Every now and again, man, The Duke comes into contact with something truly outstanding, something that makes a man wanna crawl through Amazon or eBay or Bit Torrent, if maybe you're a motherfucking peg-leg, for to grab everything to do with this new shit you just uncovered. Something so good you wanna know immediately why it's taken you so long to come across it. Maybe you even go into some sort of depressive stupor for a couple months, on account of you ain't one little bit as near to the "pulse" and stuff as you hoped.
Way back when The Duke was a youngster, a vinyl record cropped up in the local record emporium, being a single by Fishbone, a single by the name of Swim, Motherfucker, Swim. I had never heard of Fishbone, knew not one damn thing about what they sounded like, but shit, man, I had to have me that 12" single with the motherfucker scribbled across the front. That would just set my collection off nicely, is what.
Unfortunately, on account of I was 11 or some such, and also, since my mother worked in said emporium, I was denied the chance to own this foul-mouthed status-enhancing slab of wonder.
And that right there was that. I never did hear those sons a bitches. Who knew what the hell they sounded like?
What happens, though, is that in recent times, a Digital DVD Disc arrives in the post, being none other than a documentary all about these folks, these Fishbone types, following them as they record a few tracks in a studio by the name of The Hen House.
What needs to imparted, on account of the journalism and so on, is that, pretty much, as a documentary, Critical Times - Fishbone's Hen House Sessions leaves a lot to be desired. All you're gonna have to put up with is some folks sitting on a sofa making jokes that you don't get on account of it doesn't have the twenty minutes of dialogue that led up to the punchline. It's a bunch a folks sitting around fiddling with instruments and laughing. Who the hell could be bothered with that shit?
Here's what makes it worth bothering with;
The music these folks craft is nothing short of stunning. I mean stunning in the kinda way that you start to question all those music magazines and stuff you got lying about the place, since these folks have been going for next-to forever, and you never once saw their picture in the NME. And because the music is so stunning, what happens is that you start to get interested in all the yacking about time-changes and so on. It helps, too, that these folks are some endearingly daft motherfuckers.
What we get, are the recording sessions that result in the creation of half-a-dozen utterly brilliant pieces of punk-funk-soul-reggae-metal glory. It came as no surprise to learn that one of these fellas used to play guitar in Bad Brains, since that's pretty much the typea thing we're dealing with. It's a hybrid of reggae and punk, just like those fellas who got Banned In DC way back when, but it also adds in a bit of Hip-Hop, plenty of soul, and, in the case of Demon In Here, even some spooky-as-all-hell Nick Cave-esque Hellfire Preaching.
Article comments
1 - SFC Ski
YOu reality have to get the EP, as well as Inyour Face and Truth and Soul to give you the full Fishbone experience, I am just glad I got to see them live. THey really are desrving of a lot more exposure and kudoes, too. THanks for the tip.
2 - godoggo
Saw them once in the late 80s, when they were playing strictly ska, and didn't care much for them, but then a second time a few months ago, and was totally blown away. Great band, and something for everybody, one would think. Beats me why their not huge. Timing I guess.
3 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Thanks folks.
SFC, i'll fling those on the wishlist right the hell now. What EP are you refering to, though?
Godoggo, i dunno what the deal is either. I do remember that when the Give A Monkey A Brain... record came out (which i believe was the parent album of the Swim, Motherfucker, Swim ditty mentioned in the review) a lot of the UK rock magazines (well, kerrang and metal hammer, anyhow) were singing the praises. I ain't heard a damn thing since then, though. Maybe cuase my reading habits changed. Who knows?
But in the DVD, Norwood says about how folks they started out with got real huge and then just stopped making music. He says he'd rather be in the position he is now, were he can just carry on with this stuff.
Anyhow, thanks folks.
4 - Maniac Cop
Great to see somebody discover Fishbone! They're so underappreciated, it's ridiculous. I feel that Critical Times is great as a documentary just because of how far it is from Some Kind of Monster's drama queen excesses. Whether or not you dig the band (and, like you said, what idiot wouldn't?) this is engaging as a thorough look at the artistic creative process at work.
Fishbone's last album was out in 2002, but they're reportedly back in the studio now. All their releases are spectacular, but I'd say their greatest album is The Reality of My Surroundings, followed by the more mainstream-accessible Truth and Soul.
5 - SFC SKI
Digging through my old cassettes, I found a mixtape of "In your Face" and it's B-side was "Truth and Soul"; what great recordings those are, I kept the tape in my player for a week of commuting. "Give a Monkey..." was a bit too unmelodic for me, but I can understand why they wanted to do the album that way. "Reality..." was a really different, much more hard, almost heavy metal album in places, especially in the guitar department. I will say that Spacey-T's solo on "Just Allow" from "Nuttmegalomania" has only one fault in that it is way too short. I look forward to seeing what the boys will bring out next.