To Mock a Killingbird

Pariah, ???? | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 17, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000008J9X
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,671 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Anesthesia

2. Did I Hear You Say...?

3. Make Believe (Jesus Freak)

4. Powerless

5. Junk Mail

6. Love to Turn You On

7. Nobody Listens

8. Do You Know How to Rock

9. Letter to Myself

10. Torn and Tied

11. This Means War

12. Love

13. Sick Kid

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This one's a keeper., April 25, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Coshocton, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Mock a Killingbird (Audio CD)

Yes, five stars for the band you've never heard of. Actually, while the album is musically tight, lyrically insightful, and a rocking good time; it does not do the quintet justice. I had the full pleasure of seeing them live in various small clubs in Austin, TX. Unfortunately, y'all will never be as blessed, due to the bassist (Sims Ellison) committed suicide in 1995. His younger brother and guitarist(Kyle)had recently been touring with Butthole Surfers. This is all I have heard of any of the survivors. From the ultimate live anthem "Do You Know How to Rock?" to the life pondering "Make Believe (Jesus Freak)" to the Beattles-meets-Guns-n'-Roses "Love to Turn You On" to the butt-boogiein' bass line of "This Means War" this album needs to be played (and listened to) by more people than just me and a dude in NJ. I used to have a copy of their demo tape and a CD they released in Austin for the fans called "Make Believe" featuring some of the same songs, but not as "produced". I would give just about anything to get my hands on these again.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Texas Best, May 22, 2003

By 

Christian (Sacramento,CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Mock a Killingbird (Audio CD)

Pariah is an Austin Texas band who signed with Geffen records 6 months to late!
While Pariah should have gone farther than they did,Geffen put all their energy into Guns and Roses.Not that G-n-R were a bad band,they got ALL the promo and time of Geffen,leaving REAL TALENT on the back burner.Pariah was that real talent!
Sad as it is,after the CD was released,
geffen dropped Pariah.Thay went back to Austin,where bassist Sims Ellison lost his love Rene Zelweger(a now famous movie star).The band split and all went on to do some cool stuff....But Austin and Pariahs fans were never the same.
It's too bad !!!THEY ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A cool surprise, August 1, 2008

By 

Justin Gaines (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Mock a Killingbird (Audio CD)

I had never heard of Pariah before, but I decided to take a chance on To Mock a Killingbird when I ran across a copy in a clearance bin. I figured that even though everything about this album pointed to yet another boring alterna-rock release, there was at least some chance that it would be a metal album. Much to my surprise, Pariah's sound is straight-up Sunset Strip hair metal, which I'm always on the lookout for.

The Austin-based band had a sound that was along the gutter-rockin' lines of L.A. Guns, Jetboy, Britny Fox, and to some extent Guns n' Roses. To Mock a Killingbird is a solid, whiskey-soaked, perfectly sleazy barroom rock album that ought to appeal to anyone who's still interested in the Hollywood hair metal scene. Pariah really wasn't offering anything new, but it was still cool to discover another hair metal band that I missed the first time around.

If this album had been released in 1987, everyone would know Pariah's name. Of course, by 1993 absolutely no one was interested in hair metal (I'm sad to say that even yours truly was trading in my Firehouse and Slaughter discs for Pearl Jam and Soundgarden), so this ended up being Pariah's only release.