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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An aural exorcism, May 16, 2000
This is the album the brothers in Fishbone HAD to make in order to stay sane. A allegorical concept album telling the tale of their use and abuse in their first decade in the music industry, "Chim Chim" holds no punches and is undoubtedly one of the most bitterly honest and caustic recordings ever released. For those not in the know, Fishbone had cracked the Top 50 for the first time with their 1991 masterpiece "The Reality of My Surroundings." When their follow-up didn't do the same numbers, Columbia Records dropped them, leading to the angst-ridden "Chim Chim." The story of the album is revealed in the two interludes, featuring the group's legandary lead singer Angelo Moore waxing poetic with a storyline told in a style remeniscent of his Dr. Maddvibe poetry excursions. The band is metaphorically represented as Chim Chim and Columbia Records is warmly referred to as a "massive corporate plantation/slavery compound," a moniker it probably rightly deserved considering the way it treated the band. The bitterness the band feels is aurally noticeable whenever he alludes to their formal label. However, the climax of the album comes with the song "Rock Star." An open account of the racism the band has witnessed first-hand in the industry, it's the song that, unfortunately, the band was born to make being five black brothers playing "white" music. "So I guess you can say I'm an angry brotha/can't play my music 'cause of barrier of color/deep in debt with a seven record set/videos and funky shows but no one knows/the major pain and misery of bein' radical.." It doesn't get more real than this. The fact that the public doesn't have a problem with white posers like Kid Rock making black music but has a problem with blacks making music that was invented by blacks in the first place is so sad. As for the music...it's very different from their earlier stuff. I have been a hardcore fan for a decade and it even took me about 10 listens before I finally understood where they were coming from. I think the Intro of the album says it best: "If you try you will catch on." The loss of guitarist Kendall Jones and Keyboard/Trombone player Chris Dowd was a downer, but the remaining members, especially guitarist John Bigham, play so well you hardly notice they're gone. Fish's drumming is especially good. The drumming during the final minute of "Nutmeg" is some of the best I've ever heard in my entire life, and I've heard a lot. This is pure, unadulterated 'Bone. This is the sound of five unbelievably talented and underappreciated men trying to cope with the fact that the only thing holding them back from superstardom is their color. This isn't an easy listen, but the rewards are many. Thank God for Fishbone.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
CHIM CHIM'S BAD@SS REVENGE (1996), March 6, 2005
The problem with this album wasn't Fishbone's. It was mine, and mine alone. And when I finally understood and got past that problem, this album became one of the best Fishbone albums they released, despite sound quality or diminished band members.
My disappointment came first with opening up the Cd on day of release, and finding two members of the band missing, Kendall Jones and Chris Dowd. It truly made my heart sink, because Fishbone up until that point had retained all its original members for more than 10 years. And often, as is the case, when people start jumping ship, it means the boat is sinking. Well, at least that's the purported case with rats, I've never been on a ship to know if it's true. This original disappointment persuaded me to not give the album a chance, and it was a mistake that has been corrected. It took me some years to do, but I get this album now, and everything that's being said on it. It's nearest equivalent in overall message is 1991's The Reality of My Surroundings.
The 1996 Chim Chim Fishbone were: Angelo Moore (Vocals / Sax), Walter Kibby II (Vocals / Trumpet), John Bigham (Guitar - before Fishbone he was with Miles Davis), and brothers Phil Fisher `'Fish'' (Drums), and Norwood Fisher (Bass / Vocals). All songs were credited to Fishbone as a whole for the first time, apart from `Pre Nut' and `Chim Chim's Bad@ass Revenge co-written with executive producer Dallas Austin.
CHIM CHIM is an album that does have to be taken song by song, track by track, because it is worthy of any description of its contents.
Intro -
`'It's the coming of the Digital Freak Swing Vs. Ape Kills Master. If you try you will catch on''. Spoken piece announced by a security alert horn. The aim and purpose of Fishbone's Chim Chim is documented before you even hear one song.
Chim Chim's Bad@ss Revenge -
`'Running the stop sign to get your peace of mind'' - Opens like a cowboy's lament, while Angelo Moore welcomes you to the proceedings like an old, irritable drunk on stage. Which then goes into kickstart jump up thrash metal. Not as stereo as it could be, the rest of the album doesn't sound like this. Maybe that was the plan. The bass, and guitars are the equivalent of Mono, the drums are in Stereo. Why? Who knows. Chim Chim knows.
In The Cube -
`'With no question, and no testin' of no one's wits or individuality'' - The 8 minute 32 second slow Ska / Jazz / Funk workout. Points out the error of all of our ways, even when our intentions are good.
