SLIM CESSNA'S AUTO CLUB
''CIPHER''
MARCH 25 2008
56:05
1. An Introduction To The Power Of Braces - Arms /1:17
2. This Land Is Our Land Redux /4:22
3. All About The Bullfrog In Three Verses /3:42
4. Americadio /4:12
5. An Introduction To The Power Of Braces - Legs /1:24
6. Children Of The Lord /4:21
7. Scac 101 /4:27
8. Ladies In The Know /2:31
9. Magalina Hagalina Boom Boom /3:51
10. An Introduction To The Power Of Braces - Teeth /1:06
11. Jesus Is In My Body - My Body Has Let Me Down /5:18
12. Red Pirate Of The Prairie /3:52
13. Everyone Is Guilty #2 /7:04
14. An Introduction To The Power Of Braces - Faith /1:25
15. That Fierce Cow Is Common Sense In A Country Dress /7:13
REVIEW
by Marisa Brown
Slim Cessna's Auto Club, the country-punk band who've been spreading their gospel of tongue-in-cheek hellfire since the early '90s, return to Alternative Tentacles for their fifth studio full-length, Cipher. As per usual, the album is a kind of puritanical sermon on good and evil, God and the Devil, combined with a Western lawlessness that can be nearly chilling at times. Slim's the main singer here, his half-crazed voice like one of a man who's been pushed too far one too many times, leading the way through the songs of sin and condemnation, women and whiskey, with only a very few hints at redemption. Slim's god is a vengeful one, as ready to punish as he is save. The momentously creepy "Jesus Is in My Body: My Body Has Let Me Down" tells the story of a destructive apocalypse, while "Everyone Is Guilty #2" goes from asking to open for Jesus ("your name still would draw a crowd/It would help our careers if we could warm up your show") to a menacing break in which the vocalist drawls out accusations and demands that Jesus take responsibility for them. The band doesn't let anyone else off the hook, either, naming, in the recurring "Introduction to the Power of Braces," the ways in which their own faith has bent and how they will attempt to straighten it, or listing off specific sinners -- themselves included -- in "Children of the Lord." The Auto Club play with familiar themes, like their take on Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" (itself a borrowed melody), called "This Land Is Our Land Redux," a near-violent demand to take back the country from what it's become, while the aforementioned "Children of the Lord" plays off the Sunday school song "Rise and Shine." There's a dark liveliness, a rebelliousness to the music, one that Slim Cessna has always exhibited, shown not only in the lyrics and vocal inflection but in the instrumentation, which is sprawling and tight at the same time, electric and acoustic, and the entire effect of which is absolutely captivating.
BIOGRAPHY
by Erik Hage
Slim Cessna's Auto Club play country gospel with a fervor that seems to emanate from a punk pulpit. The group's leader, Slim Cessna, a tall, lanky gentleman with a gold tooth and large white hat, sings in a high-lonesome voice and yodel, and "preaches" with conviction. (Sample sentiment from "Last Song About Satan": "So I said, Lucifer you piece of sh*t/I should kick your ass right where you sit.../My mother cries because of you.") The group released its self-titled debut in 1995; the album was tweaked and reissued in September 2001. By the time of 2000's Always Say Please and Thank You (released on the Jello Biafra punk label Alternative Tentacles), Auto Club's lineup included Danny Pants, Reverend Dwight Pentacost, Jay Munly (who has released records as Munly De Har He), John Rumley (who builds instruments at the Denver Folklore Center), and Ordy Garrison. Despite the fact that Cessna moved to his wife's home state of Rhode Island and Pentacost took up residence in Chicago, the band remained Denver-based, performing there regularly. In 2004 the group released The Bloudy Tenant Truth Peace, followed by 2005's Jesus Let Me Down (which came out on Smooch Records) and Cipher (back on Alternative Tentacles) in 2008. A collection of eight rarities and outtakes by the group titled Buried Behind the Barn was released in 2010. Unentitled was scheduled for a 2011 release.
