Comfortable Sweats

I first became of aware of Big Head Todd and The Monsters (BHTTM) while living in Colorado during the summer of 1993. That only makes sense, as BHTTM is from Boulder and have a huge following in and around the Rocky Mountains. The album was Sister Sweetly and the song that summer was “Bittersweet.” Sister Sweetly is one of the top five albums that changed me after listening to it. In order those albums are:

1. The Joshua Tree, U2
2. Achtung Baby, U2
3. For the Record, The First Ten Years, David Allan Coe
4. Sister Sweetly, Big Head Todd and The Monsters
5. Tie: The Chronic, Dr. Dre, Ten, Pearl Jam

Not exactly a uniform list, but then whose listening tastes are?

Back to BHTTM, as I mentioned, Sister Sweetly became my default album of choice for about 2 years. I have no idea what woman was the inspiration for that album, but most of the songs are sad ruminations of a love affair gone wrong. At that point in my life, I was going through my first bad breakup. The songs from that album still resonate with me today, but the original source of that resonation has been lost to memory and time (I know, I know, they are CDs now, but being 28 years old, the word album has not been erased from my vocabulary).

I finally got to see BHTTM in the fall of 1997 in Oklahoma City at the Bricktown Brewery, in a setting of about only 300 people. It was a concert experience long in the anticipation, and it did not disappoint. I have no idea if they are any good in a setting bigger than my backyard, but they were good that night.

Which brings us to 2002. BHTTM released at least three other (good) albums between Sister Sweetly and the newest one, including a live album, but they failed to capture the lightning in a booze bottle effect of Sister Sweetly. I heard BHTTM broke up, and while sad, I’m at least thankful that I got to see them before they parted.

Then, about a month ago, I am roaming through the CD section at Randy’s M&M in Edmond, OK and there it is. I actually stopped and stared for a minute: a new BHTTM album. Just sitting there. No promotional posters up anywhere, no little white rectangle thing to separate it out from the other CDs in the B section: nothing but the CD. Taking it the counter was an act of will because, remember, I thought they broke up. The back of my mind kept pinging this thought to the front: It’s not the same lead singer.

Article Author: Chris Cotner

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