Beergut -
`'But the gut snuck up while he wasn't lookin'' - Dedicated to the beerdrinker and hellraiser. Pure chaos all the way through, but what happens at the end of this song as Fishbone becomes a musical train is quite phenomenal. That train would speed past the station so fast, you'd have no hope of catching it. `'Next stop - Corn Liquor, Wines and Spirits.''
Interlude 1 - Band Introduction and History of Fishbone to date. Jawbone solo!
Psychologically Overcast -
`'Cause the clouds are in your mind'' - Features Busta Rhymes. Should have been the single, if one ever were to be released. Funk Metal.
Alcoholic -
`'With an Eight for a Chaser'' - Dedicated to the Winos, Junkies and Drunks, opens with Reggae, slips into Punk Ska, with a brief second of Funk. Absolutely as funny as Angelo found it halfway through.
Love ... Hate -
`'Love and Hate too close for most but Revenge can make it even'' - Opens with Swing Metal Blues, into Ska. Probably the album's defining piece, certainly one of its high watermarks. 6.44m of pleasure.
Interlude 2 - Update of the Chim Chim story.
Riot -
`'Treat your customer crazy, they gonna act crazy'' - Total thrash punk. Reasons for riot.
Monkey Di©k -
`'Get me soap and water'' - Frenetic, crazy chaos blues at 90mph, until the chorus. This is the song that woke me up to how good this album actually was. I heard everything differently, and I understood what was going on, once I got past my own blockade. Includes the first use of the Theremin on a Fishbone album. Lev Sergeivitch Termen who invented it in 1917, would be proud. I think? It was used on a song called what???
Sourpuss -
`'You got that clench jaw scrunched snawz look'' - The music is actually sour. And that is very hard thing to do, actually making the music reflect the topic matter. Like sucking a lime for 7 minutes and 13 seconds. Minnie The Moocher all frowned out til it gets funked up at the end.
'Rock Star -
`'Wreck your hotel room, catch a Lear Jet, stay in debt. Manic depressed.'' - A brutal indictment on racism and ego in the music industry, and what Fishbone encountered trying to release their music to the mass. Enters like the Fishbone train that left the station in `Beergut', going 100 miles per hour.
Pre Nut -
Precursor to the final track. Da' Blues, with Soul.
Nutmeg -
`'The time is now for you to be the beast'' - Opens like a bizarre Cecil B. DeMille epic he never filmed, if he had also acknowledged there aren't many Caucasian people, if at all, hanging around ancient Mesopotamia. Twisted Snake Charming Metal. Fish, their drummer, has his say about the Nutmeg in the finale.
This album stands as a document and diary of one of America's most important bands, who mixed almost 100 years of African-American musical culture into one form, called Fishbone. Purchase the album just to say `I own a Fishbone album'.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mutant Ninja Techniques, June 18, 1999
By A Customer
It surprises me how often people relate or don't relate to Fishbone in the terms of ska, but there it is. Clearly this is the album which would test such a narrow view of what the band has proven itself to be. On the same album with tracks like Love..Hate which boasts of some of the most sophisticated horn phrasing and rythms ever associated with electric guitar in any genre are old, old school favorites Beergut and Alcoholic going back to the days at Al's Bar in downtown LA in the early 80s. But they push again as only an LA band can, with Riot, Rock Star and Monkey Dick, Fishbone breaks out with some serious hardcore thrash which makes you rethink what thrashing is all about. This is not adolescent rebellion, this is real rebellion and you can feel the weight of lyrics lived with the kick ass committment of a band that lives it. Fishbone is the anti studio-gangster, running the stopsign to get a piece of your mind with working words that aren't the shallow ejaculations of numb-nuts hardheads, but the heartfelt shouts of hearty love warriors. But what has changed about the band as reflected in the longer cuts, especially Love..Hate and Nutmeg is the kind of (dare i say it) orchestral presense of a group of musicians who seem on the edge transcending the form. Taking off on the groove of Love..Hate and riffin on the lyric is magical, evocative of the ways you remember exactly where, even in the long versions of their songs Marvin would scream in Give it Up, or George would in One Nation Under a Groove, then turn around into a funkafied fanfare. Extraordinary. It's funk and rock and ska and poetry and rap and jazz, composed into a smooth frenzy that makes you jump, and then listen again and again. NutMeg finally is the Anthem and it is something that bears repeating in these days of sellouts and poseurs, that there remains true, subtle yet passionate spirit behind that thing we call Rock, which is not all about cynical despair and other suicidal visions. Fishbone continues to bring the proper energy, humor, vituosity and gutbucket granduer to the front. This homie salutes, nyah better yet gives a sly wink and remains at peace with my inner Chim - I celebrate the birth of the babyhead... ahahahhha! I'm a wild headed brother pushing 40 and this is my music. I crank it up and live.
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