Customer Reviews

Something Good Is Going to Happen

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Baboon is one of the reasons I ever picked up a guitar and started playing music myself...so for that thank you, guys. And I just want to add a note about the review submitted by "cynthiablalock". I just didn't realize that reviewing this Baboon record had ANYTHING at all to do with Steve's personal opinions, albeit your description of him is completely unfounded...that is unless you actually know the guy...which I am convinced from what you wrote about him that you do not. My point is just that if you don't like the record-fine. There are a multitude of folks who do...but this is certainly not the medium to use for bashing him on your "perception" of who he is as a person. You seem very, very confused.

Please disregard Ms. Blalock's vengeful diatribe as I seriously doubt she's even heard this record. I also doubt she's seen us live, because "mediocre" isn't an oft-levied criticism. Maybe "it sucked" or "it was awesome," but nothing so lukewarm as "mediocre." We're all very proud of this record and it has received generally glowing reviews by those who've heard it (whose numbers, unfortunately, haven't been legion). While I don't agree with some of Steve's politics, he's definitely not hateful, pseudo-intellectual, or misogynistic. I'm not sure what relevance Steve's Amazon reviews have to the sound of "Something Good is Going to Happen to You" but, believe it or not, there are varying political perspectives within our group. This is America, baby! Being the son of a '70s Judy-Chicago-print-owning NOW and ERA member, I implore Ms. Blalock to save her cliched, politically correct demonizing for "Anti-Patriarchy 101." I'm sure she'll get an "A" in it.

If you had a dime for every time some fool said a band "sounds like Green Day," you'd be so rich you could hire Green Day to play at a party -- just for you and your dumb friends. And pay them with 55-gallon drums full of dimes.

Some recordings, however, really do sound like Green Day, including this one, at least partly. My listening notes indicate "70% Green Day circa Dookie, 30% New Day Rising [by Husker Du]"

That's not a bad thing in my book, but it is a notable departure for a hard-touring North Texas outfit typecast as a "noise" band (Drummer Steven Barnett has been known to terrorize band members and dumbfounded audiences alike with an instrument of his devisal called the Room Evacuator).

This disc will not cause an evacuation of any sort, and it will not make your ears bleed at sane volume levels, but its aggressive, infectiously anthemic pop-punk may have you jumping around on the furniture like you've got no sense. Oh, and a couple of the songs will stick in your head (Alright is the worst offender, but Leave Me Be and Secret Room get hooks into gray matter, too). About that let there be no doubt. You can't get them out - they are a resistant strain of earworm.

The recording is intentionally noisy, processed, and altogether brilliant, using distortion to great musical effect. There is persistent recorded-in-a-stairwell reverb (reminiscent of Radio Free Europe by R.E.M.) that combines with oversaturated shouting to make the "singing" into an instrument itself - think Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs singing in a hurricane.

Speaking of instruments, there is outlandish stuff down in the mix - xylophones, bells, tambourines (not sure about that one), and who knows what all. You can take the band out of the noise, but you can't take the noise out of the band.

This record should have been a breakout for Baboon, but one must defer to Mencken on that score. If you are a good and decent person, correct this injustice at once. Buy this disc. Well alright. That is all.

This is a great album. It proves that Baboon just keeps getting better. I dunno what "cynthiablalock" is talking about. She must have tried to date Steve/the drummer, and got turned down. Sounds like a bitter, angry, fat girl to me!!
Can't wait for this band's next album!!

...especially if you're a conservative, or happen to have some conservative opinions. Regardless whether it's a political book review, a political movie review, or even a political discussion board...don't do it. And certainly don't be stupid enough to use your real name like I did. You'll wind up with weird messages in your inbox, people adopting your own name and posting insults, stalkers, etc. Even a couple years later.

I don't know why anyone would *care* enough to bother, but there it is.

I can assure anyone reading this that I am in fact the only "hater/nazi/bigot/fascist/fox news viewer" type guy in the band...the other band members are all very nice and liberal. And besides, I don't think my allegiance with the dark side has affected my drumming much. Then again, I did tune my snaredrum to sound like "BUSH! BUSH! BUSH!" when I hit it.

Wow...this album is definitely something I was not expecting from Baboon, and this is good.
It's unlike their previous albums as it's alot softer and not as fast or rocking as they were, and it's a nice change.
Usually when bands get softer or try experimenting with new sounds, it doesn't always work well, but Baboon has pulled it off very nicely here.
It shows promise of more good things to come from these guys.
Not really a good starting point for new fans though, I'd probably check out their first album, "Face Down in Turpentine" first, then this one.

this is a great album. i've been meaning to write about it for a while, so here you go. it's mellower at times than previous baboon records, but that's okay. it's still got power. and soul. i cannot say enough good things about this album, nor can i recommend it enough. seriously.

I was lucky enough to grow up in DFW when these guys were in their prime, and saw them live dozens of times. It really bugs me that for whatever reason they weren't able to extend their careers any further than this record, but I suppose that's just the reality for a lot of fringe indie bands (and I can only assume the guys got more than a few good times out of it). I moved away from DFW right around the time they started performing some of the tracks that would become this record live, and somewhere I have some extremely crude live recordings of those shows. They were and are great songs, and their overall aesthetic is just one example of the great things that can happen when alienated weirdos start figuring out how to make something uplifting. I feel like if they'd continued in that direction, Baboon could have eventually been considered part of the later upswelling of indie bands . . . it seems the only thing they really had against them was peaking after the Nirvana indie-punk boom (though they did get the Wind-up contract out of that) but before the internet made cult bands more viable. Either way, they were an amazing band, and they won't be (entirely) forgotten.

Baboon is a minor regional club band capable of some pretty mediocre shows. It doesn't get much better on cd either. Save your $15.

One important note; Baboon nut-job drummer Steven Barnett used to post several reviews here on Amazon. Full of anti-female commentary, anger at anyone with 'intellectual' aspirations and chock full of outbursts that speak of serious impulse control problems [see his explosion of anger over Scorsese's The Band DVD wide-screen issue].

Unfortunately, in a fit of rage [apparently not uncommon], he demanded Amazon pull his reviews after a reviewer hilariously shadowed his 'work' with humorous commentary on his penchant for filipina mail order brides.

Steven Barnett's Amazon.com reviews were a horrible window into the hate-filled rantings of an anti-feminist, right-wing mysoginistic pseudo-intellect ranting against anyone aspiring to intellectualism and 'lurning' of any kind. A field day for shrinks.