Saturday, June 27, 2009

King Missile - They

Hay, remember when King Missile wasn't just an innocuous novelty act?
I don't.
In fact, I don't even remember when King Missile was just an innocuous novelty act. Hell, "Detachable Penis" debuted when I was friggin' 4 - a time when the horror of misplacing my genitals could have permanently damaged my psyche. I didn't have 22 dollars to save my life, let alone 17 to toss around into the red for the return of my manhood. Some people could've put a lot of pressure on me to get it permanently attached, but I wouldn't know - even though sometimes it could be a pain in the ass -
I could've liked having a detachable penis.
DUNT DUNT DUNT DUNT DUNT DUN
DUNT DUNT DUNT DUNT DUN DUN
DETACHABLE PEEEEEEEEENIIIS
DUNT DUNT DUNT DUNT DUN

etc.

Seriously though, the last significant mainstream movement fizzed out when I was entering Kindergarten. I never "lost my hero", and not surprisingly, never felt any attachment to a genre based primarily on not sounding like hair metal.
But you didn't come here for my delightful observations, you came here to not pay for music created by the band King Missile!

King Missile's golden era was unfortunately short lived, much like a butterfly (that's also on fire), due primarily to founding member Dogbowl's contributions and (apparently) musical directive leaving when he left.
That sentence wasn't very well written.
I wrote the bulk of this post when I was heavily intoxicated with sleepiness, but I refuse to edit since I'm all about giving you the REAL, RAW, UNINHIBITED AND UNCENSORED STEVE HUGHES BLOG EXPERIENCE/EXTRAVAGANZA. I mean, otherwise I'd have to repackage the rough copy on the final copy as a "rehearsal bonus track" or some hokey shit.
What I was basically trying to get across:
OOG, DOGBOWL LEFT BAND AND THEN KING MISSILE NOT SO GOOD EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE THINK VOCALIST JOHN'S LYRICS WERE THE CORNERSTONE OF THEIR APPEAL. THEIR NEXT ALBUM FULL OF BORING, BUT THEY ALMOST AS GOOD LATER. UNGA!

"They" is a wonderfully mellow, silly, and ironic batch of catchy little acoustic ditties that somehow never lose their appeal despite their 3-chord simplicity. The melodies are nothing groundbreaking, but there's something oddly unique about their presentation that elevates this lineup LEAGUES above their contemporaries at the time!
Or not. What the fuck do I know? Did KM even have neighbors of stylistic semblance? Doesn't it seem ludicrous to drop the word "contemporary" into a review without isolating the traits that made these so-called contemporaries RELEVANT?
"Just like contemporaries Big Youth and The Human League, King Missile recorded instrumental arrangements accompanied by vocal emissions!"

The lesson here is: learn to pick out the music-reviewer cliches and ignore them.

It's not much of a stretch to guess that this album is out of print currently, but I'll give you the benefit of the whogivesashit.

http://www.mediafire.com/?m3q2y0vqnzr

If you dig this, seriously check out Dogbowl's solo discography. I'll probably be posting "Tit! An Opera" or "Flan" (which has an accompanying novel I've never read) sometime in the near future, but I'll also probably not be posting it in the near future because I'm worthless.
Cheers!

2 comments:

  1. Never cared too much for KM, but gotta agree, the Dogbowl was the movement behind the bowel, er...bowl. There is a new Dogbowl never before released release from Eyeball Planet! Dogbowl Live at CBGB 1985-1986 free or donation thru Paypal. Just FYI.

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  2. Oh ho, awesome news! I don't exactly keep up on Dogbowl, so it would've probably taken years to find this out. Props to 'ya!

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