Track Listing: 1. PC Musical Chairs 2. Next Big Thing 3. Can't Be Bothered 4. 2000 and One 5. Panic in the Supermarket 6. Can't Complain 7. Faster 8. Phone in Sick 9. Refugees Go West 10. Backlash 11. Friends 12. Skin
Remember last year when I was doing the Citizen Fish posts? Well, after that I had such a huge hankerin' for more CF, so I went to the used record store and found an old Cd of "Millennia Madness" which (along with "Flinch" and "Thirst") used to be my go-to album. Good, conscientious ska/punk/rock that doesn't use its fiercely political stance as an excuse to skimp on a good tune. One of those rare albums where the music blasting from the speakers and the lyric sheet are equally compelling...
I loved re-reading the anti-2000 screed inside (basically placing an unrealistic expectation on the promise of the then-impending year 2000, using it as a marketing tool to package "newness" when we still have a world full of old problems...)
That's something I kinda miss...Punk albums that include editorials in the inside cover...It tends to reinforce and enhance the album's overhanging feel of dread, anticipation and skepticism...If you've checked out the later Subhumans albums or any other Citizen
Fish album, you won't be greatly surprised by the sound...Really dry, clanky brand of British, anarcho, stretched-shirt punk-ska...
A few of their best songs are here...For a band that's always excelled in impeccable opening tracks (Just think "TV Dinner," "Sink or Swim," "Feeding") "PC Musical Chairs" is possibly the best of the best...Just a big, hooky, horn-drenched manifesto with so many memorable bits...The mournful trumpet solo, that nagging guitar hook that dances the jig from time to time, that "Anyone with a conscience.." breakdown...And then when it goes back into the final verse (but with the horns blazing this time) but it's ten times punchier than the time before...Those kind of details always blow me away...
"Phone in Sick" is so fucking amazing it made me want to call in sick to work before I even had a job...I had totally forgotten about the song, but on the day I re-bought the album I just so happened to call in sick to work... As I was driving home while listening to the album I felt a circuit complete...A final puzzle piece click into place..."Woke up with a job one dayyyy, didn't want to work no mooooooore..." Oh, man...So good...
Add in the nerve-wracking "Panic in the Supermarket" and the ultra-catchy "Can't Be Bothered" and you've got one of the best albums of the whole 90's ska-punk era...Even suggesting that it had something to do with that whole scene lessens its achievement...This album has a clenched fist quality that works well in any era...It just so happened to coincide with the commercial rise of a superficially similar scene and made the whole thing sound meaningless in comparison...Long swim the Fish...
Here's "Can't Be Bothered" by Citizen Fish..Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Feeding 2. Popsongs 3. City On A River 4. Used To Work 5. Plasticash 6. Scene 496: Cafe In Melksham 7. Words On Overtime 8. Talk About The Weather 9. Catholic Sex Confession 10. Criminal 11. What Charlie Said 12. Fill Me Up
Back in high school there were very few bands I listened to more than Citizen Fish. They were absolutely a fixture of my 90's music collection, but for whatever reason (maybe I burned out on ska, sold the CD's for Ramen in college?) Istopped listening to them for oh, 15 years or so...I still can't really explain it because if you asked me at anytime within that 15-year gap what I thought about Citizen Fish I would have gushed endlessly about the greatness of the albums "Flinch," "Millennial Madness" and "Thirst."
Recently, I found a copy of "Thirst" at Eastside Records and I became overwhelmingly nostalgic at seeing that Premium Global Ponk Ska Beer label on the cover...There was no way I wasn't buying it, so I plonked down my 6 bucks (or whatever it costs) and threw it on the turntable for old times sake...
Now, if you're not familiar with the band here's a simplified
explanation of their sound...Do you ever see those gutter punk kids
wearing jean jackets plastered with canvas patches? Ever see the one
that says "Subhumans"? Well, they sound just like Subhumans except they
play ska instead of hardcore...If you haven't heard the Subhumans,
imagine very-British, politically-charged, minimalist ska...I guess to
make it even simpler they sound like an uppity version of "Night Boat to
Cairo" by Madness...I have to give them credit, the politics never feel
stuffy or sanctimonious as is sometimes the case on political
punk...Maybe it's all the bouncy ska...Anyway, y'know that slight,
nagging headache that you get when you hear one too many Anti-Flag songs
in a row? That doesn't happen when I listen to Citizen Fish...It all
sounds like sensible stuff and it's delivered in an entertaining and
catchy enough fashion...
