Dan On "Suck"

I like Boris the Sprinkler. I've been listening to them since high school when I wrote "Reverend Norb (the singer) is my hero". No idiot, I didn't write "(the singer)". So anyway I'd seen them in local venues since 1995 and the live show is 80% of the appeal. Then the overlapping over 80% of their appeal is their songs. Their 1998 third album "Mega Anal" was rather lame. It had a requisite 5 awesome songs and then about TWELVE or THIRTEEN that were fucking terrible, including the songs "Yup, Screw It Up" and "Girl Don't Go Were the Gargoyles Are" which not only made no sense but were so irritating that if the first few seconds leaked into my ears before I could hit the skip button on my Discman that I would curl up in a ball and cry.

Okay, it wasn't THAT bad, but Boris' first two albums were genius. So is "Suck". It isn't as epicly long and "Mega Anal" but it is also not as epicly stupid. It's 15 songs long with a bonus song called "Do the Sprinkler" at the beginning. Also, the 16th track is the previous 15 tracks re-recorded on one track, along with a re-recording of "Do the Sprinkler" that's over 4 minutes long.

The first 5 tracks rock like hell. After that is the token stupid song written by the drummer that you will find half-way through any Boris album. But most of the songs have their redeeming qualities. Boris is known for their fucked up expository lyrics about candy, geeky-ness, and fucking girls with kitchen appliances: yet even though the opening song is about underage girls it is crazy as hell without having complex lyrics at all. Also, apparently the new bassist they got for "Suck", Tim, quit immeadiately afterwards. This means Boris is looking for a fifth bassist in the four short years they've been around. I think I should audition. I wrote that song about squirrels, remember? Um yeah.

Also there is a running gag about how Reverend Norb isn't allowed to do his token monologues on the first track, half way mark, and out-tro. The down side in this album isn't that though. It's the fact that if you don't count the re-recorded songs and the really long, fucking around bonus song, the 15 songs come in at 25 minutes. So I can't even take the train from Wicker Park to Loyola without listening to the whole damn thing twice. Don't put it in your Discman unless you have one of those CD cases with all the sleeves for extra CDs or you'll get pissed off... Except now that I think about it I don't think anyone will ever get that pissed about other than me so nevermind. Shit.

MUZAK
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