I moved to Huntington Beach, California from New Orleans in 1984 for my 8th grade year. Talk about a culture shock. Daniel Russo had nothing on me. Anyway I eventually caught Fishbone's ? (Modern Industry) video on Night Flight (or something) and it reminded me of funky NOLA things I was surely no longer seeing in the OC. I bought Fishbone's debut EP and jammed that thing like crazy in my Walkman. To say the least, Party at Ground Zero was epic and Another Generation has always been my sleeper favorite. By my freshman year, I remember hearing Fishbone songs being played next to songs by the Untouchables at halftime of basketball games and at school dances...twas very good stuff.
After being kinda turned off by Fishbone upon seeing them in some Beach Party Bingo remake flick with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, I didn't catch up again with Fishbone until around 1988, 1989. By this time I had moved from California to Houston and was already eyeing Austin as the place where I could finally escape from my parents into college. Texas had this big funk-punk scene going so Fishbone was monstrously popular. I really wish I woulda been ahead of the curve enough to have traveled up to Austin for Fishbone's legendary Texas Union gig, but no. Instead I dug into an amazing album in Truth and Soul. 5 stars all around.
This is my Maggot Brain. It's the album I listened to the most while most tripping. I spent a summer down in Houston working manual labor and my friends and I were indulging in local fungus pretty heavy on the weekends. Reality of My Surroundings might as well be my left arm. 5 exploding stars.
The combined range and proficiency of Fishbone makes them the baddest of the bad. Their live show was always the best going. Give a Monkey a Brain, while not an album I listened too all too much when it came out, seals the deal on the genius of Fishbone. Servitude alone is perfection. I can't rave enough about this band, the most mighty.
HarveyCanal
"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
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dare i say their version freddie's dead is better than the og-no dis respect to curtis
most people don't understand how good that lp really is
every song is a winner
and live NO ONE can touch them>.
I love Truth and Soul because it takes me back to my high-school days, but it also is a really great album all by itself. Fun, smart, and completely life-affirming. Reality is also great, but T&S holds a special place in my heart.
I saw them in like, '95 at the Vic here in Chicago. They were only five deep and I only recognized like two of the songs they played (a lot of stuff from later albums I wasn't familiar with) but they tore that shit down. Angelo is a monster. He stagedove and the crowd lifted him up to the balcony. He sang from up there for a minute (with his mic cable running all the way back to the stage) then dove back down and was carried back to the stage. Off the hook.
I very much love Fishbone.
i love fishbone! i've seen them in seattle half a dozen times and its always an incredible show. when truth and soul came out i saw them and the bassplayer came out wearing that yellow pimp suit from "i'm gonna get you sucka!" soooo dope. the only thing is THIS
I also know this guy is their biggest fan.
But Truth and Soul is still my favorite. Will never sell that CD, one of the first that I got!
Angelo used to come out to this open jam session that I used to sit in on back in the day. (Galaxy Gallery head shop on Melrose for the real headz).
He read some of his poetry at UCLA, and I remember him talking about one of their bandmates getting brainwashed by a girlfriend and they had to do a covert kidnapping mission up to NorCal and bring him back and deprogram him.
Yeah, crazy what happened there: http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1998/042398/music3.html
Angelo did a spoken word here a month or so ago that really leads me to believe that when Fishbone finally stops playing he will be one of those dudes ranting to themselves on the street.
Incidentally my friend's parents bought Dennis Rodman's house in the early 90s and he left a boat load of fishbone cds behind... kinda funny but not that really surprising.
Fishbone fuckin rule.
so much weed, so many teen memories, so many good times.
Fishbone are the shit.
Played in the Traveling Dingleberries with Angelo for a strong minute in 90-91 when he was home from touring. Mostly warehouse parties. Damn good times.
Their was also Trulio Disgracias (members of Fishbone, P-Funk, Chili peppers, Dead Kennedys, Thelonius Monster, The Untouchables and even Bronx Style Bob) whom we (Traveling Dingleberries) shared the stage with on occasion.
Thinking about those days has me belieiving that Los Angeles is a shell of it's former self.
bronx style bob? word?
weren't part of janes addiction down with them too?
I caught them live. And was there every time they came through town for the next 5 years
or so.
Highlights include:
-Seeing them open with a version of VH's, Running with the Devil renamed
Running with your Pants Off
- having Angelo's hat get taken and them stopping the show until it
it was returned, dude was pissed, giving everybody the stink eye and menacing people with that cain
he always had, walking through the crowd "Shows over til I get my motherfucking hat back!"
-Having my girlfriend get her head split open when the keyboard player dove off a huge Marshall stack
-Getting kicked out cause i was puking in garbage can by an exit, and being let back in even
though they didn't allow re-entry.
Good times!