SOUNDTRACK: FISHBONE-Truth and Soul (1988).
Fishbone opens up yet another album with a fantastic one-two punch. Truth and Soul is Fishbones’s perfect blend of ska, punk and hardcore. This album has a few heavy moments but it was recorded before they got the heavy metal into their system.
The disc opens with “Freddie’s Dead.” Which is just a blast of rocking funk. It is catchy, it is fun to sing along to, and it rocks. It’s followed by “Ma and Pa” a fantastic ska song that is darkly humorous [“Hey Ma and Pa, what the hell is wrong with y’all?”]. It also features great vocal effects throughout the song: grunts and groans in place of beats and notes. It’s just fantastic. These are probably two of the best songs of the late 1980s. The following two songs slow things down a bit, with “Pouring Rain” being a 5 minute long ballad.
“Deep Inside” follows with a blast of punk and call and response vocals. And “Mighty Long Way” is an upbeat, keyboard heavy track about friendship. It also has a great guitar riff (and really shows off the wailing guitar solos that will come up on later records).
This all leads to the majesty of “Bonin’ in the Boneyard” (the lyric sheet for this states: “If you can’t figure this one out, then you are lame!”). This song is just an amazing horn-filled, bass slapping riot of a good time. In general I don’t like horns in rock, but there is something about horns and ska that are just perfect. And I could listen to this horn section all night long.
“One Day” comes next. It’s less hectic, but contains more great guitar work and some great harmony vocals. It’s a very catchy song about racism. “Subliminal Fascism” is another short song that shows some of their newly found metal leanings. “Slow Bus Movin'” deals more overtly with racism, and yet its comical use of western-style music is something of a surprise.
“Ghetto Soundwave” and “Change” end the album with another one-two shot of greatness. “Soundwave” is a fantastic horn-filled song. And “Change” is a truly beautiful ballad.
Truth and Soul is a great album.
[READ: December 29, 2008]: “The Santosbrazzi Killer”
I’ve been meaning to read Julavits’ novel The Uses of Enchantment for some time, but it keeps getting pushed back by other titles. So, this is my first exposure to her as anything other than editor of The Believer. And I enjoyed this story very much.
The main character is a overseer–she travels to a Cincinnati-based subsidiary research outfit and criticizes them. At some point in the story she admits she’s pretty much an asshole: officious, nitpicky, antisocial, and really quite unpleasant (Sample: “I arrived with my insulated travel mug filled with clearly superior off-site coffee”). On this particular trip something different happens: she gets to stay in a different hotel than her usual place: The Tuck Inn.
After doing her job (and making everyone very tense), she returns to her hotel and inquires about a place to eat. The concierge explains that there’s a bar/cafe downstairs. The snooty waiter/bartender offers her a “bible” of a menu (with at least 476 pages). Among her choices are: the Grinning Necrophiliac and the Vengeful Subsidiary (which she requests, but is not allowed to have due to the bartender’s lack of an essential tool). And so, she settles on the titular Santosbrazzi Killer.
After waiting some time, a gentleman sits down. He explains that what she ordered was not so much a drink as, well…. I’m not going to give it away. From this point the story gets very interesting: the tension mounts, and yet the dark humor never departs. It was a very enjoyable story.
It also introduced me to a new verb: to jick. It is used throughout the story. Initially it described the action of clicking a ball point pen. But as the story progresses, the verb is used in a few different places (usually denoting a sound), with the meaning always being relevant.
Assuming this is representative of Julavits’ work, I’m looking forward to reading her novel one of these days.
SOUNDTRACK: FISHBONE-In Your Face (1986).
Fishbone’s first full length starts out with two great songs. “When Problems Arise” has the great stop/start techniques that Fishbone uses so well, as well as a great riff and some fantastic funky bass playing. The second track “A Selection” has a great ska feel, and could easily be The Specials or Selecter; however, Fishbone throw in a bit of humor (“No toothpaste?”) to make the song their own.
SOUNDTRACK: FISHBONE-Fishbone EP (1985)
After listening to “It’s a Wonderful Life (Gonna Have a Good Time)” at Christmas, I had to bust out the old Fishbone discs, which I haven’t done in quite some time. So I’m beginning with the EP that started it all.
SOUNDTRACK: CITY AND COLOUR-Live (2007).
City and Colour is the solo project of Alexisonfire singer Dallas Green (get it?). I was really impressed by Dallas’ voice within the noisy metalcore of AOF. And I wondered what his solo stuff would sound like without the dissonance of the rest of the band. I saw this disc was available from 
Boy I can’t stand this song. I know it’s supposed to be cute and racy and risque or whatever, but I simply can’t stand how crassly materialistic it is. And I’m not one who thinks Christmas is all about, like, Jesus’ birth or being good or anything. I know it’s all about the presents; however, this song is just….so…wrong. And if the Eartha Kitt version (the one you hear most of the time) 
weren’t bad enough, the Madonna version (on A Very Special Christmas) is just abysmal. She sounds like a sexually deranged Betty Boop (which I suppose is not unusual for her circa this release, but still). Stop trying to seduce Santa! Make it go away!
SOUNDTRACK—FLAMING LIPS-Christmas on Mars (film & soundtrack) (2008).
I’ve been a fan of the Flaming Lips for a pretty long time. I first heard them with “She Don’t Use Jelly” (a novelty hit from 1993…who would have thought they’d have become so amazing) but I really got into them from the time of The Soft Bulletin (and Zaireeka). Since around this time, Wayne Coyne and the Lips have been working on Christmas on Mars. It is a “home movie” of sorts that the Lips and some special friends made in their home town (and their backyard). They recently released the film on CD/DVD.
Christmas on Mars sounds like a cheesy/funny movie about, well, what Martians do for Christmas. And seeing Wayne as a Martian seemed to confirm my suspicion. But rather, what you get is a much less joyful celebration.
SOUNDTRACK: FOXBORO HOT TUBS-Stop Drop & Roll!!! (2008)
This is the least cleverly concealed “side-project” in rock history. At this point Billie-Joe Armstrong’s voice is so recognizable, that it’s impossible for him to hide. But Foxboro Hot Tubs were a way for Green Day to release something different after their mega-successful American Idiot album.
SOUNDTRACK: THE DIVINE COMEDY-Casanova (1996)
Following Promenade, Neil Hannon released Casanova. Stylistically it is very different. It features more of a band, rather than an orchestra (although it retains an orchestral feel). Perhaps because of this, there were three singles from the album, all of which charted in the UK. “Something for the Weekend” is a wonderfully fun song, full of twists and double crosses, sex and debauchery and, of course, something in the woodshed (all in just over 4 minutes). It’s a fantastic lead off single.
SOUNDTRACK: FRANK ZAPPA-Baby Snakes [the movie & soundtrack] (1979).
This is sort of a review of the soundtrack album to Baby Snakes, but really it’s a review of the film, which I just watched over the last 4 days. Baby Snakes (A Movie About People Who Do Stuff That is Not Normal) was not as depraved as the subtitle (and the history of Zappa) would lead you to believe. In fact, primarily it is a concert film. There are a bunch of other things in the film as well, but easily 3/4 is a live Halloween concert in New York City.
I Just Read About That... 