Prisonshake
(Scat)
P-shake, we hardly knew ye...
Cleveland's got its share of broken-dreams boulevards, and thus it came to pass that Prisonshake's late ‘80s/early ‘90s heyday came to an end when core members Robert Griffin (guitars) and Doug Enkler (vox) relocated to St. Louis in 1995. The band never really split up, with the duo soon picking up new members in their adopted hometown; but for more than a decade now, Prisonshake has operated so far under - off - the national radar that you'd be forgiven for assuming the beast had, indeed, been put permanently to rest. Now, though, the very much extant group has this double-CD set collecting assorted tracks cut during the St. Louis tenure, and for long-suffering Prisonshake acolytes, it's sonic manna.
To backtrack: 1987 seems like an eternity away, but for many of us, it was a pretty special time. We got our music news not from blogs or tweets but via the U.S. government, and one of the favored mediums of communication was the 7-inch single; seemingly not a day went by without a mail-ordered 45 arriving in the post. Among the zillions of bands issuing singles was Prisonshake, who over the next few years released 45s on Herb Jackson, Sympathy, Estrus, Australia's Rubber, and Griffin's own Scat imprint; the band also mustered a handful of outstanding albums, notably the 1990 epic I'm Really Fucked Now (a uniquely-designed box set containing a CD, a cassette of demos and a clear-vinyl LP compiling out-of-print singles) and 1993's The Roaring Third (the following year Matador, as part of a brief alliance with Scat, released TRT demos under the title Failed to Menace). By marrying a distinctive punk sensibility - the group initially formed out of the ashes of Clevo hardcore groups - to a deft appreciation of Exile-era Stones and Replacements-styled pop hooks, Prisonshake, in the minds of many, was the perfect synthesis of rock then and now, and therefore a particularly promising bridge to alt-rock's future. But, as pointed out above, the move to St. Louis effectively took ‘em out of the game.
Still, they coulda been contenders, and as evidenced on Dirty Moons' two discs, the band - currently comprising Griffin, Enkler, drummer Patrick Hawley and bassist Steve Scariano - hasn't exactly been unproductive during the past decade. Some serious studio work clearly went down. Take 6-minute opening track "Fake Your Own Death": it's a part-rumbling, part-lurching, half-funky and half-skronky collage powered by jazzy electric piano, blistering guitar leads and insistent maraca throb, and when Griffin and Enkler intone the fateful lyrics, "It's true, she may not look like the devil/ But her horns are just growing in," that chill you feel down your spine is the from the aural equivalent of a film's subliminal clip. Elsewhere, in "Dream Along," chugging riffs get overlaid onto a backwards passage to create a haunting psychedelic rocker; "'You're Obviously the One'" hearkens back to Roaring Third-style Stones/'mats anthemism; "We've Only Tasted the Wine" is sparklingly spangly powerpop straight outta latterday Guided By Voices territory; and the 10-minute "Year of the Donk" hews true to its lyric manifesto turn up the jams and ditch those clowns as it morphs through a series of textural and thematic fretboard changes so dizzying and cinematic it's exhausting.
As one might expect from a double set chronicling a decade-plus' worth of recordings, a lot of ground gets covered - included is the five-part "Scissors Suite" featuring violin, cello and a guest vocal from onetime P-shake drummer Ann Hirschfeld - so there are undoubtedly moments guaranteed to flummox the casual listener. But nestled among these 22 tracks are plenty of gems that will fully repay the time spent taking in the whole project. As Griffin himself writes on the Scat site, ["Call it] an underground rock Chinese Democracy, maybe, but with less drama and way less money."
Fair enough, Rob. And welcome back, Prisonshake.
Standout Tracks: "We've Only Tasted the Wine," "Fake Your Own Death," "Fuck Your Self-Esteem" FRED MILLS
