Church Gone Wild / Chirpin Hard (Dig)

Hella, Hella | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 22, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Suicide Squeeze
• ASIN: B0007NMJCC
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,541 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The third full-length from these Sacramento noise-rock heroes is a double album with drummer Zach Hill and guitarist Spencer Seim each claiming their own disc, performing an entire record on their own. Hill's "Church Gone Wild" delivers a dark and menacing onslaught of aggression and guts, while Seim's "Chirpin Hard" brings out a lighthearted but wholly technical and equally impressive spattering of pop and punk melded in the hot pot of the computer and video game age. This album re-establishes Hella as the kings of spastic noise and experimentalism.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Hella's best but for fans, April 18, 2005

By 

J. Cacciola "GWP" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Church Gone Wild / Chirpin Hard (Dig) (Audio CD)

I thoroughly enjoy Chirpin Hard. It's definitely amazing; it combines all of Hella's LP and EP styles into one album. Church Gone Wild is a different story. It's really hard to get into this record; I'm not sure if it's the vocals or the arrangements. It's just a little too tedious for my tastes at times. Zach Hill should've made this cd a little more accessible. I understand the 'not sacrificing any artistic vision' idea, but I would've liked to hear some more of his amazing drumming that isn't drowned out by constant effects and vocals.
Try Hold Your Horse Is before this one.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Album of Personalities, September 2, 2005

By 

Padedo (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Church Gone Wild / Chirpin Hard (Dig) (Audio CD)

Hella do an OutKast style concept on this release, having each member do his own full-length CD of music. Un-like OutKast featuring each other on their solo projects, Zach and Spencer separately play each and every instrument on their own creations.

With Spencer's Chirpin Hard, this concept reveals what an amazing musician and composer he is, even showing Zach up on the drums with tracks like the amazing dream space rockin' of, "Try Dis..." In Zach's Church Gone Wild CD, we find out that Zach really is from another f*!%ing planet! This epic hour long drone of noise and tripped out vocals sounds a lot like stuff off of Zach's true solo release, Zach Hill & The Holy Smokes. These albums put into black & white the two extremes that Spencer and Zach pull from to create what is Hella.

Together, these two opposite sounds of "listenable" poppy Nintendo space rock and "unlistenable" UFO noise explosions from outer space come together to make up the amazingly complex and yet somehow enjoyably "listenable," HELLA. More than an album of music, this is an album of personalities.

I wonder what would happen if you played these two CDs together at the same time, like some Flaming Lips Zaireeka action... Maybe then you'd get your beloved "Hold Your Horse Is" again. Let the music evolve!

5.0 out of 5 stars Spencer's disc, November 16, 2010

By 

xylophone_enthusiast - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Church Gone Wild / Chirpin Hard (Dig) (Audio CD)

is bY far the best. The track on Hill's side with the choir is pretty nice. But Spencer takes the cake. It's unanimous in my mind.