Firewater - Get Off The Cross...We Need The Wood For Fire

Label: Jetset

Year: 1996

Here's the first post-Cop Shoot Cop release from Tod A., and while it still sounds like Tod A., it don't sound like Cop Shoot Cop too much. He described the band as, "a wedding band gone wrong", but I'm not so sure that's the steez I'm picking up. Your marriage would be off to a rocky start at best if this was the soundtrack to your reception...I smell a murder-suicide pact in your future.

The similarities to Cop Shoot Cop show up from time to time as the start/stop song structures, but beyond that the instrumentation is wildly different, there are lots of strings, horns, and piano...not a double bass assault in site. You get a folksier, gentler approach to the dark world of Tod A. Maybe some klezmer? Sure, why not. Interested in a raga? Don't mind if you do. Have you thought of adding some Middle Eastern nomadic gypsy nuances? As a matter of fact, yes.

The first incarnation of this band had Duane Denison (Jesus Lizard, Pigface, Tomahawk, Cargo Cult, USSA), Hahn Roew (Foetus), Jim Kimball (Denison Kimball Trio, Jesus Lizard, Laughing Hyenas, US Maple, Mule), and a dude from Soul Coughing (is that a good thing?), so it was pretty stacked, and it might give you a feel of the depth of influence.

DL