Cakewalk

House Of Freaks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 27, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000008GP7
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,804 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #82 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Jangle Pop

Track Listings

1. ...

2. Rocking Chair

3. I Got Happy

4. I Confess

5. Hymn

6. A Good Man

7. Magpie Wing

8. Cakewalk

9. This Is It

10. Honor Among Lovers

11. My House

12. Ants

13. Never

14. Remember Me Well

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Overlooked Gem, February 23, 2006

By 

B. Whitfield "zhoolik" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cakewalk (Audio CD)

I bought House of Freaks in 1991 because 'Rocking Chair' was getting pretty good airplay from the local Minneapolis alt/college rock radio station at the time. Since then, I'd only heard 'Rocking Chair' once as piped-in music at a T.G.I. Fridays several years ago.

'Rocking Chair' is an aptly named number that bounds with a laid back swagger and sound, that also reminds one of Joe Walsh - only with more clever lyrics. This song is best enjoyed on a road trip with the sun blazing into the windscreen.

You'll find other gems such as 'Never', which is an excellent bitter post-break-up poem expressing conflicting emotions of love, denial, yearning, and spitefulness all wrapped in one song. Joe Walsh-like guitars lazyily float in the background as the singer stridently emotes his feigned indifference. But the words become more mournful as the guitars come to the forefront as the angry voice plaintively recedes in the background.

'Honor Among Lovers' is another lovelorn missive that has a nice radio-friendly sound to it. Otherwise conventional vocals and instrumentals proceed with thundering drums crashing quixotically in the background, yet whole thing somehow sustains a cohesive rhythm.

'Magpie Wing' is a nice little roots music number a'la The Soggybottom Boys in the Cohen Bros. movie "O Brother Where Art Thou." Wished they took it a bit more serious and left out the burp. In other parts, you get the feeling that Bryan and Johnny took this album's recording with a very casual attitude.

'Remember Me Well' is a beautifully rendered opus, reminiscent of an Irish funeral procession that neatly ties a sentimental bow to this little forgotten gem. And I do remember this album well.

There are millions of gifted musicians, a few hundred thousand gifted musicians and songwriters. Unfortunately, the marketplace circa 1991-2000 could not adequately support all of them. Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott are among the talented-but-forgotten but I'm grateful I found their CD.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great band with a great sound, February 16, 2010

By 

dib "dib" (Minneapolis, MN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cakewalk (Audio CD)

Stripped-down rock music. I bought this CD because of how much I liked the All My Friends CD. I didn't like this one as much, but it was still good.
Mainly a drums & guitar band (like The White Stripes, but long before The White Stripes). Good folk/blues roots rock-n-roll. Heavy focus on the melodies. Nice clean sound.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars interesting..., June 24, 2004

By 

Linda Larkin (Salem, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cakewalk (Audio CD)

I bought this album because i saw it in a bin of CDs for 99 cents at FYE a couple days ago... so i was like "hmm.. this looks interesting, im gonna get it" i had never heard of them... didnt even know if the name of the band was Cakewalk or A house of freaks! but i took it home and listened to it expecting it to be crap... but it was actually pretty good. Some of the songs are enjoyable to listen to... the only one i have trouble with is Ants because the constant mention of bugs is just... ugh, intolerable.