WHEN NEW WAVE MET THE SHITKICKER AESTHETIC: YIP YIP COYOTE

Yip Yip Coyote first came to my attention by being featured on the soundtrack to BACHELOR PARTY, and the tune included there, "Dream of the West," came from out of nowhere to become one of my favorite recordings.

A project of Malcom McClaren, the mastermmind — some would say Svengali — behind the Sex Pistols and Bow Wow Wow, Yip Yip Coyote is solid proof that McClaren's tack of throwing anything against the pop music wall to see what sticks was not necessarily a sound business strategy; where the Sex Pistols succeeded on genuine social outrage and Bow Wow Wow offered a then-unique multicultural stew of rock and African Burundi rhythms, Yip Yip Coyote was a conceptual clusterfuck that attempted to gene-splice cowboy themes with overproduced dance music, and with the exceptions of "Dream of the West," "Cry Like the Wind," and the charming "Pioneer Girl," the album yields little worth listening to, and the British-accented vocals just do not work in conjunction with its shitkicker aesthetic. Nonetheless, if you hate the LP's contents, its cover makes for a striking wall decoration.