| Artist appears on Bert Susanka Onward Christian Slater CD (2006)
Farmer music CDs
$12.39 Audio Mixers: Rob Perez; Devin DeVore. Surprisingly, the title song itself kicks off the album with a gloriously kitschy blast of twangy surf guitar, mariachi trumpets, space age bachelor pad percussion and wordless choral vocals, like a cross between the opening section of Frank Zappa's Lumpy Gravy and an Esquivel album. Recording information: Headway Music Complex, Westminster, CA (2005-2006); Rob's Spare Bedroom, Anaheim, CA (2005-2006). Onward Christian Slater is just the kind of smarmy pop culture wink of an album title that usually portends smug awfulness within the grooves. Additional personnel: Dani Armstrong (background vocals). Personnel: Bert Susanka (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, nylon-string guitar, banjo, timbales, background vocals); Filthy Scent (rap vocals); Susan Susanka, Erich Wood, Gary Fitch (spoken vocals); Miguel (guitar); Bert Susanka (acoustic guitar); Beacon (flute); Roger Malinowski (accordion); Sandy Bergas (clarinet); Bob Masters, Brian (trumpet); Farmer (trombone); Dave Owns, Dave Owens, Ryan McCusker (drums); Chris Dumm (Jew's harp); Ryella Robinson Linder, The Norman Tabernacle Chainsaw Massacre Chorus (background vocals); Rob Perez (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, E-bow, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, piano, organ, synthesizer, tambourine, programming, background vocals); Jah Horns, Break Wind & Fire Horns. Naturally, this then leads into a cheerful bubblegum-punk tune about the joys of the fishing life, complete with Beach Boys-style backing vocals. Bert Susanka, better known as the leader of the cult pop-punk act the Ziggens, isn't even pretending to make his first solo album musically or tonally consistent: bits of power pop, mopey indie rock gloom, ska and rockabilly flit through these 18 songs, and for every two goofball tunes like "They Don't Want Me in the NBA" and "When All the Beer Is Gone," there's a more serious, even mature tune like "So Many Tears" or "The Vicissitudes of Life" that's closer in tone to, say, the Weakerthans.
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