King Missile III
Failure
Shimmy Disc/Knitting Factory
More fairly, this should have been called King Missile I (II), as it sounds like a clear return to the early-Atlantic King Missile, with spacey psychedelic jams as an undulating bed for John S. Hall’s peculiar and deranged sense of poetry. Hall’s lyrics have always been better than the band’s riffs, and to hear his words drowned out by rockisms made me skip over the last couple of Atlantic records. Listening to Hall start to ramble about the bone china boy and somehow end up commenting on how you don’t have to get out of bed to urinate when you’re in the hospital is a rare pleasure, and I’m glad I can enjoy it again. Or how about a litany of lewd objects in “Up My Ass”? And the senile epic of Planky the Plankton, Sticky the Stick, and Monkeyey the Monkey is worth reciting to your kids.
Also of interest is the new band, which incorporates Bradford Reed and his pencilina – an instrument of Reed’s creation which sounds (and looks) unlike everything else. As a percussionist, Reed brings in something wholly different to the ole’ King Missile. Perhaps it is fair to think of them as King Missile III. Shimmy Disc, 71 Leonard St., New York, NY 10013
