This is, for all intents and purposes, the Infectious Grooves second album, even though they rehash quite a few tracks from their first album along with the overall presentation. By this point, Mike Muir’s main gig with Suicidal Tendencies was still making mainstream waves, although I am fairly sure it was at the end of its’ run, so here was another chance for him to make a quick buck, as the Grooves were on a major label at the time as well. I find this CD to be amusing but I can see where a lot of people would think it is basically crap, or just dated to its’ time and place. Basically, what we have here is a debatable side of “new” material, the rehashes in one form or another, and a ton of these skits which you may or may not find to be amusing. I think they are. The main musical anchor is Robert Trujillo’s bass work, and overall, the sound comes off like a tongue-in-cheek version of Muir’s main Suicidal gig with heavy funk overtones. There are two different cuts titled “Infectious Grooves” here, because one is a live version and the other one is a glossier, very 80’s-sounding studio version. The covers are decent – “Immigrant Song” and “Fame” – although the “Immigrant Song” cover has far more depth to it than “Fame” does, IMHO. The norm are these fun little exercises like “Slo-Motion Slam” or “You Pick Me Up (Just to Throw Me Down)” which are showcases for the Trujillo bass lines, nothing more or less. The best of the skits is a toss-up between “Caca De Kick” and “The Man Behind the Man”. One of the most fun 3-star CDs out there in existence today! It will give you a real caca de kick in de pants, to steal a line from one of the skits.

Herbie Hancock is mainly known for a couple of things - playing with Miles Davis, and staking his own claim to fame in the early 80's through a massive synthesizer-laden hit, "Rockit". This particular disc happened to be part of a slew of popular jazz-fusion albums from the early-to-mid 70's. In fact, Head Hunters was the first one of these to sell more than a million copies. But whereas many other albums in the genre were fairly challenging, Head Hunters was smooth and accessible. Then again, compared to other jazz composers from his era, Herbie wasn't exactly in that transcendent category, more like an entertaining, mid-level operator. When someone like Miles Davis crossed jazz with rock 'n' roll and funk, the results were often bewildering, astounding, and just plain on another level, but Hancock? Well, you get Head Hunters - which sounds nice, even logical, but doesn't justify all the space it aims to take up.

So, there was one rap record in the late 80's that managed to pack the political punch of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" and the scandalous sex raps of the 2 Live Crew into one highly entertaining, engaging, and controversial package - The Iceberg. Yes, cut by the very same Ice-T who has recently grandfathered his way into slimy car warranty commercials. But back then, he was among the best at conveying realism behind the crime lifestyle to virgin audiences. This was not just "Fuck the Police" attention seeking behavior. Not every track here was an expose - the rambling braggadocio showcases "What Ya Wanna Do" and "My Word Is Bond" can attest to that - but more often than not, Ice was on target regarding a number of subjects, from self- education ("Lethal Weapon"), to gang life ("Peel Their Caps Back"), sexual fantasy ("The Girl Tried to Kill Me"), and the realities of the 1st Amendment (the title track). Not just vital to rap but to music history as a whole.

After the relative jam-fest that was the previous disc, enter Melvin Gibbs on bass, and a moderate change in musical direction for the Rollins Band. Weight runs approximately 20 minutes shorter than the previous disc, and even hit sort of a commercial peak thanks to “Liar”, which over the years has become a signature song for Henry, like it or not. I’m still not a head-over-heels convert because for a sizeable majority of this CD, Henry’s antics still annoy greatly, and there are other problems which crop up here and there that I cannot ignore. Let’s get the boogeyman out of the way first. “Liar” is a decent track and I think it works despite Rollins’ antics. Henry’s performance overall has its’ pros and cons – he’s good at conning you, but the monotone screaming and growling when he reveals himself is something that really gets on my nerves. Meanwhile, the band’s performance is quite credible although the guitar solo is a little too messy for my taste. Overall, it goes way better when accompanied with the video. The material is generally hard-to-take in a different way for me. For every nugget of wisdom – and there are some to be found here – it’s marred by Rollins and his overbearing nature. The production is definitely not as clean as it was for End of Silence, and the structure and riffs of the songs are gruffer and to the point – which I like – but upon subsequent listens, tracks start to merge together into a mass of faux-motivational miasma. The worst example has to be “Civilized” and “Step Back”, which feel like the exact same, cadences, and everything, just different lyrics. For every “Disconnect”, you get a “Tired”. Or a “Shine”, where it’s “HERO TIME”. I just cannot shake the notion that Henry was cribbing this stuff from some motivational handbook and passing it off as honest words. Overall, another weighted dud from the Rollins Band.

Post-Black Flag, Henry Rollins certainly cultivated an image of drill sergeant-meets-motivational speaking guru, and no matter how tortured he tried to come across in any of his musical projects, I can’t shake that overall view of the guy. The other prevailing view of him is, he has an acerbic, funny side to him, but you know what? Other than some deadpan or in-character performances on the big and small screen, not much actual humor comes across in his act – from a sheer music/performance perspective, at least, and it’s especially hard to come across on The End of Silence. That’s just one of my issues with this disc, which, despite some of the talents pooled and players involved falls short in a lot of ways. Another, more pertinent issue, is the overall length of the experience – ten songs that run over 72 and a half minutes, and I would say and a good half to two thirds of the music turns out to be well technically-played filler, dragged out to oblivion because Rollins seems to be on a quest to lay bare the deepest recesses of his so-called tortured soul, one way or another.