THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282

There is only one proper song taken from the "Mother of All Saints" album, but it is the (a-hem) 7" single version of "Outhouse of the Pyreeeee". This odd song feels really strange to think of as a single of any kind, and this version doesn't really wash out any of the RIO sound from the original at all. Other than this, the tracks that have similar titles to tracks on "Mother of All Saints" (4 tracks) are actually instrumental versions, but the music is still enjoyable and (yes) even odd without vocals. The other three tracks are new tracks.

Even if you already own "Mother of All Saints", this EP is still a must have as it continues on with the wild, dissonant and wacky style of the album. If you don't own it and happen to run into it accidentally like I did, you should get it anyway, especially if you are into crazy avant-garde music. It is a bit noisy, but not in an irritating way, unless you are absolutely anti-pan-head style. If you tend to like only music that centers around the safe and sane progressive styles, then this probably isn't for you. However, if you are adventurous, and you still don't know about this band, then you have something new to explore.

Oh yeah, it's a great EP and now it's finally added to the Archives. I wonder what other wonders are out there that I don't know about?

It's really odd they released this first album in a cassette-only by themselves in a time, when there was still independent companies like SST. Also it's odd Matador didn't release this as an album later, when they become at least popular in US indie music listeners, instead the band released it again as 2LP and CD adding there bonus material. Anyway it's really great they did it, the band was really great already in the beginning! There are not studio information about this album, but I think sounds are quite great in this, also this album hasn't got as much lo-fi stuff as some their later albums.

When there are many tracks, I review album as the 2LP version on each sides. First side mostly includes Beefheart-style stuff with punk attitude. Beautiful exception of this is 'Hell Rules', although it's name it's made with two guitars and bass and some really interesting percussion and has just very beautiful melodic singing. Second side continuing quite the same style, but there are also three very great country-punk songs that reminds a lot Meat Puppets -stuff. Specially instrumental 'Out In the Kitchen' is just great, reminding some Link Wray old stuff. Third side is the most experimental side. Many tracks are instrumental, but there is also really great vocal track 'Get Off My House' that reminds little bit Zappa's Uncle Meat -time music. Last side is bonus side and the most confusing in this album. Songs are recorded between 1986-1989. When I first time heard their 'doom'-version from the Carpenters 'Superstar', I didn't know what to think. On my last listening it worked some very weird way.

Although the mess in last side could put this album into three stars, the original entity is just so great that I have to give this four. This is highly recommended all the Beefheart fans that has nothing against punk aesthetic. I hope this band (and also it's soul mate Trumans Water) will not go into oblivion. This album is quite good starter, if this review woke your interest, but of course it hasn't got yet the full greatness of their masterpiece 'Strangers From the Universe'.

I have to say that I haven't heard much by them before I played this EP for the first time. There are only 4 songs on here, so I figured I wouldn't be out much if I didn't like them. When the album finished, all I wanted was to hear more. Now I wish this EP was longer than it is, and because of this EP, I will be looking into their music a lot more.

It starts off with the longest track at over 6 minutes, and initially, it starts with a typical guitar strum/riff that sounds Alternative. This lasts for a total of two bars. Suddenly, dissonance comes in and it makes your ears immediately perk up. It only gets better when the vocals start, totally not the norm. The song continues with interchanging instrumental breaks and vocals. it almost sounds like it is going to go into post rock territory, but then it doesn't. There is a great bass riff, then guitars crash in, sounding like they are being tortured, but not to the point of being obnoxious. As it continues, you know you are in different territory and totally atypical. Dissonance and melodic at the same time.

Next up is "Undertaker" which starts out with two guitars totally in sync and totally out of tune with each other. This turns into Primus style chaos as other instruments join in. But the drums sound like something out of the Violent Femmes catalogue. And the voice is incredible when he does the falsetto thing totally out of nowhere. The guitar break is excellent. The chaos ensues. "Million Dollars" is more mellow, and the singing is underwhelming, but that is what makes this track so great. You know, the same way that Velvet Underground was so intriguing. But then out of nowhere, a strung out guitar riff that just doesn't belong, yet it really does. The harmonies also sound like they were half-baked, which is so awesome. It's all kind of funny but serious at the same time.

The last track is "Father". This starts out really strange and out there, the singing is totally off like it's supposed to be. I thought this was just a little over the top in weirdness when I first heard it, but now I really appreciate it. Then there is a mid- tempo standard rhythm going on which makes absolutely no sense with anything else. Before that wears itself out, things slow down a bit and there are some really dissonant and cool harmonies. Then what sounds like a banjo comes out of nowhere.

I know all of this sounds strange, but it is so great. It is considered Noise Rock or Avant Prog. I don't know about the noise part, at least on this EP, but there are definitely some "not-normal" harmonies and "way-out-there" things going on here. Nothing, except for the first few seconds, is normal about this. Yet it is a lot more listenable than you might think. This is one EP and one band that definitely needs to be investigated. A good way to try them out is through an EP, then you are not out much if you don't like it. But, it's that kind of practice that has helped me find some great talent, like this band, hat I want to hear more from. It's a shame they haven't done a lot lately. 4 stars, and it would have probably been 5 stars if it wasn't so short.

As a quick introduction for those unfamiliar with this band, they were a five-piece band from the 1990s that seemed a part of the "indie" or "college rock" scene, but were so original and avant-garde oriented that they really didn't sit well in anyone's company, save maybe extreme weirdos like the Sun City Girls (with whom they occasionally toured). Still, they're essentially a rock band, and if you like guitars you're in for a treat, because they have three of them, acting independently but together, creating strange interlocking riffs and dissonant chords that they somehow turn into hooks. They also tended to play a lot of additional random instruments like violins and trumpets and stuff. They all composed together, probably just sitting in a room together and saying, "let's see what it sounds like if we do this".

