ARTIST: King Missile                             

TITLE:  They

YEAR RELEASED: 1988

CHART ACTION: None

SINGLES: None

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Leather Clown, Farm

LINEUP: John S. Hall, Dogbowl, Charles Curtis, Steve Dansinger, Kramer, David Licht

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: A long, sprawling release that shows the inconsistency of early King Missile, with a sound that’s claustrophobic.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: After a few yuks with their debut album, King Missile’s second album veers into a direction that showcases more of Dogbowl and his music than John S. Hall’s bizarre poetry. It wasn’t a good decision.

Kramer (not THE Kramer, but the owner of the studio and record label) recorded the band like they were all stuck in a closet, with Hall’s vocals not being very clear unless you’re wearing headphones and listening to them. Also, with 22 cuts, the ideas aren’t edited; everything stuck whether worthy or not.

Sure, there’s some great weird songs like “Leather Clown”, “Farm”, and “He Needed”, but this was a mis-step.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: Hall and Dogbowl parted ways after this album, and King Missile’s second phase soon began.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No

GRADE: C-: I exiled some of it; I may exile more.

ARTIST: King Missile        

TITLE:  Fluting on the Hump

YEAR RELEASED: 1987

CHART ACTION: None

SINGLES: None

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Maybe if you followed college radio that played boho stuff

LINEUP: John S. Hall, Dogbowl (Stephen Tunney), RB Korbet, Alex DeLaszio, George O’Malley

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Stream-of-consciousness boho poetry and stories recited to music.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: John S. Hall writes and recites strange poetry and stories, and he asked a friend to put together a backing band. Hall and the band started to become very popular at poetry readings, so they made a record in 10 hours.

Most all of these poems and stories are humorous, but some are more humorous than others. In the end, three cuts stand out, and the true winners are “Sensitive Artist” and “Take Stuff from Work” (since we all want to do this).

The sound is a bit rough, as the producer Kramer used low-fi techniques. That also detracts a bit.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: After just three readings at the Backfence, Hall became a ‘featured’ poet.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION:  Kramer deleted a track from the CD and now from streaming..

GRADE: C+: I really like three songs, the rest are just OK or juvenile.