IDIOT FLESH

While often considered Mr Bungle copycats, it should be inculcated into all that these guys started in the mid-80s, a few years before Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn had even started their primeval sounding death metal demos. Although now considered a three album lead up to the other trilogy of albums that would be released by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, this band was in a whole other league in regards to how much effort they put into their albums and live performances. On the performance art side of things, the live settings featured puppet shows, fire eaters, dance troupes and even marching bands.

After all that it seems the studio albums were just the excuse to get the party started but even these albums were just crazy to the hilt with every idea including the kitchen sink thrown into the mix. Hell, there may have even been a kitchen sink turned instrument in this wild bunch! FANCY was the third and arguable most developed of the three IDIOT FLESH releases and came out in 1997, two years before the first Sleepytime Gorilla Museum would emerge and really catch the world's attention. More then just a prequel to the next incarnation of Frykdahl and Rathbun's crazed whims turned into art, FANCY featured 13 crazed tracks that defied all logic, all sensibilities and even to this day will only appeal to the most adventurous and open-minded music addicts of the lot, of which i am one!

This album often gets tagged as disjointed and there's great reason for that. Every track is like a hairpin turn on a musical rollercoaster ride taking you somewhere completely unexpected. Think of this as a musical funhouse at an amusement park for musicians and you will have an inkling what to expect. Far less focused and more scattered than anything the Sleepytimes conjured up, this truly is some of the most demanding musical expression laid down to tape but oh my gawd! it's just soooooo damn clever! The album starts with the beginning of a party coalescing in the form of "Dead Like Us" which quickly is joined by a marching band and is pretty much a loose scattering of participants randomly making noise and chatting up a storm. The music sort of unifies everyone but it's a party after all and sorta like herding cats.

The seriousness of the album starts with "Idiot Song" which presents a more familiar trademark of Frykdahl, the catchy melodic tune accompanied by extremely complex and oft dissonant guitar work. Going for the avant-prog jugular the music is cacophonous roar of staccato instrumentation with cartoonish instruments punctuating the off-kilter time signatures and then everyone breaks out into a sing-along chorus that sounds like one of those rides at Disneyland only with mad music makers deviating from the scripts! "Teenage Devil Worshipper" offers a post-punk-ish sorta energy but fortified with a bouncy beat where the guitar is basically part of the percussion. It's a group effort and has a bit of a Tim Burton Halloween-ish strangeness to it.

And things just get weirder! "Chicken Little" begins like a 20th century modern classical piece with an abstract flute slowly coalescing a melody from the ethers while unidentifiable percussive instruments join in. This track prognosticates the direction Frykdahl and Rathbun would take with the Sleepytime project just a couple years down the line. In fact it very well could be an early working of one of those later tracks as it features bizarre Iannis Xenakis stochastic leaning and those classic SGM time signature breakdowns. This particular track takes the avant-prog angularities to outstanding creative peaks and showcases these guys as ready to take the act to the next level. They even manage to take it into a country hoedown and and avant-Irish jig :D

"Twitch" takes the time signature workouts to a new level with crazy guitar, bass and drum parts battling it out in bizarre ways. One of the more aggressive tunes on board and another that points to the SGM future. "Drowning" might be the most "normal" track on board with an easily absorbed melody in the form of arpeggiated guitars like an 80s metal ballad but given the IDIOT FLESH circus touch and features one of the only guitar solos on the record and it's a doozy! Virtuosity and freakery all rolled into one tasty enchilada! "Mother[%*!#]er" unleashes another torrent of bizarre shapeshifting motifs ranging from crazy avant-prog to crazed chamber rock to funk rock and an ever morphing musical parade that doesn't stop there. One of the weirdest and diverse tracks on the album, that's for sure ; )

And what better way to follow super weird than by a Residents cover song? Now who the hell does that? "Bach Is Dead" appeared on the 1978 "Duck Stab / Buster & Glen" album and IDIOT FLESH nails it remaining extremely faithful to the original. "Diggity Cow And The Dandy Mr. Clyde" as you may have predicted takes you somewhere totally new. Now Frykdahl is singing to a piano run with audience sounds in the background so i guess he's performing at a FANCY restaurant? The piano is out of tune and the audience isn't paying attention so i guess this is some kind of statement about how this avant-garde weirdness mostly falls on deaf ears.

