Fishbone is the kind of band that deserved a better hand than
\nthey were dealt. After scoring a blip on the musical radar with
\nsongs like “Party At Ground Zero,” “Skankin’ To The Beat” (which
\nwas featured in the movie
\nSay Anything<\/i>) and “Sunless Saturday,” the group seemed to
\ndisappear back into obscurity. I remember listening to the CD
\nGive A Monkey A Brain\u2026<\/i>from 1993, and thinking this
\nstuff was pure genius.<\/p>\n
Yet the group — featuring original members Angelo Moore,
\nNorwood Foster and “Dirty” Walt Kibby III (who has since left the
\ngroup, along with guitarist Spacey T) — has trudged forward,
\ntrying to re-establish themselves among the industry. Their
\nsessions in 2001 at Hen House Studios were captured on film as
\nFishbone went through a re-evaluation process of themselves as a
\nband, and came up with some incredible music.
\nCritical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions<\/i> captures the
\nband as they go through the aches and pains of this re-adjustment,
\nas well as candid interviews with members of the band.<\/p>\n
Full disclosure alert: Apparently, Fishbone had not agreed to
\neither have the full songs from these sessions released or an
\nentire documentary on their experience at Hen House released.
\nFishbone has officially distanced themselves from this release.<\/p>\n
Memo to Fishbone: With all due respect, I’d advise you to
\nswallow your pride and reconsider. Watching the band go through the
\ncreative process was a fascinating experience, warts and all, and
\nmade me question just why Fishbone never became a bigger success.
\nIf more people were turned onto songs like “In The Heat Of Angrrr,”
\n“Frayed Fucking Nerve Ending” and “Premadawnutt,” consumers would
\nbe beating down the doors of major labels demanding that Fishbone
\nbe given a second, fighting chance.<\/p>\n
While not nearly as cathartic as Metallica’s recent experience
\nas captured on
\nSome Kind Of Monster<\/i> (which I should be getting from Netflix
\nin the next few days, thank you), Moore and crew do deal with
\nstylistic disagreements as they fine-tune the six songs presented
\nhere. It is interesting to see Foster try to explain to Moore why
\nusing a theremin on a specific song may not be the wisest choice,
\nas Moore struggles to get the notes just right. However, scenes
\nlike this never become ugly; if anything, the friendships and music
\nbecome tighter.<\/p>\n
And this is where
\nCritical Times<\/i> has its greatest strength. Fishbone’s music
\nalways seems like it’s a party teetering on the brink of losing any
\nsemblance of control. What I learned in the course of 80-plus
\nminutes is that Fishbone puts a lot of work into crafting that
\nsound, and it is not without blood, sweat and tears. In the end,
\nthough, the final result is well worth it.<\/p>\n
Complaints? I have but one — namely, that the full versions of
\nthese songs aren’t featured. Granted, the songs were basically in
\n“demo mode,” and I need some incentive to head over to Best Buy and
\ndemand that they order some of these discs for me. But if these
\nfeatured songs were merely demos, I shudder to imagine how much
\npower the final versions have.<\/p>\n
While I respect that Fishbone should have the final say on how
\ntheir music is released,
\nCritical Times<\/i> is too good of a documentary to be merely
\nswept under the carpet. If it had painted the band in a negative
\nlight, I’d understand some hostility towards it. This, however, is
\nthe kind of musical document that, in a fair world, would give
\nFishbone another shot at the spotlight. Here’s hoping they get that
\nchance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7112],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38240","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fishbone","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38240"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38240"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}