Prairie Home Invasion

Jello Biafra, Mojo Nixon | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 24, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Alternative Tentacles
• ASIN: B000000F9J
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,763 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Putting two legends of truly countercultural spirit together simply had to produce something of genius, and though Mojo Nixon's dropped a couple of hints since then that things weren't as cool as they could be, Invasion is nonetheless a fine fusion of Jello's deranged nerviness and Nixon's rootsy attitude. With Nixon's backing band, the Toadliquors, on hand to provide the rest of the cowpunk, honky tonk music, the two come out fighting with "Buy My Snake Oil," Jello's rip into early-'90s alternative culture, and don't let up. Pete "Wet Dawg" Gordon's piano work definitely deserves to be singled out -- check the opening break on "Where Are We Gonna Work" -- and Mike "Wild" Middleton's drumming doesn't let up once. One of the sharper things about Invasion is its sense of protest roots; almost half the songs are from earlier musicians or public domain folk songs, sometimes more picturesque, like "Convoy in the Sky," but other times slotting alongside Jello and Nixon's work perfectly. Phil Ochs' brilliant slam on fuzzy left-leaners, "Love Me, I'm a Liberal," gets a topically updated revamp, while the album's lead single revamps an old standard into "Will the Fetus Be Aborted?." As for the lead performers' own work, ultimately this is more Nixon's show than Biafra's. The latter definitely has the spirit for this effort, taking the majority of the lead vocals, but Nixon has the better voice for the proceedings, while his guitar kicks butt and takes names. The artwork for Invasion deserves special mention, too: besides a hilarious back photo of Jello and Nixon re-enacting Grant Wood's "American Gothic," the veritable explosion of news stories detailing business and government idiocies, random ad images, and snippets of Tom Tomorrow's "This Modern World" comic strip, is enough to make anyone reject mass culture in a second. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Them Boy's Ain't from 'round Heah . . ., March 20, 2001

By 

Elderbear (Loma Linda, Aztlan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Prairie Home Invasion (Audio CD)

Imagine two 18 wheelers colliding head-on, at speeds no sober southern sherriff would ever approve of. Imagine that one of these semis was carrying a full load of The Nashville Sound. Imagine the other was loaded beyond what the truck scales will accept with punk lyrics. You've pretty much imagined this CD!

(Parenthetical note)

The liner notes alone are worth the price of the CD. They're sprinkled with odds & ends of quotes & photos in a marvelous non sequiter. Bill Clinton boring Jesse Jackson. "The findings determined that more of the young scholars aspired to become pimps than members of Congress." "AFRO Country Club, where only the BALL is white!" Dear Abbey I ran over a raccoon. Don't Even THINK of Parking Here.

My favorite numbers (besides 23 & 42) are:

2. Where are we gonna work when the trees are gone? A good ole boy honky tonk number where the lumberjacks wonder what happens when corporate mergers & clearcutting leave us without any trees left to fell.

4. Atomic Power - a wonderful satire, done as a honky tonk slide guitar hymn. "Atomic Power, given by the mighty power of God" & "Hiroshima, Nagasaki, paid a big price for their sins"

5. Are You Drinking with Me Jesus - A bluesy, down-in-your-cups number: "Are you drinking with me Jesus, I can't see you very clear. Are you drinkin with me Jesus, Would you buy a friend a beer?" ["Ban the Bible, too much sex" & a fish shaped National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame are just two of the items which adorn this page of the liner notes] "I know you can walk on water, but can you walk on this much beer?"

6. Love Me, I'm a Liberal - A yuppie remake of the Phil Ochs song. This song was my undoing. It pegged me. The satire was too close to my own life. This song & Pacifica Radio made the center too uncomfortable (read my other reviews--perhaps you'll get the picture).

9. Hamlet Chicken Plant Disaster - Bluegrassy number, a tribute to the workers incinerated at the Hamlet, NC chicken processing plant, when management chained the doors shut and a fire broke out. The contrast between the lightness of the music & the heaviness of the subject matter cuts deep.

11. Let's Go Burn Ole Nashville Down - Solid bluegrass tune. Musical revolutionaries wish to put the Nashville moguls up against the wall & pull the trigger.

12. Will the Fetus be Aborted? Sounds like Johnny Cash doing "Will the Circle be Unbroken" until you listen to the lyrics...

13. Plastic Jesus - Slide guitar number. Great satire about some ignoramus driving around with his "plastic Jesus" on his dashboard. Without him & his ilk, Oral Roberts would go broke!

Ohmigawd! I'ts aginst nature!

You betcha! That's why I like it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent Hybrid!, June 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Prairie Home Invasion (Audio CD)

Music by Mojo and the Toadliquors, lyrics (mostly) by Jello - put them together and you get one of the most unlikely albums ever. The most surprising thing is that it works brilliantly!

The highlights have got to be "Love me, I'm a liberal", a re-write of the old Phil Ochs tune for modern-day Clinton yuppies; "Will the Fetus be Aborted?", a hilarious send-up of fundamentalist pro-lifers to the tune of the old gospel standard "Will the Circle be Unbroken"; and the opening "Buy My Snake Oil", which contains some priceless jabs at Nirvana et al ("Punk without rebellion / we'll call it Grunge(TM) for you / I'll dress just like Don Henley / and sing just like him too").

The Mojo-esque bits are great too, especially "Let's go Burn Old Nashiville Down", which savages C+W sellouts. Above all this is a FUN album, with Jello's usual bile tempered for once by a sense of the absurdity of his targets. Buy it now!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This album is rad!, April 19, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Russellville, AR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prairie Home Invasion (Audio CD)

This is one of the best things that Jello has ever been involved in. It combines the best of both worlds. It has all of Jello's classic social commentary and old Dead Kennedy's antics, along with the great bluegrass feel of Mojo and the 'liquors. Kicks major ass.