Next up "The Straw" jumps back to flute dominated avant-prog but then gestates into a style that sounds the most like what Sleepytime Gorilla Museum would dish out on their three albums, namely cleverly arranged compositions that cover all grounds: melody, rhythm, avant-garde strangeness and the ability to surprise without losing the gist. All it's missing is Carla Kihlstedt's distinct violin contributions and the metal guitar heft otherwise SGM material. It's also the longest track at just under 11 minutes. By now it's obvious that only the unexpected should be expected on FANCY and the IDIOT FLESH guys throw us yet another curveball with "Cheesus (Dance Mix)" which is a mock radio commercial. This hilarious track is more like something you'd find on a National Lampoon's Radio Hour scenario.

"People In Your Neighborhood" is a mock song of the classic Sesame Street song only this one celebrates the world of pimps and crack addicts! The track takes some liberties by not only using the actually melody but breaks into a Parliament style P-Funk sound. The album ends with a reprise of "Dead Like Us" which brings the album full circle. A very demented circle that is. This album is just plain nuts as well as the end of the road for IDIOT FLESH. While not quite as world class material as what would emerge in the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum albums, IDIOT FLESH really went for the experimental freak show jugular with this one. So many styles and ideas are tackled on this album that it's impossible to convey them all in writing. Just the list of instrumentation and actors on this stage will blow you mind.

While Gene Jun would jump ship, Dan Rathbun and Nils Frykdahl would soon join forces with Acid Rain member David Shamrock, violinist Carla Kihlstedt from Frykdahl's other project Charming Hostess as well as Miatthias Bossi and Michael Mellender. Together they would take many of the sounds heard on this album and make it all more cohesive. Sure this album is extremely disjointed but that's exactly the point! This is the musical equivalent of riding a wild fast-paced roller coaster throughout a colorful amusement park with a soundtrack for every hairpin turn. This is the best of the IDIOT FLESH releases and for those who can handle the most extremes music has to offer, they will looooooove this one to death. I only wish i could've seen this performed in a live setting because all of this music magic is just half of the equation.

Yeah, the crazed antics excelled big time and it's not hard to imagine why once you experience the leap in ingenuity crafted on the band's second album THE NOTHING SHOW. While the funk rock is still a key ingredient in crafting the basis of many of the 13 tracks, the band feels less compelled to stick to any particular anchoring protocol and pretty much cut their ties to reality and like a helium balloon drifted into a world of its own making. Clearly inspired by the freedom seeking artists ranging from Frank Zappa to Primus, IDIOT FLESH was more akin to the zany antics of Mr Bungle however this band preceded them by several years but due to the greater success of the Bunglers often gets accused of ripping them off. But the music of IDIOT FLESH is nothing like Mr Bungle save the use of funk rock as heard on the Bungler's first album.

The music of IDIOT FLESH is more akin to a schizoid Vaudville show gone very, very wrong. In fact the music itself sounds like an exaggerated form of the most crazed moments of Tom Waits than anything Mike Patton and company pulled out of their hats. While the album may sound a bit unfocused and rampantly meandering from one corner of the music world to the next, that is both its boon and its bane. This is psycho music and it may require some reorienting your expectations and comfort zone to really let it sink in. In fact the first couple of times i've experienced THE NOTHING SHOW i didn't really like it at all. It's all so convoluted with Broadway-like tunes one moment, funk metal the next and then off to some bizarre musical expressions that defy all classification. It's a lot to take in which was indeed the point of these musical maestros. They simply wanted to bombard you with so many unexpected stimuli that you could not help but react.

The album does come off as some kind of stage musical with an army of musicians to indulge every whimsy that fancied the creative fertile minds involved. Everything about THE NOTHING SHOW is absolutely nuts. Absolutely nothing is even remotely commercial or digestible for that matter. This album was designed to be abrasive and alienating however if you crave some the most daring and outlandish musical expressions to be heard, then this is definitely your ticket to insane asylum music! Not quite to the level of refinement of the future Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, THE NOTHING SHOW is several steps up from its predecessor. Here at least ideas are organized into recognizable patterns even if improv liberties are strewn about willy nilly. The avant-funk-punk with elements of circus music and marching band antics showcase an entirely new style of taking the funk rock / metal craze of the 1980s and torpedoing it into the world of unhinged avant-garde.

