Customer Reviews

To Mock a Killingbird

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!!!!!!!!!!

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.

i had the pleasure of hearing this tape a couple of years ago when a friend had it....i loved it and they accidently left it in my car.....now i have worn it out......it is also on the texas chainsaw massacre the new generation soundtrack......i have let my friends hear it and now they are hooked....i love it, truly an awesome recording....

I first met Kyle and sims in 1993 at their rent house in South Austin. A female friend of mine was dating Jared and took me by the house. To meet them., I had seen them live a few times in Dallas and in SA but had never had the chance to meet them. I started catching all the local Austin and SA shows just before the release of this record. The last show I saw was in a crappy club on the corner of Congress and Riverside. It became a Mexican disco about a week after the date. They were Opening the show with their infamous Cover band SSIK doing all Kiss Covers. The second half of the show was the new Pariah material and the older stuf recorded two years ago for the To Mock a Killingbird. They signed a very bad development deal with Geffen that almost caused this albumn to never be released. They all Loved to play live but there was a lot of tension between the band members because they no longer sounded like the music on the record. They had gone more towards the sound of Pantera and harder metal by the time of the albumn release. The last timeI spoke to Sims was about a week later at the Backroom and then he was gone. I saw Jared 6 months later he was finishing the mastering on a Johnny Law record at the ARC (Austin Rehersal Complex) They all had gone seperate ways after Sims death. This band should have been more than just a Texas legend. The Music was beter than most major acts and their live show was incredible.
For anyone who didnt know Sims and Kyle were twins. There is a Foundation in Austin in memory of Sims. They help musicians recieve free psychatric help for depression and other emotional issues. These guys deserved better treatment but Geffen screwed them. I dont think they made a dime off this record.

This Texas based band is one of the best things to come out of the Central Texas region since Stevie Ray Vaughn. The albumn has eveything you could ever want to hear in a single ablumn. It can hit you hard and heavy or be slow and mellow. Highlights to this albumn would be Powerless, Junkmail, Letter to Myslef, Jesus Freak and Sick Kid. They've got the perfect blend of modern day heavy metal and the 80's glam rock. One of the top ten albumns in my collection.

Sadly enough, Pariah never got to the potential that they should have. I knew these guys very well and I moved away before Sims lost his battle with depression. I found out what happened to Sims through a mutual friend that does Rawtime & CapZeyeZ (who I used to operate cameras for him in the early years, along with doing a local hardcore music magazine called MetalZine), and I was shocked to say the least. If you could have seen them live you would have died! Of course they were in the middle of the hairspray bands era but they held their ground nonetheless. I interviewed them, mostly Kyle Ellison since he was my buddy (along with Sims), and I have to say that although this CD is a great representation of them, it just didn't do them justice. You HAD to see them live. You won't be disappointed if you get this. Then you will have to hunt down their first local Austin release, a tape called "Rattle Your Skull", which is rare and hard to find. I still have my copy they gave to me somewhere, I am seriously considering MP3ing it so I can play it in my MP3 player. There is a song on there called "Heaven's Above" that singer Dave Derrick performed flawlessly.

I bought this CD a number of years ago from a bargain bin because it looked like it had potential. I am not often right about blind music purchases but this was probably one of my best. The reviews here give this album 5 stars. It's true, this is one of the best examples of the glam metal genre. If you like GNR, LA GUNS, DANGEROUS TOYS and others this is for you. Even if you don't particularly care for a musical style more known for its hairspray than actual performance, you may like this. Heck, if you like real rocking Rock And Roll this is for you. It's hearing bands like this that make me want to cry. How can a band this great only have one album?
Did I Hear You Say?
Love To Turn You On
Do You Know How To Rock?
and Letter To Myself are some of the greatest songs you have never heard of. Be kind to yourself, buy this album.

I moved back to Texas in '93, a few months before this album was released and had the pleasure of seeing Pariah several times including the CD release party at Sneakers for "To Mock A Killingbird". These guys not only put on a killer show but wrote great songs. Super cool guys to hang out with as well. When my first band was starting out I gave a really, really rough demo to Sims and he was the most supportive person you'd ever meet. I was so so sad to hear of his passing. I bought this tape from them that night at Sneakers and got it signed by everyone. Well, I bought the CD version off Amazon and it came in today and I just had to write on how good this is. Yes, their roots are for sure in 80s hard rock but I think this CD was very much current sounding for the early 90s. It has a different flavor than just being another run of the mill 80s hard rock act. Maybe it came from them moving to Austin when they did and them incorparating those influences into their sound. Very diverse CD that sounds just as good, to me, as when it was released 17 years ago. I see Shandon from time to time and Jared is in Broken Teeth. Last I heard of Kyle he was playing in the Butthole Surfers but that was years ago. I have no clue what became of David Derrick but I hope he's still jamming out wherever he is.

I bought this CD in 1993 at a used CD store for $1.99 (it still has the price tag on it). It was a promotional copy. I remember I liking it. This morning, I was going through my CDs looking for "new" stuff to load on my mp3 player and ran across this one. I was blown away! I had completely forgot how great this album is! Or perhaps I didn't appreciate it because I had yet to be exposed to all the latest crap. I agree with other reviewers here. These guys should have been really big.