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Written: Nov 14 '01 (Updated Nov 14 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It will burst the most self-indulgent bubble.
Cons: This is my E-pinion! No Cons!
The Bottom Line: you can't say 'quirky' and 'rockin'' enough when you talk about these guys i just hope that we can hear them play together again
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| jennifer_nine's Full Review: Fantastic Spikes Through Balloon by Skeleton Key |
The sausage looks so nice and shiny in its plastic packaging. We marvel at its flawless, sterile skin. Go and ahead and touch it. There is not one blemish. It’s everything we want. It never conflicts or questions our views and opinions. And the taste it presents is one of familiarity. A taste we’ve come to know and depend on. So we fork over money to buy more sausage. It’s the same taste every time. We throw it in the pan. It spits back at us. That’s alright. The sausage tastes so good and it makes us very happy. We poke at its watertight skin and discover that inside is nothing but hot air and fatty filler. Irregardless, the sausage brings a level of comfort we can’t get anywhere else.
We need these Fantastic Spikes right about now. The balloon is back. (Some say it never left.) Full of hot air. Self-indulgent. And like the sausage on skeleton key’s album cover, slick on the outside, but fatty filler on the inside. Of course, I’m talking about popular, mainstream music.
skeleton key released one of my favorite albums of ’97 with “Fantastic Spikes Through Balloon”, an odd collection of rockers that still manage to follow the verse-chorus-verse tradition. Yes, it is odd! It’s, how you say, ee-cleck-tick! No not eccentric. But yeah, it’s eccentric too. Yet, it’s so catchy! Wow! How did they manage that!
With junk!
That’s how!
skeleton key burst pop music’s bubble with Rick Lee’s junk-playin’ tunefulness. This album is worth checking out for this alone. Here you’ve got a record player playing stones, and a silverware drawer bringing ‘rhythm’ to your ‘Modern Rock’ table. (Hey Carson, “Soup’s On” without the Linkin Bizkit!) An alarm clock’s tick-tock keeps the beat on “Dear Reader”. And it’s a beautiful song at that!
Have you ever laughed and banged your head at the same time? Listen to the rockin’ opener: ‘Watch the Fat Man Swing’. It’s a Primus rocker shakin’ hands with Nevermind-era-Nirvana. And then ‘Wide Open’ rocks even harder than ‘Fat Man’. And it doesn’t matter what sheet of rusted metal Rick is banging against, it fookin rawks! Chris Maxwell’s guitar playing grabs a hold of me more effectively on this track than the first.
rhythm nation: The trembling bass guitar of Erik Sanko is to die for; he brings the urgency of rhythm to each track. As so does Steve Calhoon’s steady drummin’. Rick the junk-player’s performance wouldn’t be as effective without Erik and Steve’s rhythm section. Chris’s Maxwell’s guitar playing sometimes provides the strongest riffs. At other times, it gives us the same atmospheric sounds as Larry LaLonde’s guitar does for Les Claypool’s bass in Primus. Oh yeah, if you love Primus and just love to chant ‘Primus Sucks’, then skeleton key is right down your alley.
Another attention-grabbin’ song is “The Only Useful Word” with it’s 1-ring circus production and 5-ring circus intentions. (Note to author: What the !kcuF) I mean to say that it’s a quirky song that uses a slow tempo bleeding from an old raggedy circus tent from the 50s, but it’s musicianship shines through and the lyrics are brilliant:
“Speak,
and the words cascade
down,
in a drunk parade
of clowns,
where I lead their sad campaign.
The nouns are worthless,
laughed at by the verbs.
Erase the names, the tense has changed . . .
Goodbye is the only useful word.”
(Sung with the Kurdt Cobain Cynicism that we all miss.) You have to hear this song to believe it. The junk-playing is brilliant also (rusty metal never sounded so moving, an out-of-tune guitar never so desperate.)
The vocal positions are shared by all members to exclude Steve The Drummer. He’s too busy back there in his own world. Steve! STEVE! STEPHEN! Yeah, skeleton key keeps him busy alright.
Where are they now?
Rick The Junk Player and Steve The Drummer have since worked with ex-Brainiac guitarist John Schmersal on Enon’s 2000 debut called: Believo!
Erik Sanko has since released his debut solo album “Past Imperfect, Present Tense” (2001). It’s lovely too. If there is an Erik Sanko fan club, sign me up.
Guitarist Chris Maxwell is playing producer for The Lunachicks and They Might Be Giants as well as for acts on his label Binky Records.
As far as I can tell, a skeleton key project lays ahead.
Got one for ya:
Q: What does Snoop-Dog use when he’s doing his laundry?
A: Bleeeeeatch!
Great Music to Play While: Drinking milk and eating Jell-O.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jennifer_nine
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Location: Biloxi MS USA
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Currently writing one hundred reviews.
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