The tracks are just tighter and the confidence level is so high that everyone involved poured their heart and soul into the freakfest that was THE NOTHING SHOW. In addition to the now familiar guitar, bass, drums and occasional saxophone sounds, IDIOT FLESH had uncovered an arsenal of alternative instruments in the form of not only a slew of percussion but by adding yellow, trombone, flute and other sounds such as the saw blade. The progressive time signature weirdness was had also become more demented with brutal prog outbursts carpet bombing the soundscape. As far as the psycho troupe's motto "Rock Against Rock" in that aspect they're totally killing it here almost single handedly crafting a new branch of avant-garde extremism with this single album.

Probably way too weird for many and also most likely more effective with the live props however THE NOTHING SHOW is more like "Everything And The Kitchen Sink" which in that regard was a very Bungle-esque thing to entertain however IDIOT FLESH was its own artistic entity having a history of excess to draw upon. This Oakland based outfit had a history of California craziness to draw upon whether it be the crazed live shows of The Tubes and early Oingo Boingo, the avant-funk rule breakers Primus or the unclassifiable Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. Part funk rock, part math rock, part psycho punk, part circus barker and 100% nuts, IDIOT FLESH certainly delivered an album nobody was expecting. Overall a really good if difficult listening experience however one of my major gripes about some of these psycho albums of the 90s was that they liked to insert long pauses and silence between tracks and i absolutely hate that! Otherwise, a triumph of freedom at all expenses avant-garde madness here.

IDIOT FLESH took everything laid out in the Acid Rain demos and made it even more whacky. First of all Frykdahl and Rathbun joined forces with Gene Jun (guitar, vocals), Daniel Roth (piano, tax, drums, metal percussion) and Chuck Squier (drums) to create a larger than life band sound rather than a trio of crazy musicians going absolutely nuts. This official debut was also the turning point where the band became more theatrical and began implementing everything from marching band routines, puppet shows and the playing of household items as instruments.

The band adopted the slogan "rock against rock" which was aimed at the commercial nature of where most rock music had gone. TALES was a clear middle finger to the music industry with an avant-discordant blend of funk rock, avant-prog, Eastern European folk music, opera and even a touch of metal at times. Sounding something in the line of fellow Bay Area band Nuclear Rabbit or the debut album from Mr Bungle who they often get accused of sounding like, it should be remembered that as Acid Rain, Frykdahl and Rathbun were already conjuring up strange funk rock based avant-prog as far back as 1985 before Mr Bungle and similarly minded bands even existed.

While not as sophisticated as the following two IDIOT FLESH releases, TALES more than makes up for any fine-tuning of compositional fortitude with spontaneous eruptions of passionate punkish creativity. The main style in play is funk rock which acts as the canvass upon which to pain a colorful surrealist portrait of various moods and styles. While the avant-prog wizardry isn't as prevalent as it is on future releases or as heard in the perfection of the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum releases, on TALES the oddball time signature deviations often occur as unexpected hairpin turns into the very weird much in the vein of classic Zappa at his most wild and unruly.

The band was eccentric in every way in how it dressed, in how it performed and of course in its musical maelstrom potpourri of strange twisted ideas run amok. In addition the band adopted crazy pseudonyms such as Captain Dragon (Gene Jun), The Improver (Dan Rathbun), Pin (Nils Frykdahl), a trait that would remain with all future members of the band. A wild and unhinged album, TALES OF INSTANT KNOWLEDGE AND SURE DEATH showcases the unbridled passion of all the musicians on board with no time to employ the brakes for any reason. This is a let it all out sorta release with one bizarre twist and turn after another. You really can't predict anything that happens on this one. It even ends with a weird noise segment that leaves your nerves more tattered than before. This is for the hardcore crowds only.

There were two releases under the ACID RAIN moniker but given the rarity of their cassette-only status, this one usually gets left out of the mix. The promotional demo "We Were All Very Worried" was the first offering which featured a very primitive SGM sound with experimental guitar riffs and avant-prog workouts with fast tempos but overall a more straight forward rock sound than anything that followed. The cassette maxed out the running time of cassettes when released in 1987 with 14 tracks that swallowed up almost 76 minutes of playing time but overall was still very far from what Idiot Flesh and SGM would progress to.

This second release THE RITE OF SPRING came out three years later, also as a cassette-only release but upped the ante in just about every way making it a very obvious early offering of the Idiot Flesh club which ceded into SGM. Yes, the title refers to Igor Stravinsky's classical hit "The Rite Of Spring" and is a bizarre and twisted avant-prog interpretation done to perfection! While the band's first offering was a guitar-driven experimental rock album with scatterings of time signature freak outs and weirdness, THE RITE OF SPRING takes rock the classics to avant-prog paradise! This is the most jittery spastic interpretation of a classical piece i've ever heard and it's a wild ride that takes you where the original composer never imagined! It's utterly brilliant. Imagine the most avant-prog laced passages of SGM and you'll get the picture.

