(Ampersand Etcetera) I have only heard one Little Fyodor album, reviewed ages ago on the blog (Peace is Boring, from Public Eyesore), so can't speak comprehensively. But this set of covers The Unscratchable Itch (PE122: available from Public Eyesore) of his songs often improve and develop from either the originals I have heard or the impression given by that earlier release. The good ones emphasize the lyrics or musicality of the works, provide a diversity of voices & don't include the distracting babushka. As I wrote before, Fyodor can write a great hook & many are on display here. We open with Ralph Gean singing All my clothes are uncomfortable which seems to be close to the Fyodor ethos but Gean's voice has a more serious tonality which adds to the song. I believe in god (Patrick Porter) is also close to home but develops the song while on Get out of my head the Voodoo Organist gets down and rocks. The version of You give me a hard-on by Dan Susnara demonstrates where things can go wrong - a fake crooner with cheesy special effects tries for comedy and fails - emphasized by The Inactivists later version of the same song. With sax and guitar and some fabulous orchestration it takes the song seriously and makes it really cool but adds anger to the vocal. This is one of the highlights, along with Boyd Rice's The blackness which impresses with its simple dark production and female chorus. I won't comment on every track - good or bad - but some of the other high points are Amy Denio who extracts the seriousness and music on The god gripe song and injects some pleasant female harmonies; a swampy psychedelic Happy people from Brian M Clark. A couple of tracks cutup the vocals and add electronica - Cruising (bummer scene) from Diablo Mountain sounds like a remix and Darren Douglas Danahy provides a change with abstract electronics and distorted vocals on No relief in sight. Lasse Jensen does two songs - a cool translated version of I want an ugly girl and a smashup Everybody's fucking: playing around with song lyrics and just having fun. Outside these there is a live death metal noise version of Won't somebody fill the void (Blood Rhythms), a rockabilly I wanna be the buddha (Evan Cantor), shouted punk That was a mistake (Us from the Superfuture) and Nervesandgel is a growling devil on Doomed. And much more the sequence is good - the first few tracks being more consistent with what I know of Little Fyodor and then moving into a range of directions with the music. And again, he can write hooky tunes, thoughtful lyrics and thought provoking comedy. - Jeremy Keens

(Aural Innovations) I’ve got to hand it to Little Fyodor. Nobody sounds like him. Hell, he even rates a tribute album. The Unscratchable Itch: A Tribute to Little Fyodor consists of 21 artists doing their own renditions of Little Fyodor songs. The interpretations run the gamut from “relatively” normal, to attempts to go Fyodor style, to doing precisely what I always hope will occur when someone does a cover song which is to make it completely their own. All the contributors do a good job but I’ll give you a flavor of what for me are the standouts: The Voodoo Organist does a nasty 60s Garage-Psych rocking take on Get Out Of My Head. I love Dan Susnara’s lounge crooner take on You Give Me Hard On, nicely colored by incessant vinyl scratching and goofy effects. The Inactivists take the same song in a different direction, giving it a sultry Psychedelic-Jazz spin. Nobody but Amy Denio could make a Little Fyodor song sound lovely like she does with her Avant-Pop version of The God Gripe Song. Brian M. Clark is totally demonic with his sludgy Psychedelic-Doom rendition of Happy People. Diablo Montalban does a very cool and wildly chaotic cheesy keyboard and Throbbing Gristle Industrial version of Cruising (Bummer Scene). Gort vs. Goom do a very cool tripped out cover of I Don’t Know What To Do that’s like The Residents and Renaldo and the Loaf backing a singer, though it’s also got a tasty guitar solo. Fyodor’s brother moron in Walls of Genius Evan Cantor does a cool swinging lounge-Blues version of I Wanna Be The Buddha. Swami Loopynanda (Charles Rice Goff III) goes lysergic mind-fucked Psychedelic with his wigged out Residents gone Space Rock interpretation of Red Meat/Throbbing Earthworm. Darren Douglas Danahy is nicely spaced out too with his funky freaky electro-grooving cover of No Relief In Sight. The spaced out whack job vibes continue with Reverend Leadpipe and the Evil Do’ers doing an ultra-frenetic and rhythmically disorienting You Will Die. Blood Rhythms do what is probably the most challenging to recognize cover of a Little Fyodor song with Won’t Somebody Fill The Void. No surprise given that it was recorded live at the 2012 Denver Noise Fest. Lasse Jensen (who also curated this compilation) does a goofily rollicking cover of Everybody’s Fucking. And Nervesandgel do a nifty rhythmic Residents and darkly electro freaked out rendition of Doomed. - Jerry Kranitz