Despite it being the damn namesake of the blog, I still have not exhausted talking about this album. I doubt I ever will.
“Tremble Under Boom Lights” is one of my favorite releases of all
time and the fact that Third Man is able to reissue it still gives me
pause.
No matter how much I say or write about this album, I still don’t
feel like I’m done. I still feel like “there’s more work to do.”
More people need to know about this album, more need to appreciate it, more need to be influenced by it.
The opening song “The Search For Cherry Red” is burned into the
enzymes of my soul. I can recite the lyrics at will. Any time I was bold
enough to grab the mic in the Dirtbombs, there was a 50% chance I would
sing this song.
“Give Me Daughters”, coupled with the gender and genetic make-up
of the Shaggs, was the soothing salve I needed as I progressed into
fatherhood of three daughters.
“The Public Hanging of a Movie Star” was included on a mixtape
making the rounds in the Dirtrbombs tour van circa 2001, and EVERY time
it played, I had to ask what it was as I was unaware. So primitive, so
beguiling…those howls still unlike anything else I’ve heard anywhere
else.
And the swan song, “In the Head” the last song the band would
ever record together, just a head swirl of emotions for me. I have no
idea what the lyrics “the ice cream truck goes cluck” mean, but goddamn
if I don’t think about it weekly. When the instruments kick in all
together like the force of a thousand volcanoes erupting at once, all
joining in the breath of air, a hiccup almost, at the 2:41 mark, still,
observant, vertiginous, as if the entirety of your life is presented
before you and it does not feel overwhelming, just optimistically perfect.
It
cannot be over-communicated…I still don’t really believe that Third Man
was able to release this record. Cut primarily from the original master
tapes. With the full support of the band members and estates and
original label. I’ve had moments on the project where I’ve just had to
stop and take stock of it all. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably
continue saying it…I’m really just a fan here.
