FLESHIES:
Scrape the Walls: CD
Fleshies have gotten into my “happy rock place.” After seeing them, their records sound better because I can project the songs into my mind and see them play. Their previous, The Sicilian, I didn’t give much salt to besides, “Yeah, it’s good,” a couple years back, but it never seemed to leave the truck. It’s not often that a weird band provides great real-life-soundtrack music and continues to get better with each listen. Scrape the Walls is great. It’s the Fleshies. They’re growing. AC/DC rides lightning bolts to the Cows and they make pop music that could be on a parallel universe’s Mork and Mindy. Even though I was given the CD, I happily bought the vinyl. That’s how much I believe in it. So, leave with this: great record. My gripe: I understand you own the label Jello, but another guest appearance? I’m no stoner, but if I was, I’d be annoyed at the helium frog taking vocal duties—not as an intro, not as an outro—but smack dab in the middle of the album for a full song. It’s jarring. And, as a rabid music collector as Jello is, he should know great albums are based on this: continuity. You’re groovin’. Your bong’s hot. You’re chillin’ to Johnny going ape shit then slithering into your sweater, then wham-o. The Sugar Smacks spokesfrog does a Sparks cover. Waaa? I have a feeling that many of the dudes involved with this record are smart, so I propose this retroactive solution: on LP, make it one of those hidden tracks where you have to lift the needle to get to it. That’s fun. You chose the annoyance. Or, for CD, find a way to have that track play every 66^th time it’s played. That’d absolutely creep people out and they’d have to wait 66 more times until it played again, long after they’ve tried—and failed—to convince their friends that it’s really on there. –Todd Taylor (Alternative Tentacles)