Back to the album at hand. It's pretty amazing, in that they managed to combine the virtues of their two best albums (Mother of All Saints and Strangers from the Universe) into a single album: the mad whimsy of the former paired with the clear recording and detailed arrangements of the latter. In fact, the first three songs, "Another Clip", "Sno Cone", and "Holy Ghost" are as gripping and complex as anything they've ever done. If the album had kept up this level of invention, it could have easily been their best album. All three are highly melodic, yet incorporate abrupt changes in mood and tempo, and make the most of the three guitars, squeezing several different sounds apiece out of them, crafting complex 3-6 minute progressive mini-epics. Unfortunately, the remainder of the album never quite hits those heights again, although there aren't any true duds on here either. "Everything's Impossible" is a delicate piece with chiming guitars and piano and gentle drum rolls. "You in a Movie" has interesting bits but suffers from repetition, "In the Stars I Can Sizzle Like a Battery" is nearly undone by an annoying vocal effect, but is a cool (albeit in a weird way) song apart from that. "El Cerrito" fleshes out a decent song first presented on Mother of All Saints. The album finishes strong with "The Barker", a multifaceted rocker like the opening cuts, and "He Keeps Himself Fed", a sludgy river of harmonized guitar fuzz, a pretty new guitar effect for them (also heard briefly in "You in a Movie"), before giving way to a lengthy, quiet closing section ending the album on a mysterious note.

Unfortunately, this ended up being their final album, but it ends their career on a high note. Not consistent across the board, but very well recorded, and featuring some of their strongest material. Avant rock fans who haven't heard them should give them a try, and this album wouldn't be a bad place to start - then move backwards.

To begin with, "Sister Hell" is a fantastic opener, with its sinister yet comical shuffling riff and really cool shouted chorus. "Change Your Mind", my favorite track here, also pushes some funny buttons. The main section of the song resembles one of Beefheart's more normal instrumentals (e.g. Semi-Multicolored Caucasian), with a light, almost indifferent shuffle, accompanied by plaintively sung nonsense lyrics. And then the music stops suddenly, interrupted by a couple of unaccompanied lines of screamed lyrics that have me rolling on the floor every time. The song then enters another wacky (different) shuffle section, interrupted again by more screamed lyrics. DC al Coda, and we're done. One of the most bizarrely delightful wack jobs in their discography.

The remainder of the songs are good too, just not the creative melodic powerhouses that I'm accustomed to hearing from this band. They were still developing their writing skills at this point, though their ensemble sound is already gelling into something really original and exciting.

"My Pal the Tortoise" kicks things off with a friendly quirky pop vibe, building the song out of a series of dissonant guitar licks and a comical vocal. "Socket" brings out the twisted Magic Band guitar mazes, a variety of guitar sounds, and a rather surprising instrumental middle section. "Hundreds of Years" is a gentle tapestry of clean guitar lines supporting a tender vocal, but again, jarring surprises lurk within, including a dizzying section of trilling guitars giving the sensation of bees buzzing around. "Guillotine" is a droning funeral march, swelling into a thick fog of sound. "February" offers some really fluid guitar runs in an odd yet catchy song. "Cup of Dreams" is a woozy melanchoic shoegaze number with a Mellotron intro and oddly juxtaposing Residents-like vocals throughout. "The Operation" is a completely bizarre piece of creepiness, with several very dissonant clusters working together to make a compelling song. "The Piston and the Shaft" is the most normal song on here, a playfully mellow musing on the topic of sex and lust, with a stirring harmonized chorus that gives me chills. And finally, "Noble Experiment" acts as a lullabye for the human race, ending the album on a gentle yet sinister note.

Each of these songs are creatively written, flawlessly executed, and reveal new details on every listen. It's as perfect as this band got -- even the little instrumental interludes (the "Feller Filler") serve their roles well as little breathers between the uniformly outstanding main songs. Some may miss the psychotic messiness of Mother of All Saints, but I for one am glad the Fellers dropped a little bit of the whimsical craziness to concentrate their offbeat talents into one seamless knockout album. My highest recommendation.

My absolute favorite here, and possibly my favorite TFUL282 song of all, "Sinking Boats". A distant vocal shouted through a megaphone sits atop a thundering rhythm of guitars and drums, playing a simple riff punctuated by little clangy guitar licks. Two verses of this, then WHOA! the song is somewhere else entirely, a quiet foreboding section of throbbing bass and plucked guitar notes. A few measures of this, and then a loud, dissonant riff (probably handled by at least 2 guitars playing different things) comes in. This pattern is repeated a couple of more times, the song stops dead, and then back into the thundering rhythms of the first song before coming to an abrupt end. Total time, just under 5 minutes.

I'm not a bad writer by any means, but that last paragraph just doesn't describe the experience that well. It's hard to put into words. I think the experience can be summed up better by two thoughts that some to mind: "How do they make guitars sound like that?" and "What possessed them to write that?"

The album has several similarly "whoa" tracks, but also contains its fair share of "Feller Filler", little teeny random snippets of rehearsal tapes usually highlighting a unique sound they happened upon. These are fairly disposable, but they do give their albums their own special character. There's also a sequence of extra non-LP tracks at the end (collectively called "The Crowded Diaper", a name I absolutely love), which are basically throwaways.

My third favorite Fellers album, some of their finest music and the first full flowering of their genius.