King Missile III
Failure (Shimmy Disc)
by Scott Hefflon
As much as I like John S. Hall, I have to cop a phrase and say this album lives up to its title. While there are some great rants (I hesitate to call it poetry or beat poetry), the music is too, well, odd, for easy consumption. Free jazz, slacker rap, fruity art rock, noise noddlings – while sure, Soul Coughing can still get away with it (why they can is a question best left to the philosophers), everyone else should be run out of town, gripping their tattered notebooks and beanies. King Missile III explores such topics as failure, a boy made of bone china, sensitive guys who have little dicks, something about putting things up your ass, the story of a little sandwich involved in a bus crash, how monks may’ve misinterpreted God’s message about celibacy and “the silent treatment,” a big, long list of what is and what is not gay behavior, and the soul-searching adventure of a lump of plankton called Planky.
While subtly clever at times, Failure provides no instant gratification such as “Detachable Penis,” “Jesus Was Way Cool,” and whatever that song was that said, “Are you icky? Are you sticky? Are you hot as anything? Well, cut off all your fingers and poke yourself in the eye,” much like “The Grandmother Song” by Steve Martin back in the ’70s (a song of advice which ranged from “be courteous, kind, and forgiving” to “get all excited and go to a yawning festival”). Subtlety is something a stand-up comedian can ill-afford, and, for all practical purposes, that’s what we want John S. Hall to be. Poet/Artist/whatever – we want his offbeat observations on life, rambled out in a whiney, kinda New York lilt, occasionally losing his cool, his voice going up an octave as he rolls on and on with a George Carlin-esque rant that builds, getting funnier and more on-target with every passing comment. Sorry to limit your creative inspiration, John, but that’s what we want. Failure certainly has its moments, but the musical noodling is distracting and there’re only a few “must-have” tracks here.
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