You pretty much get the full spectrum of their sound on the first two songs...Throw-yer-head back, throw-yer-fist-up singalong punk ("Feeding") and dry, skeletal, wordy ska ("Popsongs") but why fuck around when you have the formula down so well? There are a few surprises here and there, like the brief jazz interlude that opens "Scene 496," the spy-theme touches on "Talk About the Weather," the game show horns on "Fill Me Up" and the twisty, phaze-rock on "What Charlie Said." but those are definitely exceptions...And I've got to say this about Dick: For a guy with the loosest T-Shirt necks I've ever seen, he sure runs a tight band...The ska is clean-clean, which would reveal every flaw,if there were any... It's a lot of fun to hear the bass walk around the clank-clank guitars!
Best track? It's too close to call between "Feeding" and "Used To Work" which are both stellar examples of how great pop-punk can sound when imbued with some intelligence...No High School shit here, these guys are neck-deep in global concerns which ironically enough was probably the aspect that most appealed to me when I was a High School kid checking them out for the first time (when you're a teenager, the possibility that you might be stuck being a teenager forever (a philosophy central to the lion's share of pop-punk) was a scary proposition)...
I'm saying these guys deserve a listen...Deserve many listens...If you're a fan of 90's ska-punk, you're not going to find many bands that can stand up to Citizen Fish, and if you're into relentlesly political lyrics, I can't think of a single example of it being handled better...
Here's "Feeding" by Citizen Fish...Enjoy...
Alright, I still have a few minutes to spare...I'll do this one too...
Citizen Fish: Life Size
2001
Honest Don's
FormatI Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Over The Fence 2. Revolution 3. Out Of Control 4. Picture This 5. Internal Release 6. Autographs 7. Back To Zero 8. Choice Of Viewing 9. Lose The Instructions 10. Somewhere To Go 11. Shrink The Distance 12. Will Swap
As I mentioned earlier, I inexplicably stopped listening to Citizen Fish somewhere in the late 90's, meaning I never made it to "Life Size." I didn't even know of its existence until I was at Eastside Records and noticed a Citizen Fish record with a giant baby laying down in the middle of a city. A cover so ill-conceived and inexplicable that it instantly translated into "BUY IMMEDIATELY!!!"
So this is a Citizen Fish album I had never heard until this past year and I can tell you that I was indeed missing out on some spectacular stuff all these years...This was the kind of album I'd always kinda wished that the band would make...There's still some of their trademark ska ("Revolution," "Autographs") but they seem to focus more on the rousing punk aspect of their sound which means that your in for roughly 40 minutes of pure anthemic bliss...Now keep in mind, if you're approaching this with a "Subhumans" state-of-mind it might sound a bit soft since the emphasis is placed on catchy melodies rather than a sound walloping (although"Lose the Instructions" is full-on, bruising hardcore), but I think any Subhuman's fan would instantly be on board with the fine lyric-sheet...
Here's a good example of why Citizen Fish's lyrics appeal to me...You know the anti-television punk song trope? Anyone who's heard more than one punk album is well familiar with it...It's a form of mind-control, it makes you stupid, blah blah blah...But instead of the usual "FUCK TV! YOU'RE TOO FUCKING STUPID TO EVEN REALIZE YOU'RE BEING CONTROLLED BY THE MAN!!!" we get an honest deconstructive take on the subject:
"Well I'd rather sing songs about nature,
Being happy or having fun,
But I asked at the desk when I got here,
And they said it couldn't be done...
More at ease with songs against T.V.
That's something we all know about,
And we'd rather get off on the hatred,
Than imagine the living without,
I been watching too much telly,
Almost turned my brain to jelly,
Now I'm playing my cassettes,
Get back to the music before you forget!
Turn it off!"
Y'see? Ambivalence! It makes the subject much more relatable and approachable...I can understand the struggle to shake loose from television's grip to get back into creative endeavors, but saying all TV is fascist rubbish that instantly destroys the mind on first viewing? It's a bit much...
Besides, TV is where ALF lives...How can it be all bad?
Anyway, it's taking me too much time to write this post...I've been pecking away at it for 15-minutes here and there for the past three days...Time to get on with things...I always think it's better just to listen to music than sit around and explain it anyway... \
Here's "Over The Fence" by Citizen Fish...I demand you enjoy it!
