Retro Spins: Green Jellö (AKA Green Jellÿ) - Cereal Killer Soundtrack

If "Weird Al" Yankovic was a metal artist, you'd probably get Green Jellö, or Green Jellÿ as they were forced to change their name to after being sued by Kraft Foods. The songs are loud, but silly. Some are a little harsher in tone, language and content wise, than others, but all intended in good jest.

As a band, Green Jellö featured a slew of talent which included the likes of Maynard Keenan and Danny Carey of Tool, Leslie Claypool of Primus, and comedian Pauly Shore...Along with twelve other contributing members.

As an entity, Green Jellö are no strangers to the world of legality. I've already mentioned they were sued by Kraft Foods for the infringement on the name Jellö. However, this lawsuite came to be more so for the band's slogan, "Green Jellö sucks," more so than the band's actual name. This lawsuit was followed up by another from Kellogg Company for their trademark infringement of the character Toucan Sam. Finally, a third litigation was filed against them by the managers of Metallica for the use of the guitar riff from Enter Sandman in their song Electric Harley House (of Love).

All of these suits resulted in a degree of changes which had to be made to their albums and the band in general. The most notable being the change of the name from Green Jellö to Green Jellÿ. What's interesting about this is that even under the name Green Jellÿ, and the name of the song changed to Green Jellÿ Sucks, they band weren't forced to change the lyrics, and still sing, "Green Jellö sucks." Metallica's lawsuit wasn't as friendly, and the band was forced to remove their music from the album, video library. Kellogg's made the band add a disclaimer to their front cover of the album separating the band from the food brand.

Despite this, Green Jellÿ was successful enough to release a follow up album in 1994, and then in 2009 released an additional album. However, overall, they remain a rather obscure one hit wonder from the 1990's.

Listening to Green Jellö's Cereal Killer Soundtrack definitely brings back memories for me. I remember my first introduction to the band was their claymation style music video for pretty much their only commercially successful track, Three Little Pigs. It intrigued me enough to want the album, and introduced me to a slew of other fun songs to listen to. The charm to it all was the humor mixed with heavy metal aspects.

Admittedly, while listening to it for this post, it took me a little bit to get into the album. It wasn't until Rock-N-Roll Pumpkin that I remembered just how much I enjoyed Cereal Killer Soundtrack. It wasn't for the goofy lyrics, though some are still childishly funny, but rather for the killer guitar work. This rings all the more true in the aforementioned Pumpkin song which shreds.

I actually really enjoyed listening to this CD. It's been a long time since I've blared it through speakers, and it was really fun to remind myself of why I bought it all those years ago. It's definitely not an every day kind of album, and I certainly wouldn't head down the highway with the windows open and it cranking. But, it was great to hear again.

If it's an album you're considering grabbing, then I encourage you to find the original Green Jellö labeled release. It's definitely more scarce than the re-release, but it's not too costly. Five to ten bucks on a good day.

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Retro Spins: Meat Loaf: Bat Out Of Hell II - Back Into Hell

I can't believe it's been seven years of Retro Spins here at The Toy Box. I've talked about a ton of 80's albums during the past six years, and while I will continue to do so for quite some time longer, I think it's also time to advance the calendar a bit. This year, let's also dive into the 90's. You'll still find a post on an 80's album every Tuesday, but I'm going to also try to do one based on a 90's album every Friday. Because I have a somewhat low tolerance for that particular era, let's see how far we get before I just can't take it anymore.

If you couldn't tell from my prior sentence, admittedly, I'm not a big fan, but I have a fair share of albums from artists who were still on my radar during those first few years of the new decade. As such, you probably won't see much here beyond 1996 / 1997. That was about when I finally threw my hands up with music and said, "I'm done." You also won't find a lot of obscure stuff within these posts because I really didn't "experiment" much with 90's music. In fact, you probably won't find much beyond what was frequently on the radio, or from bands who transitioned, successfully or otherwise, to the 90's.

So let's dive in, and see where this goes.

Meat Loaf hadn't released an album since his 1986 Blind Before I Stop. If I'm being honest, he'd even longer since been irrelevant to mainstream music. To date, his highlight had been his 1977 debut Bat Out Of Hell, and from there, sales of his albums continued to drop rapidly.

When 1993 arrived, the world was big into the grunge scene. Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and others were mainstay on radio stations, and it seemed the world of music had changed forever. Because of this, it was not only odd to hear the rumblings of the obscure Meat Loaf making a comeback. Yet, it happened - In a big way.

The lead single, I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) not only represented everything grunge wasn't, but it pushed all of those musicians out of the way as the track shot straight to the number one spot on the charts in twenty-eight countries, and stayed there in the USA for five consecutive weeks.

It would be a disrespect to not mention Jim Steinman, the writer and producer of all the tracks on the album. Steinman has long since been a collaborator with Meat Loaf, providing the material for his first album, Bat Out Of Hell. However, as they continued to work together in the 80's, Steinman and Meat Loaf distanced more and more, eventually suing each other over musical squabbles. While Steinman stayed very active in the world of music, Bat Out Of Hell II, still feels like as much of a comeback for him as Meat Loaf.

The album launches off the pad with tracks, I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back and Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through. Unfortunately, it then slams on the brakes for a bit. Tracks become slower paced, very ballad like and honestly fell into background noise for me.


Things do eventually pick back up, but not before a very odd spoken track entitled, Wasted Youth. When I heard this, I truly felt like the entire album had been derailed. Then the rockin' track, Everything Louder Than Everything Else kicked in, and I was back into it.

The average running time of tracks is seven to ten minutes, which gives you a lot of bang for your buck. I suppose that value is only there if you're enjoying the album though. Overall, I did. It definitely got me interested in hearing a bit more of Meat Loaf's later stuff, which isn't something I would normally say. Typically, I would go backwards into the 70's and 80's.

Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell is a well earned comeback for Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. It stands out from the typical sound of the 90's, and it's got a lot of good tracks to offer. I definitely recommend this one to everyone.

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.