Customer Reviews

Pro Dang

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

 

 

Last time I dug these two genius freaks - John Gill and Yanna Trance - they were sporting childish skin tattoos and gothic masks with their big hair on the cover of a fine Blast First package that yoked Drag Racing with Crack Attack. Those were two excellent, extremely idiosyncratic records of the 1980s and should be used as the starting point for a musical argument about, eg, the potential uses of sampling and editing by any thinking person. Now listen to what they're up to! A candy coloured engine cover wraps the joyous din that is Pro Drag, where they still play like four year-olds with drum machines and guitars cranked up to unfeasible volumes and strummed in basic Link Wray style; the whole disc overlapping with all kinds of twisted ideas.

Gone are the heart-stopping jump edits of the vocal lines, but in their place is a cast of grotesques delineated with uncanny talent by our ingenious duo of performance artists - like a viciously satirical radio play set to music. Among the individuals here is a Southern Gospel preacher on 'Racoon River', the epitome of the Robert Mitchum preacherman in Night of the Hunter reflected in a distorting mirror.

On 'Panther' a warped Jane Fonda workout motivator breathlessly wallows in her power over men - 'You're lucky to have sex with me!' No less demented is the scenario of 'Girls on the Toilet', glossy soft porn images warped into a nightmarish setting.

Having made a performance art comparison, I would now like to retract it - Karen Finley or Anne Magnusson are far too wordy and clever in comparison to the lyrical directness of Big Stick, their economy of means, their throwaway flippancy, their sheer sleaze...all attitude-rich qualities to be admired.

For the booklet, put your sunglasses on and scope the tinted photograph of the pair, brilliantly posed / composed and juxtaposed with a Wheel of Fortune - it's a masterpiece of ironic kitschy trash, and almost sums up the key to this project. They've got style! - pouring off them like great gobs of maple syrup off a stack of hot pancakes. Dig in!

ED PINSENT from Issue 2 of The Sound Projector magazine

I ventured to buy this CD. Big Stick is a duo who have received critical acclaim in the U.K. and Europe. I found out about Big Stick while visiting with friends in England. I got this "Pro Drag" CD and it's the darling of my music collection.

This is wonderful and strangely addictive stuff. The juxtaposition of Gill's Captain Beefheart growl and Trance's Julee Cruise lilt is simply brilliant. We need more from these two, pleeeeeeze!

There can be few greater pleasures in life than being in on a well-kept secret. Big Stick are hardly one of the world's best known bands, and they almost certainly never will be, but they're a secret well worth knowing about. Though the drag racing theme common to all their work (which reached its peak on the almost-as-good 'Drag Racing Underground' LP) is still much in evidence, this album is a little more diverse in its frames of reference. Appropriately, the sound has shifted out of the garage too; production values are surprisingly high and - for once - this is to the benefit of the music. While Yanna Trance is still expounding her own curious take on girl power (Free Woman, Panther, Girls On The Toilet), John Gill's redneck persona tackles everything from outright depression (Racoon River) to total awe and wonder at life's riches (Bumblebee). Oh, and of course, it's funny. But dismissing Big Stick as a comedy band is like dismissing The Beatles as Merseybeat. This is funny, clever, classic pop/rock music. More people should own this record, but you'll be glad they don't.