FEATURED CD - Jason Willett / Ron Anderson : Be The First On The Block To Eat The Sna

[Duncan Glenday]

In another thread...

Just for grins, the next featured CD will be one that I hated, and slammed with one of the very few negative reviews I ever wrote.

Some will love the music, others will agree with my take. Either way it should be an interesting thread.

Here it is.

By all reports the artists were having a wild, fun time while recording this, so I had an equally wild, fun time with a snarky review. IN FAIRNESS ... if I were reviewing the album today I would not be so negative. There is an audience for this ... it just isn't me. And there are gems to be found here.

And full credit to the artist(s) - they published my review on their web site, and parts of it are still up there.

The first impression you get after the opening tracks of Be The First On the Block to Eat The Snake is that it sounds like moderately talented teenagers screwing around in a pot-induced orgy of silliness.

Then you listen more closely and you wonder: Is it unfair to call them 'moderately talented'? Ron Anderson alone has over 40 albums in his long resume. So it's probably a safe bet that the man is very talented, but after listening to this album you could be excused for questioning that assumption. He's worked with acts called RonRuins, PAK, the Molecules and Breast Fed Yak, and has produced several solo albums. He's known as a guitarist, yet the album's liner notes credit him with bass, guitar, vocals, organ, trumpet, synthesizer, drums … and the list goes on. His lead guitar work occasionally sounds a bit Hendrix-like.

Jason Willett founded Megaphone Limited Records, and plays with Jad Fair. According to the liner notes he contributed drums, percussion, vocals, organ, piano, trumpet, banjo, guitar … and half the instruments in creation.

And if these credits make them sound like multi-talented multi-instrumentalists, be warned – it sounds like they took their instruments and manually beat them against a wall in a sort of syncopated rhythm while Jason's duck waddled across the piano. Ron's web site describes him as a guitarist who "…also will use anything that can make a sound…". That is very apparent.

The cover art shows a badly focused close-up photograph of a hand holding a snake with an unnatural looking tongue. There's no clarity about what the album title means, and the tracks have titles like "Hot Spit from A Ckllalglyhiix" , "Chickadickadiackadeeoh" and Floppy Zingtoo" There are 20 tracks spread across 42 minutes of sonic dissonance liberally punctuated with ducks and cats and weird vocal effects, and only the percussion seems to maintain some sort of relative consistency.

So you listen to it again and again and you let the whole thing sink in, and after repeated listens, your impression is … it still sounds like moderately talented teenagers screwing around in a pot-induced orgy of silliness. Recommended for spaced-out teens, or for aficionados of extremely avant garde noise-rock who will seek out and appreciate the hidden gems in this recording.

http://www.seaoftranquility.org/revi...ontent&id=1089

No YouTube videos found.

There's an MP3 here : http://www.thetruevinerecordshop.com...0snake%203.mp3

And this Amazon page lets you play samples : http://www.amazon.com/Be-First-Block...=Jason+Willett

[battema]

Meh...Ron Anderson is decent enough, but I prefer him in his old band Why Not. The creative interplay between Mel Howe, Bob Squire and Ron Anderson was what made that band click.

[Morpheus]

Not familiar with this one, but PAK is awesome and The Molecules had some cool stuff.

[Brad to the Bone]

Never heard of this but like that first online sample. I have one PAK album - a trio with Nonoko Yoshida and Tatsuya Yoshida - which is awesome. And I met Jason Willett briefly at his record store in Baltimore but had never heard any of his music.

[Scrotum Scissor]

The Molecules were quite interesting, and I like the RonRuins releases as well - but PAK are awesome, and Motel especially. Hypercharged, progressive neo-hardcore punk, I gather. There's some incredible stuff on Secret Curve as well, although it's arguably more of a "composer's" craft and less of a band feel to that.

Haven't heard the title in question here, though.

[Morpheus]

The above mentioned PAK album with Tatsuya Yoshida is good too, though not as great as Motel and Secret Curve