AllMusic

Consumers

All My Friends Are Dead

January 22, 2002

Alternative Pop/Rock

Cut in an 8-track studio in a single evening before the band fled Phoenix, AZ for the promised land of Los Angeles, All My Friends Are Dead is an amazing blast of teenage rage from the all-too-short lived Consumers. Suggesting the point where first generation punk rock began to evolve into hardcore, this music is reckless but taut, the sound of youth determined to burn out before fading away became an issue.

- Mark Deming

Original Soundtrack

Kansas City [Original Soundtrack]

1995

A vibrant celebration of director Robert Altman's hometown during the 1930's, Kansas City works best as a showcase for this band. A swaggering gaggle of young and old players, each one loosely portraying a real-life counterpart, (i.e. James Carter as Ben Webster, Craig Handy as Coleman Hawkins, Geri Allen as Mary Lou Williams, etc.) the band had more a lasting impact than the film itself with a tour and follow-up album. This is earthy, frenetically swinging, call-and-response jazz that remains as real, and believable as any of Altman's many improvised film productions.

- Matt Collar