The title track swallows up 18 minutes of this 24 minute release with the second track "Gelatinous Love of Goats" providing somewhat of a come down from rising from the altitude sickness experienced from the title track taking you so far out of the realms of 80s rock music. This second track is much more "normal" and sounds like a Jimi Hendrix inspired post-punk track with some funk that reminds me a bit of 80s Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's obvious that this was probably one of the very first tracks the band ever recorded and probably predated the debut demo release "We Were All Very Worried" which it sounds more like. It is the most primitive sounding track of any of the three bands that Frydahl and Rathbun piloted.

This is amongst the rarest of the rare and it's doubtful few if any heard this before the age of YouTube however this is a must for hardcore fans interested in the earliest offerings of one of avant-prog metal's strangest and most ingenious teams of freak-a-zoids. Somebody really needs to remaster these already and put it all out on CD. I really want to have a physical copy of both ACID RAIN releases. This particular release is proof that Sleepytime Gorilla Museum really existed in the 1980s and that this duo just hadn't quite realized it yet. Sure the arsenal of self-made instrumentation is nowhere to be heard but the creativity was already firing on all pistons this far back. This is difficult listening music so those who are addicted to safe cuddly melodies best stay clear!

4.5 rounded down

WE WERE ALL VERY WORRIED was the very first official release of the ACID RAIN / Idiot Flesh / Sleepytime Gorilla Museum continuum although in demo form. The band started out as the mere trio of Frydahl, Rathbun and Shamrock and this first offering was nothing more than a rare cassette-only promotional demo that sounded more like the post-death metal offerings of Mr Bungle than anything that would emerge in the very near future. Supposedly a prior demo called "Drip" was unleashed but it seems nobody has heard it therefore we'll count this one as the official debut of the ingenious collaborative efforts of Frydahl and Rathbun.

At this point ACID RAIN was going for broke and getting the total playing time that a cassette release had to offer at the time. Featuring 14 tracks, WE WERE ALL VERY WORRIED will swallow up nearly 76 minutes of your precious life span but guess what. It's all so very worth it! Yeah early demos by artists can vary in terms of quality with the vast majority sucking big time but in the case of ACID RAIN, this is simply amazing! It was clear from the getgo that the experimental antics of Frydahl and Rathbun were like an alchemic reaction that turned lead into gold. The chemistry these partners in crime have maintained for nearly 40 years is nothing less than miraculous.

While nowhere as developed as the future releases, WE WERE ALL VERY WORRIED was as close to a "normal" release that ACID RAIN / Idiot Flesh / SGM continuum would release with the second "The Rite of Spring" demo quickly advancing. Sounding somewhat like an experimental avant-garde version of 80s Red Hot Chili Peppers, these early recordings range from somewhat standard funk rock and metal to full on avant-prog attacks. Many of the tracks simply start out as an 80s funk rock standard and then morph bizarrely into avant-prog juggernauts. There are many hairpin turns and occasional unexpected references to pop songs from the past. There are even a few moments of the avant-prog splendor that would fully gel on the trilogy of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum albums that would haunt the early 2000s. Add some folk, jig music and whatever and the party's one!

This demo is kinda all over the place with even a live track called "Stinking Hippie" inserted in the middle sounding a bit like a funky Grateful Dead and then the track "Acid Rain" sounding like a future SGM styled composition. Some of these were most likely reworked big time for the future projects. There are also moments where a violin appears from nowhere as well as other small inklings of where ACID RAIN would end up 15 years down the road. This is really a potpourri of experimental rock and avant-prog that will please any fans of Idiot Flesh and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. While not as polished or dramatic as the future incarnations, this debut ACID RAIN makes up for it in sheer audacity and youthful exploration. This is so much better than i ever couldn't imagined. It's as fun as the most zany Frank Zappa album and as musically competent as anything Gentle Giant cranked out albeit in scattered doses.

