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I just graduated from college, and I can't say
I've had enough money to buy any new albums because I like
to eat and stuff. But for what money I have had to spend on
music this year, I've mostly bought older albums I've read
about or have had recommended to me. However there was one
album I did buy which is a bit embarrassing --please don't
judge me too harshly.
Big Dumb Face is the side project of
Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland. Any connection
to Bizkit, Carson Daly, or the MTV should be
association enough as to invite vomit to drive up the esophagus
of any right-thinking music elitist like myself, and symbolically
direct it out of their fingers and on to the keyboard to take
part in the fire of an angry diatribe. And as ashamed as I
might be, that just isn't happening in writing about BDF’s
first album, Duke Lion Fights The Terror!!. The album
was produced, engineered, written, and performed by Borland
and a handful of interchanging others in a home studio, with
thankfully no sign of Fred Durst anywhere on the piece.
It is impeccably produced and equally revels in both cheesy
grandeur and sarcastic evil.
Borland's voice does not appear once without
the aid of a pitch shifter or variety of other effects, while
the song writing takes equal time to pay tribute to or make
fun of Slayer/Ministry thrash, as well as 80's
New Wave/Goth, sometimes on the same track. But the cartoonish
voices paint a dark and vivid Claypool-ish world far
higher in the lyrical gene pool than Fred Durst’s idiotic
raps, and the experimental song writing and garage-mac production
are far more progressive than Limp’s packaged angst for sad
suburban children.
The rousing "Kali Is The Sweethog"
or the friendly "It’s Right In Here" would be catchy
enough to make an impact with Bizkit’s TRL audience,
save for the pitch shifter, but this album wasn’t designed
for massive radio play or huge sales. It brought me hope to
see a major label (Geffen) get behind (or at least
release) an album that existed solely to experiment with the
form of rock and roll, not merely create revenue for shallow
egomaniacs and their bosses. But of course, Duke Lion
was a flop, which probably means we may never hear from Wes
and pals again, but we can certainly still sit back and enjoy
one of most refreshing voices to arise from major label rock
since the Korning of the genre.
- Evan Dashevsky
Track Listing:
- Burgalveist
- Duke Lion
- Kali Is The Sweethog
- Blood Red Head On Fire
- Space Adventure
- Fightin’ Stance
- Organ Splitter
- Mighty Penis Laser
- Robot
- Rebel
- Voices In The Wall
- It’s Right In Here
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