening, from outside of a door or window, to the sounds of a swinging party to which you weren't invited (and where you wouldn't know anybody anyway). In other words, it sounds like the hosts, Velvet Monkeys (Don Fleming, Jay Spiegel, and Malcolm Riviera), and guests (Thurston Moore, J Mascis, etc.) had fun recording this faux exploitation film soundtrack, but it isn't a particularly infectious sort of fun or, as the saying goes, "You had to be there." Since most listeners weren't, here are the facts in brief: Fleming is fictional babe-magnet Rake, Spiegel is the Rummager, Riviera is the Assassin, Moore is Action Pussy, Mascis is Sweet Dick, and so on. Although the plot is recounted in the CD booklet (through both words and pictures), the music doesn't really tell much of a story. Most of the songs represent, instead, a precursor to the sort of thing Andrew W.K. would be doing a decade hence (lyrically, at any rate): rocking out and partying hard. That's about it. The sound is often more diffuse and psychedelic than W.K.'s metallic stomp (it's gotta be all those guitars), but he'd probably approve of the sentiments nonetheless. ~ Kathleen C. Fennessy, All Music Guide