Songbook, Volume One

Re-release of 1997 material (1-14) and then unreleased live stuff (15-25) from this bizarre Olympia outfit that spawned Arrington De Dionyso and takes their name from a classic Captain Beefheart song. The reference is not passing: these guys incorporate a lot of sick blues, dissonance, weird vocs, just like the late great Capt Beefheart and his magic band did. This is not to be missed by fans of bent stuff all around, e.g. Butthole Surfers, Residents, all things sick and twisted. (note: the inclusion of the live tracks distinguishes this from a previous, 1997 release)

1) post-punk feel for sure, dissonant guitar, desperate vocs, driving punky beat, awesome
2) another good post-punky track, a bit more urgent than previous
3) brief instrumental: accordion, carny feel, slow minor and only slightly creepy
4) low fi surfy feel, backbeat, silly vocs but great with just guitar and drums
5) a bit more restrained with a buried twisted carribean rim shot beat, but you’d never know it cuz of the bent vocs and everything else, shifts midway into another thing with bendy downtuned guitar, bordering on epic now
6) brief solo guitar trippiness
7) yelling, desperate calling vocs for good intro, then good music, but with yelling dominating
8-9) good solid dissonant stuf
10) fun mouth harp, brief, boinging boinging…
11) horns dueling in weirdness
12) walking jazzy feel, scronking sax
13) brief, dissonant guitar noise and cool tom tom beat, urgent vocs
14) slow chorused bass, sax

Live Material:
15) intro
16) strange vocs, slow with dissonant guitar and stuff
17) upbeat and vocal centered
18) dense, sax, guitar everything skronking, vocs, strangeness
19) nice urgent and minor/dissonant feel, harmonica barely played in bridge, reminds me of Glaxo Babies on acid
20) good cacophony of band, looping bass theme, no drums but some slight percussion, quiet out-tro, seems like dead air so I suggest potting down ~15 secs remaining
21) silly feel to vocs for sure, bent surf rock
22) goodness, twisted
23) instrumental, guitar, bent bass, sax skronking
24) bent vocals centered, psycho stuff
25) another good bent urgent one