As Ugly As They Wanna Be (1992)

What does it take for a brand-new metal band to get noticed? Musical innovation? Insightful lyrics? In Ugly Kid Joe's case, none of the above: A hefty dose of snottiness may be what shot this band up the Billboard chart. The debut EP from the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based quintet tells tales any high school or college kid can take to heart, ranging from the sophomoric humor of the raucous ''Madman'' (with its nonsensical story of a murderer on the loose in Disneyland), to the party-down raid on Mom and Dad's liquor cabinet in ''Whiplash Liquor.'' And underneath their purposely stoopid guitar solos and their goofy twists and turns of melody, these new Kids show no small amount of musical savvy: Their blend of white funk and metal crunch is hip and fun, even when it borders on the self-conscious. As Ugly As They Wanna Be takes the dark underbelly of white-bread American youth and tickles it silly. B

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