Track Listing

1. Wings a la Mode
2. Killerman Gold Posse
3. Where's the Money?
4. Hai Sai Oji-San
5. Drowned Dog Black Night
6. Surfin' U.S.A.
7. Drumbo Ogie
8. Blind Step Away
9. Second Time
10. Tir-Nan-Darag
11. Disposable Thoughts
12. Bird in God's Garden
13. Same Thing

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #289017 in Music
• Released on: 2000-10-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Album Description
The 1988 debut from the most bizarre supergroup in existence. John French is better known as Drumbo of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, Fred Frith lined up with UK Avant Garde-ists Henry Cow and Slap Happy, Henry Kaiser remains a star of the US Avant Garde scene and Richard Thompson is of course one of the UKs most treasured guitarists and songwriters.

Customer Reviews

A very mixed bag, but entertaining
This is the first of two collaborations between folk/rock guitar legend Richard Thompson, avant-garde guitarist Henry Kaiser and bassist Fred Frith, and former Beefheart drummer John French. While it's not a bad listen, you get the impression that they were throwing things at the recorder to see what would stick. The album is all over the map, going from the frantic and funny "Where's the Money" and a joyously silly "Hai Sai Oji-San" (an Okinawan folk song) directly into "Drowned Dog Black Night", a tremendously depressive song of the type only Thompson can write, and then into a goof on Chuck Berry's "Surfin' USA". My favorite cut is "Bird in God's Garden", a Sufi song given a big assist by Frith's violin playing. Thompson contributes the good but minimalist unrequited-love song "A Blind Step Away" and "Killerman Gold Posse", a ditty about a youth gang that was reprised on the "Mirror Blue" tour. French and Frith also provide a catchy rocker, "The Second Time". There is a cover of Willie Dixon's "The Same Thing" (a LOT of bands I like have covered this one). To keep the album from building any momentum, there is a five-minute drum solo in the middle. Overall, I prefer these guys' second CD, "Invisible Means".