FirewaterGet Off the Cross We Need the Wood for the Fire
Released 1996 on JetSet
Reviewed by Alex in NYC, 06/04/2002ce
Hungrily, shredding open the plain brown wrapper, I was confronted with an image of our supposedly would-be saviour, smokin' a butt and grasping one of the peoples' beers. So far so good. Racing to my Mickey Mouse Close-&-Play, slappin' on the disc, ready to kick out the jams like an undead Rob Tyner, I readied myself and started pouring over the liner notes to discover....what's this??....bazouki?......djembe?........ACCORDION????!??? Before I could realign my narrow musical prejudices, "Some Strange Reaction" broke through my long-suffering woofers & tweeters and vanquished my momentary doubts. Wading deeper into the album, however, it was clear that this was no workaday Cop Shoot Cop soundalike. There would be no vitriolic call for urban upheval here. The guns had been holstered, the soapbox replaced with a bar stool and the brass-knuckles had been hocked for beer money, but somehow it still kicked the snots out of everything. This was an album that marched the perma-frownin' 'No Wave'ers out of the East Village scenester bars and down to the dance halls of Lower East Side's ethnic ghost town, where mohawks and black leather get swapped for hasidic finery. How fitting that it came in a triagular sleeve, as it would not slip meekly and comfortably in with the rest of my cd collection. GET OFF THE CROSS is a phoenix of an album that flattens the competion.