Underground Sound: This Week's Artist- Dump

By Paul Tsikitas
Collegian Editor
March 29, 2006

This Week’s Band:
Dump
Featured Album:
That Skinny Mother F—er with the High Voice

Yo La Tengo’s loveable James McNew goes under the guise Dump for his solo projects. In 1999, a treasure was lost due to of being pushed out-of-print. This gem is the Dump album entitled That Skinny Mother F—er with a High Voice. The disc was taken from James McNew’s tapes of various Prince covers that to a lucky CD shopper or Yo La Tengo Fan has been able to get their hands on the legendary disc.

The Dump disc contains some of the weirdest yet most brilliant versions of Prince’s best works. Taking away the lush productions of songs like “1999” and “Pop Life,” Dump turns these tunes into indie-rock epics. His versions usually include a simple drum-machine beat and overlapping acoustic and fuzzy electric parts to create an atmosphere Prince could have not forseen.

Even though you might think these versions will leave you without an inch of room on the dance floor, you are greatly mistaken. Dump’s version of “Raspberry Beret” still makes you shake your hips. “Erotic City” will have you thrashing rather than shaking as it turns the song into a noisecore dance-a-thon.

The high point of the album is the love ballad from Purple Rain entitled “The Beautiful Ones.” Dump dons his best Prince impression on this track, and a tear will come to your eye as he enters a wicked guitar riff at the end of the song.

This album is great because it takes Prince so far out of context, that only someone who knows these songs to be Prince’s would be able to distinguish them. Dump combines the indie rock mentality that makes Yo La Tengo great, and the sex appeal of Prince’s tunes to make That Skinny Mother F—er with a High Voice a true achievement in rock history. If you are lucky enough to find a copy of this in a record shop or find it online somehow, do so. You are missing a true masterpiece that is currently unavailable.

tsikitp1@lasalle.edu