Anyway, this is still a great album, especially considering it is their debut album. This one is quite quirky with sudden changes in tempo, meter, vocal styles, moods and melodies throughout. If you are familiar with SGM's music, then you will know what you will be getting into here, just with less intensity and a bit less stability. The music is crazy and fun, yet it is very inventive and extremely progressive. Plus, the band actually sounds like it is have fun doing this. This album is not quite as good as their last album "Fancy" and not as great as the SGM albums, but it is still a fun listen. Just be warned that it is quite quirky and all over the place. Those that love the odd Avant Garde music of bands like Mr. Bungle and such will love this. I'm not going to try to describe it, just expect more funk and less heaviness than SGM. You have to hear it to believe it.

This music is everything you would expect from SGM plus more zaniness and completely out of the box music. Think along the lines of SGM without borders....more like Mr. Bungle. I don't understand why when people talk about Mike Patton's style of music, that this band isn't even mentioned. Not that they are a cheap imitation. They are the embodiment of the perfection of schizo-music. This is pure RIO or avant garde music, though somewhat on the heavy side, but maybe not as metal sounding as SGM. You'll understand when you hear pretty much every type of music in some form or another. Yet even though this album runs the gamut of every genre of music known to man, it still comes across as being organized, it's not a mish mash of ideas, these are tight compositions made by a bunch of genius musicians. Pretty much all of the members of the band are multi-instrumentalists, and they use their talents to the extreme here. I think everything including the kitchen sink gets played as an instrument here.

Nils vocals are amazing and if there is a lead singer here, I guess it would be him, but apparently everyone in the band sings. The vocals are very much similar to SGM as you would expect, thick and almost guttural but broken up by the band. And there are many, many times when the whole hellish choir of a band sings together. Because this is more than a concept album. This is an event. And apparently that is true if you have been lucky enough to attend one of their shows.

So, what stands out most of all on this album? Well the 1st track introduces the craziness you are about to hear with a march style song that reminds you of a procession of lunatics, or idiots. Then "Idiot Song" comes along and you know by that song just what you are in for. Just try to explain it or analyze it. You could write a book about everything that is going on here. "Chicken Little" is a 9+ minute rendering of the famous children's story. Just to prove that this isn't just a bunch of strange people making silly music, they use quotations (or bits and pieces) of modern- classical composers throughout this song, namely Bela Bartok (a favorite of Frank Zappa by the way), Pierre Boulez, and Iannis Xenakis who are all credited on the song. The song basically tells the story in it's schizoid kind of way following the traditional story except the sky falls in the end.

Also, "Bach is Dead" is a short cover from none other than The Residents, another band known for it's zaniness and avant garde style. Of course, this is Idiot Flesh's way of paying homage to them. You also get their version of the Sesame Street classic "People in Your Neighborhood" done in their own manner as a skit/song. Another long track is "The Straw" which uses the poetry of "The Hollow Men" from T.S. Elliot. This is a mostly heavy track, but don't expect anything normal here. There is a lot of pulling every instrument involved to it's extreme use.

This is by every means a prog-rock masterpiece, especially as an avant-prog album. The meters are all over the place, constantly changing within songs, but this all works together because these songs are carefully constructed and organized, so if you fear listening to this because of aimlessness or no direction, then let your fears be forgotten. This is good stuff especially for lovers of quirkiness, humor in music, and ingenuity. How is it that this album is pretty much unheard of? This is a 5 star masterpiece and deserves to be placed alongside any of Mike Patton's best.

This debut is also funky a lot, using strong bass line (as showed in Housewife.

For example Heavy Metal Beer means Brian May like guitar solos doing weird melody together with mumbled chantings and Heavy sounds in general.

Sounds here are more aggressive (I suppose), Get Floor would be prime example, but many others too.

But it's not bad album and I quite like it to be honest, not exactly sure why because it's quite straightforward album.

4(-), to be exact.

First few songs are disappointment, they don't show much and when they do, it's boring and too repetitive. Where "Fancy" was innovative, "Nothing Show" is lazy and greedy to offer something interesting. There is even rapping featured, I'm not sure if it's intended to shock, or it's just there because they felt it's a good thing. I don't like it so I'll pass.

Boring to be honest, even "Fancy" shows repetitive elements too, it uses them more cleverly, in a way it is good to listen.

Second part (roughly, starting after blank Mouth is far better and gives much needed variety, crazy element (not stoned repeating that is supposed to be fun, but it isn't - I'm all for repeating, when it's done in a right way). Weird factor is graduating.

But overall simply isn't as attractive as their last album which I see as their best.

3(+), not as good as their last album, but for some it may be interesting for some.