Cannibal Ox-The Cold Vein

January 30, 2009

Cannibal Ox

The Cold Vein (Def Jux 2001)




Sorry for another lapse in action. I am currently finishing a curriculum for an AP course and it has vacuumed all of my free time. I will return this weekend, but I am really posting to ask for requests for re-ups. I am planning on re-ups of Ingram Marshall, Tim Buckley and Beautiful South, but lemme know if any more are broken. In addition, is there any album you would like to see written about here? Leave your requests in the comments and Fumble Bumble will return to grant your wishes.

Patience and Prudence

The Best of Patience and Prudence (Collectors Choice)

Sometimes it is all too easy to embrace unchecked aggression, misanthropic sentiments and general misery instead of something wholly innocent and sweet. God knows that most of my listening habits gravitate towards some of the more unhealthy and damaged sounds of the past few decades. However, there are times when I believe in all that is good on this green earth and invest myself in a record that lazes about in the sweetness and light. I happened upon a going out of business sale at a local record store and the sickly sweet cover of this cd really beckoned to me. Maybe I felt it complemented the holiday scenery and haggard St. Nick that lurked outside its doors, but somehow it felt right to purchase this oddball 50s collection. Kitsch has burned my palms more times than not. If I could get a refund for every ridiculous VHS tape, velvet painting and lp that has wormed its way into my grubby mitts…..well, I could buy a fancy dinner with all the trimmings.

Patience and Prudence were a one-hit wonder of the 50s whose only hit “Tonight You Belong to Me” cracked the top ten. As you can probably infer from the garish caricature adorning the cover, they were a pre-teen sister act that capitalized upon the last gasps of the Pat Boone school of rock. Wholesome tunes may have ruled this slice of American history, but I’ll be damned if their naive yearning for puppy love somehow speaks to the romantic in me. Their aforementioned hit only lasts two minutes, but may be the most compact summation of that moment when you feel the ripplings of your first crush and confuse it for emotions so infinitely vast and lasting. Yes, it is easy to dismiss these early stirrings, but these hormonal percolations are somehow more real than the jaded encounters of today. It reaffirms a faith in love and the belief that your first encounter can toss your heart around like a wiffleball.

Yes, their lyrics about the joys of a new dress and a ribbon in your hair may not resonate in your soul, but the orchestration and heavenly, but clumsy harmonies are a perfect antidote for those nights when life gets utterly complex and muddled. When you feel jaded and even flirtations seem stale, listen to Patience and Prudence and remember that there was a time when most of your daily experiences were virgin territory. Their confections will take you back to time before your heart was scarred and heartbreak only happened in the movies.

Dog Faced Hermans

Hum of Life (Konkurrel/Project A-Bomb 1993)

The embittered old codger in me whines that they just don’t make ’em like this anymore, but the realist in me wholeheartedly believes that the Dog Faced Hermans can never be properly copied or borrowed from in any meaningful way. Although they bore some resemblance to the agitated political punk of the Ex, the band’s scope peered far beyond any stylistic ghetto or singular influence. You were likely to hear strains of improv, 8 Eyed Spy and Ornette Coleman covers, feminist manifestos, wry commentary and rollicking trumpet blasts amidst a more familiar punk framework. Sure, lots of bands have deftly incorporated oodles of tasteful influences into their homebrew, but there was a passion, intelligence and political activism to their music that was alternately raucous, yet thoughtful.

Hum of Life is sadly out of print. It’s a shame that their wonderful, but inferior album on Alternative Tentacles is the only recording that is readily available. Hum of Life is their masterpiece since it encompasses all that I love about this band. I swear some of this reminds me of some bastard child of Klezmer, gypsy music and the Gang of Four/The Ex. Catchy anthems suddenly explode into free-jazz interludes only to see vocalist/trumpeter Marion Coutts take the reins and lead the band into some bizarro surf guitar riffs. I don’t know if I have heard such a stylistic hodgepodge ever sound so cohesive and unique. By all means. their high hopes should result in failure, but every spoken word section, spastic interlude and tender soliloquy reminds me why I obsess over albums that are so utterly transcendent.

There are two songs in particular that excite and haunt me 16 years after I first heard them. The first is “Jan 9” which is an almost sci-fi punk song about the dangers of creationism and fundamentalism as it details a society where science has been subverted by the government in order to establish a society where inquiry is sinful. I always loved the opening lines which describe a world where science is like a fly with its wings cut and left to wander the floor with the rest of us peons.

Jan 9 in future time/the day science clipped its wings/nobody flew/we all stood around/shaking hands on the ground/congratulating ourselves/we could only see the soles of their feet/we thought there were angels up ahead

“Hook and the Wire” is the other masterpiece as it attacks the pro-life movement and paints a picture of a patriarchal society where men carelessly impregnate women and send them off to deal with the hook and the wire. It details a society where abortion is no longer an option and sexual partners coldly banish their love to an alleyway to deal with it themselves. It is a somewhat ironic tale of a world where misogyny and the far right have overtaken our lives and males and enforce self-mutilation is an acceptable solution to a pregnancy. The sad part about both of these tunes is that they don’t seem too far-fetched these days.

Although Mississippi Records reissued a vinyl edition of their first album, the rest deserve your love and attention so some stalwart label can expose more folks to the beauty of their catalogue.


Streethawk: A Seduction (Misra 2001)



