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.
Honest to God, man, this was some hairs-rising-on-the-back-of-neck stuff. From the first track, Frayed Fucking Nerve Endings, to the closing Skank N' Go Nutts, Fishbone never for a second even consider the possibility of being anything other than staggeringly inventive. And melodic, too. It's like if Asian Dub Foundation had less of a dance influence and a bigger Black Flag collection.
In addition to the studio tomfoolery that serves as the bulk of the footage, we get snippets of interviews with the band-members, folks like the brilliantly laid-back Norwood Fisher, with the gravity-defying hairstyle which he refers to as his "sacred antenna". We also get to have a snoop around frontman Angelo's house, filled with all manner of mystical paraphernalia.
Angelo, in fact, is probably the most entertaining subject of the lot, although none of them are ever anything less than charming. When the frontman spends hours fiddling with one of those electric pole things that make noises the closer you put your hands to them, all in pursuit of hitting the exact correct note, and much to the disdain of the bored-shitless bandmates, I gotta say man, I laughed myself numb for a time.
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.