Customer Reviews

Butch

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was fortunate enough to discover this album last year, and not too long after the Geraldine Fibbers became my favorite band. Whereas the Fibber's sound could be described before this album with enough hyphens (country-punk-pop, etc. . .) no amount of ineffective descriptions do their sound on this album justice. With virtuoso guitarist Nels Cline now in the mix, the Fibbers decided to expand their already unique sound, particularly lead singer Carla Bozulich and Cline's taste in avant-garde sonic youth style noise. The first song, California Tuffy, is catchy poppy song that even hints at surf guitar, which is followed by two songs that are more punk than anything else, but not like any punk you've ever heard before. The country influence is scaled back somewhat from their previous album, with the exception of two songs in the middle of the cd that are as country as any George Jones cover the Fibbers ever recorded. Jessy Greene's violin has never been more terrifying or beautiful than on the completely undefinable "Arrow Through My Drunken Heart", while Bozulich alludes to child abuse, a theme that occurs more than once. If you manage to survive that song without breaking down crying, the Fibbers reward you with more upbeat old-fashioned love song called "You Doo Right," a cover of the proto-punk band Can. Butch is easily the most diverse and versatile album of the year, but some of the focus and flow of Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home was sacrificed to achieve it. An album that truly fits all moods, if not all people.

Words simply can't do justice to the incredible music on this CD. I'll have to say Carla Bozulich has one of the greatest voices in music and her songwriting and lyrics are both scary and brilliant. The band itself is equally able to handle the caustic punk material as well as the good old country in the middle of the CD. Just buy this already! You'll thank me later.

Oh, how the world need more gender-bending alt-country poetesses who know the power of a well-placed Can song.

Unfortunately, after a few listens, the twisted country hootenannies start to lose their punch, but the slow dirges ("Trashman In Furs," "Butch") and the angry palpitations ("Toybox," "I Killed the Cukoo") are the songs that grow on you like moles.

I'd recommend The Fibbers, particularly, to people who find themselves disillusioned with the crop of female musicians the record industry has to offer. Carla Bozulich is exactly the kind of clandestine, original, powerful voice I'm always thrilled to unearth.

I first saw the video for California Tuffy on some local cable-access show, and was hooked from then on. I bought the cd, and it has become one of my all time favorites. Like eating some complex dish at a nice restaraunt, there is a nice fusion of different influences that make a pleasing sum of all parts. Some ferocious punk, and dissonance, with some sporadic twang and violin are thrown in. Carla has a unique voice that may not be "pretty" in timbre, but sounds wonderful in this setting. She can pull off a nice folk sound, or her voice can punch you in the face. Nels Cline the guitarist on this recording went on later to play with Wilco. She continues to make some pretty interesting music, albeit a little more experimental than this one.

This album is amazing. They rock. Carla rocks. It's one of my favorite albums of all time and I have brilliant taste in music.

I love this album, and I have since first hearing it back in ole '97, when the world was mostly ocean. It is really, really beautiful, like a dust devil nursery. God bless the Fibbers.

The Geraldine Fibbers rocked hard, played a credible alt-country (tweaked by paint-smear minor-key violin everywhere), and wrote some smart, powerful songs. Think Kate Bush with a lousy childhood and a booming bottom end: same epic intentions, and more often than not they deliver. "Toybox" is a fantastic rant: the opening towers over you like a thunderhead. The album's a little long, and the power mixes uncertainly with the twang: strange trip but a good one.

This is quite possibly one of the most moving and graphic displays of raw emotional songwriting I have ever heard. Carla is truly the most exciting writer of her generation and I will never grow tired of her work. It continues to impress me, especially some of the stuff she is now doing with scarnella. Butch has moved me in a way I can only describe as orgasmic.

Ok, I'll admit that the Geraldine Fibbers probably won't appeal to everyone. There's people out there who wants the genres well-divided and can't handle the thought of something as complex as this, but if you're one of the few willing to expand their boundaries (or disregard the boundaries altogether), the GF will not disappoint. The album brims with fear, resentment, longing and anger brought to life through Bouzlich's voice and Cline's violins. This is country after dark--the trailer trash, the boozy men, the tomboy, etc.; There is an almost voyeuristic quality to it. You will not soon forget this album...

I got this based on all the raving SPIN did about it, and have to say I was not disappointed. I actually agree with most of what Elvis had to say, but I don't know, call me one-dimensional: skip those two "country" tracks in the center, which I find jarring and just WIERD--like a really unfunny joke--after all the fury and pain fighting (and failing) to stay below the surface that the first seven songs are so full of. "Arrow to my Drunken Eye" is indeed disturbing and unique; my personal favorite though is "Toybox", which is just the most in-your-face three-minutes I've ever heard: the vocals, the lyrics (that bit about the speculum in the beginning, the little tidbit about the "canned fruit aisle" right next to her first fruit being a lousy lay, the line "is this my only skill?"--y'know, all that stuff), that crazy violin that squalls like so much feedback... I've been walking around for weeks with this song in my head (can you tell?) and fully expect that it's already taken permanent residence in some inaccessible chamber of my mind. But there's something cool about almost every song on here (except those wierd country things...), so what else can I say: BUY THIS! (but program tracks 8 and 9 right out of the sequence)