DoWnLoAd
''CIPHER''
MARCH 25 2008
56:05
1. An Introduction To The Power Of Braces - Arms /1:17
2. This Land Is Our Land Redux /4:22
3. All About The Bullfrog In Three Verses /3:42
4. Americadio /4:12
5. An Introduction To The Power Of Braces - Legs /1:24
6. Children Of The Lord /4:21
7. Scac 101 /4:27
8. Ladies In The Know /2:31
9. Magalina Hagalina Boom Boom /3:51
10. An Introduction To The Power Of Braces - Teeth /1:06
11. Jesus Is In My Body - My Body Has Let Me Down /5:18
12. Red Pirate Of The Prairie /3:52
13. Everyone Is Guilty #2 /7:04
14. An Introduction To The Power Of Braces - Faith /1:25
15. That Fierce Cow Is Common Sense In A Country Dress /7:13
REVIEW
by Marisa Brown
Slim Cessna's Auto Club, the country-punk band who've been spreading their gospel of tongue-in-cheek hellfire since the early '90s, return to Alternative Tentacles for their fifth studio full-length, Cipher. As per usual, the album is a kind of puritanical sermon on good and evil, God and the Devil, combined with a Western lawlessness that can be nearly chilling at times. Slim's the main singer here, his half-crazed voice like one of a man who's been pushed too far one too many times, leading the way through the songs of sin and condemnation, women and whiskey, with only a very few hints at redemption. Slim's god is a vengeful one, as ready to punish as he is save. The momentously creepy "Jesus Is in My Body: My Body Has Let Me Down" tells the story of a destructive apocalypse, while "Everyone Is Guilty #2" goes from asking to open for Jesus ("your name still would draw a crowd/It would help our careers if we could warm up your show") to a menacing break in which the vocalist drawls out accusations and demands that Jesus take responsibility for them. The band doesn't let anyone else off the hook, either, naming, in the recurring "Introduction to the Power of Braces," the ways in which their own faith has bent and how they will attempt to straighten it, or listing off specific sinners -- themselves included -- in "Children of the Lord." The Auto Club play with familiar themes, like their take on Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" (itself a borrowed melody), called "This Land Is Our Land Redux," a near-violent demand to take back the country from what it's become, while the aforementioned "Children of the Lord" plays off the Sunday school song "Rise and Shine." There's a dark liveliness, a rebelliousness to the music, one that Slim Cessna has always exhibited, shown not only in the lyrics and vocal inflection but in the instrumentation, which is sprawling and tight at the same time, electric and acoustic, and the entire effect of which is absolutely captivating.
BIOGRAPHY
by Erik Hage
Slim Cessna's Auto Club play country gospel with a fervor that seems to emanate from a punk pulpit. The group's leader, Slim Cessna, a tall, lanky gentleman with a gold tooth and large white hat, sings in a high-lonesome voice and yodel, and "preaches" with conviction. (Sample sentiment from "Last Song About Satan": "So I said, Lucifer you piece of sh*t/I should kick your ass right where you sit.../My mother cries because of you.") The group released its self-titled debut in 1995; the album was tweaked and reissued in September 2001. By the time of 2000's Always Say Please and Thank You (released on the Jello Biafra punk label Alternative Tentacles), Auto Club's lineup included Danny Pants, Reverend Dwight Pentacost, Jay Munly (who has released records as Munly De Har He), John Rumley (who builds instruments at the Denver Folklore Center), and Ordy Garrison. Despite the fact that Cessna moved to his wife's home state of Rhode Island and Pentacost took up residence in Chicago, the band remained Denver-based, performing there regularly. In 2004 the group released The Bloudy Tenant Truth Peace, followed by 2005's Jesus Let Me Down (which came out on Smooch Records) and Cipher (back on Alternative Tentacles) in 2008. A collection of eight rarities and outtakes by the group titled Buried Behind the Barn was released in 2010. Unentitled was scheduled for a 2011 release.
DoWnLoAd
