China Pig's singles are almost like regular rock songs compared to their LP, which plays not so much as a collection of individual tracks as it does a full-length 46-minute composition: best when taken as a whole, and without a doubt standing as the band's masterpiece. The songs transition into one another while occasionally referencing back to/reprising sections from previous tracks, sorta like Sonic Youth did on "Bad Moon Rising", although this one's a bit heavier. At seven minutes each, the two opening and closing tracks ("Leviathan Rising" and "Blue Line to Greg Vegas") act as warm-up and cool-down laps for all the action that goes on in-between, and there's a lot going on in here, while at times there isn't. The band is content to leave some things quiet, which of course works to make the loud parts seem even louder, and whatever vocals are present are usually buried in the mix or are just random phrases repeated for effect -- mere coloring to the ample noise that's now pouring into your ear holes.
One of the really cool things about this record is that the LP and CD packaging are markedly different from each other, with the LP sleeve having been silkscreened in some sort of pidgin German, a nod to their Krautrock influences I guess. On a whole, this is easily one of the best and more interesting records to come out of the entire '90s Danbury scene.
China Pig -
"Christened by a Dead Cat"
"Crispus A."
"Searching for Johnny Dirge"
"C. Attucks"
2 comments:
proud to have my name in a song on this album !!
Yeah, til Drive Like Jehu stole it for one of their records
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