Why is Conehead Buddha’s Rockets on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Get that body up.
Some stats & info about Conehead Buddha – Rockets
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock, Rock Music, Ska, Alternative Rock, New York Bands, Pop, Pop Music, Dance Music
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – not rated!
- When was Rockets released? 1999
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #740 out of 1,000
Conehead Buddha’s Rockets on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.
What does Conehead Buddha’s Rockets mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
It makes me so happy to promote bands that most people have never heard of as part of the best 1,000 albums project. I emphasize most people, as those of a certain time (let’s say 1990s) and place (let’s say the northeastern U.S.) and age (college-y) who are familiar with Conehead remember them quite fondly. Case in point, I met up for drinks with a former boss of mine in Seattle and we realized that we are both card-carrying Conehead Buddha fans!
If you roll deep with Conehead, you’ll recall that their first album, from 1993, is called Eastern Island Vacation. I spent quite a bit of time with that album on cassette during college road trips. Songs like “Thank You” and “Gotta Have Fun” still hold up well, and it has a place on my “honorable mention” list for this project.
Rockets is the most consistently good album that Conehead has produced to date, though, and most closely resembles the upbeat, manic-but-good energy of their live shows. And, frankly, the production is far superior versus Easter Island Vacation.
“Body Up” is the best song on Rockets, an exciting horn-drive, groovy ska number that is designed to get bodies moving and shaking (not to mention up).
“Lioness” kicks off with a great guitar hook, after which the horns kick off and the ska beat takes off to the races. Special shoutout here that Conehead’s horn section is outstanding and helps create a great counter-melody to the guitar and vocals. Many bands attempt to do this and few succeed as well as Conehead.
“Road Kill Coffee,” which, first of all great song title, is more of a fun mid-tempo number and shows off what the band can do in a slightly moodier mode.
But honestly Conehead’s most in its collective wheelhouse when busting out fun, sexy, upbeat ska numbers a la “Mattress Mambo.” And this one has a fun little Latin touch to it. Funky ska with a Latin edge, as it were.