NoMeansNo – Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie – Review

NoMeansNo

Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie (Alternative Tentacles)
by Lex Marburger

Q: What (who) is NoMeansNo?
A: A group consisting of Rob and John Wright (bass and drums respectively), along with a various assortment of others, none named except for monikers such as “Buttercup” and “Dink,” save for a stint in the early ’90s when they (along with most everyone else on AT) seemed contractually obligated to do an album with Jello Biafra. Their style of music is punk/post punk/ post-punk-core/what- happens-when-you-live-in-western-Canada-for-too-long.

Q: Briefly describe your relationship with them.
A: Introduced to them in 1991, they have been in existence since (at least) 1981. They fit in as the soundtrack to a more decadent period of my adolescence. Their loud, simple song structures and lyrics of angst, cynicism and complex syllables made their music thoughtful and violent. When I saw them live, they blew Fugazi off the stage in DC (1992), and struggled to hold their own with Ultra Bidé in Boston (1997).

Q: Give relevant examples of lyrics.
A: “Drooling jaws are my dreams landscape.” – 1.5 seconds (“Hunt the She Beast,” You Kill Me). “All praise for corporal flesh; the smell of love, the smell of death.” – 1 second (“Body Bag,” Sex Mad). “The truth around my tongue is curled, a chain of words that binds the world.” – 1.5 seconds (“I Can’t Stop Talking,” Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie).

Q: Describe Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie in terms of their previous albums.
A: Still prevalent is their hatred of: violence against women, blind consumerism, the lack of empathy and caring in the world. They still parody their subjects by often taking on the persona and singing in the first person, in the style of Big Black. However, there seems to be a difference in the album’s makeup. The standard NoMeansNo album consists of a handful of fast, angular songs followed by an epic, grinding, plodding song. Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie is all medium to up-tempo songs, the slowest being “The World Wasn’t Built In A Day,” which doesn’t have the same gloom-and-doom as “Real Love,” “Wrong,” or even “My Politics.”

Q: List at least three songs on the current album you consider worth listening to, and why.
A: “I’m An Asshole,” for their classic unison guitar/bass/drum figures and lyric content; “Give Me the Push,” for the gut-wrenching screams and avalanche drums; “One Fine Day,” for the fact that it’s actually sort of happy, in a “Metronome” sort of way, and it’s the last song, giving the entire album a more pleasant aspect when listened to as a whole (aspects of this could be seen on The Worldhood of the World (as such), when they ended the album with “The Jungle”).
(PO Box 419092 San Francisco, CA 94141)