Big Fat Love

Hell House (Grand Royal)
by Jon Sarre

A long time before the Beastie Boys were on MTV hocking clothing (1984, to be exact), Mike D. used to hang out at original Beastie (Polliwog Stew incarnation), John Berry’s house. There, they’d bang on stuff to pass the time with the considerable input of former UXA bassplayer and multi-instrumentalist (including accordion) Bosco and slide guitar maniac Eric Hubel. As these things usually come to pass, they put a few songs together: pretty cool urban country-blues-bluegrass, for the most part, recorded ’em (with Adam “MCA” Yauch on the boards), played a few shows under the name Big Fat Love and then went on with their lives.

One of the good things about old friends becoming stars is that 15 years later, they can release the tapes on their own label and then you can buy the album at Tower Records. Most of the eleven songs on Hell House are from the original 1984 sessions, the final four being newly recorded (with Eric Talbert filling in on traps for the absent Mike D.).

Caveat emptor for Beasties fans, the show here belongs to Berry, Bosco and Hubel and the songs they run through are pretty hardcore hard-luck, white trash psychobilly pieces. In fact, it kinda sounds like they drank ‘shine ’til they mistook themselves for Johnny Cash. “Trashman”‘s a badass boaster that features Sharon Tate, Squeaky Fromme, stolen pickups and pregnant wives. “Mississippi Red” is the jealous husband on a tear sure enough as the hellhounds on your tail. “This Way to Glory”‘s got Hubel’s six string surgically tearin’ up scar tissue and “Ring of Fire” Spanish horns. “Can She See” features creepy distorto vocals over a “High Heel Sneakers” riff and “Minnie the Moocher” sax-bleats. “Hell House” is a Willie Dixon-style blues raveup. The closer, “Big Fat Love,” can be dismissed as a joke about a 400lb girlfriend, but the rest of this ‘un is a toughie to ignore.