In 2009,
Sonny Smith had a pretty clever idea, and three-plus years later he's still releasing songs from the project. In a nutshell, he came up with 100 band names, asked artists to design 7" sleeves for each band, and then he recorded 200 songs to go along with the sleeves. This is the third volume of recordings to be released, and it again shows that
Smith's execution of his grand concept was quite successful. Unlike previous volumes,
Smith takes all the lead vocals here as he entertainingly takes on white dude reggae ("Half Boy Half Girl" as the Wayward Youth), funky '60s soul ("A Steady Stream of Love" as Little Antoine & the Sparrows), rambling folk-blues ("Year of the Cock" as Jackie Feathers), drunken country-rock ("Cosmorama" as Fuckaroos), and, most impressively, a strutting Stax-y political soul jam ("If You Don't Make a Change" as Don Adora'e). All the tracks are recorded in an understandably quick and lo-fi way that sounds loose and fun, but never tossed off. This is the final group of recordings
Smith plans to release from the
100 Records project, and it's just as strong as any of the others. ~ Tim Sendra