Today's featured shit

That’s like naming a band “Doug’s Rael Obnoxious.”
I had really high expectations for this one, and that’s never good. This is an act I somehow missed in my heyday, but when I saw this look back at their apparent greatest times and accolades, I saw it as a chance to finally get to know Carissa’s Wierd. Better late than never, right?
I regret not knowing of these guys when they existed. I would have seen them live at least twice. And it does not surprise me that they spent several years in Portland. And they had a woman who did nothing but play violin. I missed out.
The music itself is like a dark Suddenly, Tammy! Although Carissa’s Weird does not set out to be overly dirty, it’s pretty clear from the get-go that this is a band that knows that rocking means sitting in a van for nine hours, subsisting on little more than Fun Dip. How I can tell this by listening to the record is complicated, but it has a lot to do with song titles such as “The Color That Your Eyes Chaned With the Color of Your Hair” and “So You Wanna Be a Superhero.”
I can tell “One Night Stand” is one of their landmark songs. I’ll play along with that. “Drunk With the Only Saints I Know” is another winner.
My favorite track is “Blessed Arms That Hold You Tight, Freezing Cold and Alone.” It’s a little dramatic, I know, but that was the style at the time.
I would have enjoyed these guys, but they are more of an exhibit of the era than an exemplary representative.

Posted by Joel Edelman on August 21, 2010 at 2:49 pm
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