King Missile maintains indie humor on major label
By Kevin Robinson
The Battalion
King Missile
Uw Way to Salvation
Atlantic
r A Thoever would have
l/\ / thought it could happen?
V Y King Missile, loyalists of
New York underground label,
Shimmy-Disc and its dark master,
Kramer, have been signed by At
lantic records for their new re
lease, The Way to Salvation. At
lantic records!
We are talking about Led Zep
pelin's old label, right? I guess it
all goes to show that hard work
and determination do pay off. . .
or maybe it's just that the local At
lantic recruiter was smoking
something funnier than his usual
Marlboros.
The first question to enter my
mind upon seeing the switch was
whether King Missile had man
aged to maintain the degree of
fy humor that they had mas-
iered on Shimmy-Disc.
The band hit college radio
with a vengeance last year with
the single, "Jesus is Cool", in
which lead singer/songwriter
John S. Hall informed the world
(in his best stoned surfer voice)
that if he had wanted to, Jesus
could have danced better than
Fred Astaire or baked the perfect
German chocolate cake and that
was sooo cool!
One look at the back cover
of Salvation and noticing such
tracks as "The Boy Who Ate
Lasagna and Could Jump Over
a Church" reassured me that
Atlantic hadn't exactly been
pushing these guys towards
any mainstream success.
Now before I get ahead of
myself, let me clue you in to
my personal attitude towards
most of these kinds of bands. I
not only dislike most of these
nerdy, punk, comedy acts, but
the words loathe and despise
often immediately leap to
mind as well. The Dead Milk
men? Kill 'em again.
They Might be Giants? I'd
like to hang 'em buy their oh-
so-cutesy big hats. And as for
the founding father of all these
geeks. Doctor Demento, the
guy makes me want to retch.
But King Missile? I don't
know. I realize it's only mono
logues over tired Zeppeli-
nesque guitar riffs, but some of
the lyrics make real sense in a
bizarre kind of a way. On "In
dians", Hall intones, "The Indi
ans lived all over this land be
fore we came and killed them/
That was very bad of us/ We
thought we needed the land, but
for the most part we just ruined it
anyway".
At the end of this somewhat
jumbled political spiel. Hall loses
track of his subject and decides to
relate how he killed a cbckroach
because of the simple fact that he
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HEWLETT
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U.S. Department of State
U.S. Information Agency
U.S. Department of Commerce
Career Opportunity
i m ; i ori k ;\ sim k i :
w km i \ i:\.\mi\ \ i io\
Mark Your Calendar For
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9,1991
Registration Deadlines:
• October 4 for test centers in the
United States
• September 13 for test centers
overseas
The Written Examination is the initial
step in competing for a career as a
Foreign Service Officer.
Applicants for the examination must be:
— At least 20 years old on the
examination date
— United States citizens
— Available for worldwide
assignment
To obtain further information and an
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knew he could. Splat.
I know, not very gosh darn
funny, but hey, its all in the
telling. I also liked the hippy dip
py ramblings of "My Heart is a
Flower" in which Hall describes
the metaphor in question as "bud
ding, blooming, dripping dew/
Making a big hopeless mess/
Waiting for someone to come fly
ing over and suck the pollen out of
me/ Suck me dry/ Till I wilt/ Till
next spring".
And if those two examples
See KING MISSILE/Page 8
Toad the Wet Sprocket returns in 'Fear
By Rob Nebwerry
The Battalion
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Fear
Sony Music
F inally. I've been wait
ing for over a year.
Toad the Wet Sprocket's
newest is finally on the
shelves, and, although I was
tired of waiting, the delay
was worth it.
Toad caught my atten
tion opening up for Michael
Penn at the Tunnel Club in
Austin a little over a year
ago. They tore through se
lections from their first two
releases. Bread and Circus and
Pale, and won over the entire
audience - it was the first
time Tve seen the crowd de
mand an encore from an
opening band (Toad fulfilled
their demand with a humor
ous but aggressive cover of
Zep's "Stairway to Heav
en").
The music of the first two
albums left me with high ex
pectations, and Tear meets
everyone of them. Toad was
described to me as "R.E.M.
on depressants" - Fear cer
tainly features the discon
nected lyrical style of R.E.M.,
and the sadness (mostly a re
sult of singer Glen Phillips
delivery) is still intact.
Fear opens with "Walk on
the Ocean," a song featured
on an earlier demo tape a
few months ago. The song's
honesty makes it good - as
Phillips speaks flatly, "they
knew we were lying, but
smiled just the same," you
can see a big part of the real
istic, sad view most of Toad's
music gives off.
"Hold Her Down," origi
nally released as a B-side to
the "Jam" single from Pale,
also made it on to the new
record, although changed a
little from the original. The
song chronicles a rape/mur
der: "And they don't know
her but what the fuck, they
got nothing else they can
do." Phillips has always
been rather disgusted with
the way men treat women
(witness "One Little Girl"
from Bread and Circus), but
See TOAD/Page 8
Climb Aboard & Get Involved
Sunday. September 8,1991
4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Memorial Student Center
A walk-through program where students
can get information about campus
organizations from representatives of
over 180 recognized student organizations.
I Entertainment.DTOrPriMS^fc mudimorel!!y
k-
THANKS, AGGIES!
Thanks for again making Loupot's your used book
headquarters. You're our Number One Asset. For more than
50 years our business has been built on Aggies telling Aggies
about the good service they've received from Ol' Army Lou.
VLOU POT'S 10
BOOKSTORE
Northgate Redmond Terrace Southgate
335 University Dr. 1422 Texas Ave. 308 George Bush Dr.
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READY FOR LIFE AFTER TEXAS A&M?
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CAREER CENTER
AND
TAMU - AGGIE PROFESSIONAL FORUM
ANNOUNCE:
TAMU CAREER WORKSHOP:
INTERVIEWS & RESUMES
SEPTEMBER 7, 1991
10:00 AM - GENERAL "OPENING" SESSION
** CLA YTON WILLIAMS JR. ALUMNI CENTER
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1:30 PM - BREAK-OUT SESSIONS - BY COLLEGE
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MSC - Across from Post Office
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