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(OK, one more review before I lose internet access)
Snakefinger never got his due as a pioneering electro-punk. Connected with Ralph Records and the Residents (who do percussion on the b-side) his songs were crazy and poppy at the same time. They often had a little bit of horror thrown in for good measure though not enough to become a limiting schtick (Like , say, The Misfits after their first records)
If Wikipedia is to be believed, Ralph Records pressed 35,000 of these. That was optimistic! It does explain why I picked up this (blue vinyl no less!) for 25 cents in the ‘90s.
I love “The Spot” as a pop song.
See how catchy it is in a minimalist, late ‘70s art-punk kinda way?
I actually met his daughter while working at Rainbow. She came in wanting a good bottle of champagne for her 21st birthday. I don’t know how it came up, but I was happy that I, one of a handful of people at the store who would know who Snakefinger was, happened to be the one helping her. Never saw her again. I must not have picked out a very good bottle.
“Smelly Tongues” was actually always my favorite side of this record, however. When I lived in upstate NY, I used to hang out with a lot of people who were from the town I went to college in.* It was a nice townie bar for most of the week, but would be inundated by frat boys on the weekends. One of the waitresses hid this 7” on the jukebox under Anne Murray “Dream Lover” and we would play it on the packed nights, driving people crazy. This actually included the bar’s owner who would try to rush out from behind the bar and make it to the back of the room to figure out what was playing so that he could root it out of the jukebox. We would only play it when the bar was packed and he never made it in the 2:29 time frame. Another reason to love punk rock.
Rating: Underrated and worth a listen every once in awhile. Especially around drunk frat boys.
*yes, my college should have taught me not to end a sentence in a preposition. I will honor this by repeating the punch line to one of my favorite jokes. “Ok, where’s the library at, Asshole?”
Snakefinger never got his due as a pioneering electro-punk. Connected with Ralph Records and the Residents (who do percussion on the b-side) his songs were crazy and poppy at the same time. They often had a little bit of horror thrown in for good measure though not enough to become a limiting schtick (Like , say, The Misfits after their first records)
If Wikipedia is to be believed, Ralph Records pressed 35,000 of these. That was optimistic! It does explain why I picked up this (blue vinyl no less!) for 25 cents in the ‘90s.
I love “The Spot” as a pop song.
See how catchy it is in a minimalist, late ‘70s art-punk kinda way?
I actually met his daughter while working at Rainbow. She came in wanting a good bottle of champagne for her 21st birthday. I don’t know how it came up, but I was happy that I, one of a handful of people at the store who would know who Snakefinger was, happened to be the one helping her. Never saw her again. I must not have picked out a very good bottle.
“Smelly Tongues” was actually always my favorite side of this record, however. When I lived in upstate NY, I used to hang out with a lot of people who were from the town I went to college in.* It was a nice townie bar for most of the week, but would be inundated by frat boys on the weekends. One of the waitresses hid this 7” on the jukebox under Anne Murray “Dream Lover” and we would play it on the packed nights, driving people crazy. This actually included the bar’s owner who would try to rush out from behind the bar and make it to the back of the room to figure out what was playing so that he could root it out of the jukebox. We would only play it when the bar was packed and he never made it in the 2:29 time frame. Another reason to love punk rock.
Rating: Underrated and worth a listen every once in awhile. Especially around drunk frat boys.
*yes, my college should have taught me not to end a sentence in a preposition. I will honor this by repeating the punch line to one of my favorite jokes. “Ok, where’s the library at, Asshole?”
