RECORD REVIEW
by Larry "Fuzz-O" Dolman

GIL MANTERA'S PARTY DREAM: Live at Bottom Lounge, Chicago CDR (BOOT LEGG)
"We might be retarded, but we're gonna kill you in the end." I know that costume-rock and goof-rock and watch-the-ugly-guy-strip rock is often some of the most annoying shit ever, but we're talking about Ultimate Donny here. Gil Mantera's Party Dream is a synth-pop brother duo act from the inimitably seedy Ohio underbelly (been to Youngstown or the wrong side of Columbus lately?). Gil plays the synths, sings all the choruses through a vocoder, and shows some truly excellent dance moves while stripping down to a disgusting G-string, all while sipping on whatever free stage beer the club allows. As for the verses and really, everything else, his brother Ultimate Donny comes on as an outrageous wigga, and I never use that word, except that Ultimate Donny truly demands that I do. He struts the stage, swearing like a pimp and name-checking his #1 influence, "Richard Pryor." He wears his hair in corn-row braids, for goodness sake, and over Gil's strangely pleasant and harmonious Kraftwerk schtick he belts out some heartfelt New Jack balladry. If you listen closely, he's just making up words about the club or whatever his brother is doing, and saying "motherfucker" a lot, but when it comes to melody and delivery -- you know, singing -- Ultimate Donny is not fucking around. He's as good as the guy from Jodeci. It's with the actual content of the words, and especially the between-song banter, that he truly is fucking around, with the entire world. Take us out, Donny!
         "Somebody hook us up some Yuengling Draft, we dyin' up here...."
         "Man, I'm gonna suck your ass out the fucking door, motherfucker!"
         "This next song is called 'Mountain Song', feel it or don't! Feel it or don't. Competition is none, motherfucker!"
         "If you can't feel it, you probably got a couple darts stuck in your balls!"
         "We mighta fucked a grandmother's ass but you shoulda seen the shit she did to us when we was three and four...." (???)
         "Oh, shut up -- just cuz we're on a higher level...."          "Why's it smell like midget perfume in here? Where you goin' you piece of hell?!"
          "I researched the bible for 45 of my years on this earth, and I researched Barbara Walter's pussy for 36 years on this motherfuckin' earth, and I came to the conclusion that if I don't gets mine, I'm just gonna keep reachin...."
         "Hey those are our printers, asshole! Keep 'em on stage, piece of hell. My brother real stupid....huh? Yeah, dot matrix! DOT MOTHERFUCKIN' MATRIX!!" (Much more at partydream.com.)