Bongwater - Box Of Bongwater (1998)
Bongwater - Box Of Bongwater (1998)
Shimmy Disc
As much a performance art troupe as a band, Bongwater was the brainchild of guitarist Mark Kramer - chief of the Shimmy Disc label and a former member of Shockabilly - and actress Ann Magnuson, best known to mainstream audiences for her role in the ABC sitcom Anything But Love as well as the feature film Making Mr. Right. Kramer and Magnuson first met at her downtown New York nightspot Club 57, where he engineered the sound for her performances with the all-female percussion group Pulsalamma. After forming Bongwater in 1985, the duo enlisted avant-garde guitarist Fred Frith to record their debut 1987 EP Breaking No New Ground, a crazed neo-psychedelic set typified by Magnuson's surreal narratives, often inspired by her dreams about major celebrities and fellow downtown NYC denizens.
After garnering a reputation for their anarchic live sets, Bongwater re-entered Kramer's Noise New York studios with ex-Phantom Tollbooth guitarist Dave Rick and former Shockabilly drummer David Licht to record 1988's sprawling two-LP opus Double Bummer, a wildly experimental collection peppered by bizarro-world covers of Gary Glitter's "Rock And Roll Pt. 2" and Led Zeppelin's "Dazed And Confused" (retitled "Dazed And Chinese" and sung in Mandarin) as well as media satires like "Decadent Iranian Country Club" and "David Bowie Wants Ideas." The follow-up, Too Much Sleep - a collection of lo-fi recordings mottled with dialogue fragments, sampled answering machine messages and television soundbites - appeared in 1989.
With 1991's The Power Of Pussy, Bongwater parodied sex in all its forms; a European tour with rhythm guitarist Dogbowl in tow followed, but Kramer and Magnuson's complex relationship soon began to unravel, and after one final record, 1992's The Big Sell-Out, the duo parted both personally and professionally. The dissolution of the partnership was acrimonious, and resulted in a protracted legal battle which ultimately resulted in Shimmy Disc's bankruptcy; Magnuson, meanwhile, mounted a solo career, issuing The Luv Show on Geffen in 1995.
This aptly titled Box Of Bongwater consists of four CDs aimed at gathering a majority of the duo's recordings - many of which had been out of print or at the very least difficult to find for several years. Included in this package are the contents of the Breaking No New Ground EP; the albums Double Bummer, Too Much Sleep, The Power Of Pussy, and The Big Sell-Out; as well as "Love Life," the duo's contribution the Rutles Highway Revisited tribute. Although arguably diminutive in quantity, Bongwater's catalog stands as one of the most diverse in popular music. For maximum effect, the pair blends their own original sonic sculptures and compositions with a considerate and eclectic mix of cover tunes spanning the entirety of popular music. But rather than emulate their influences, Bongwater tends to wholly reinvent the structure to suit their multimedia pastiche of aural imagery. These remarkable reworkings include The Beatles' "Rain" and "Julia," The 13th Floor Elevators' "You Don't Love Me" and "Splash 1," The Monkees' "Just May Be The One" and "The Porpoise Song," and most especially Led Zeppelin's "Four Sticks." Magnuson's obsession with Jimmy Page is in fact a motif running throughout this set, as are her acerbic-tongued slams at some of the most sacred of pop culture cows on "Frank," "David Bowie Wants Ideas," and "What Kind Of Man Reads Playboy." The dramatic qualities and inflections that Magnuson offers are ideally matched to Kramer's ability to provide a seemingly endless pallet of sonic platforms. His skills as a producer, multi-instrumentalist, and sonic satirist make him the quintessential musical foil. Although it is tempting to call this collection a complete anthology of Bongwater's recordings, it is a few tracks shy of that, presumably because they were not originally issued on the Kramer-owned and operated Shimmy Disc label. The Peel Sessions EP as well as a couple of tracks which surfaced on tribute albums for Neil Young and the 13th Floor Elevators, respectively, are not included in this set. However, in light of what is on the box, these caveats are practically negligible.
This box set is now of print and is highly recommended for fans of early Faust, Slapp Happy, Daevid Allen, and experimental Pop Psychedelia.
* There was a mastering error on disc 2 track 16 "The Drum" that affected every copy of this box set ever produced.
CD1
01 - Ride My Seesaw
02 - Barely Coping
03 - Four Sticks
04 - U.S.O.
05 - His New Look
06 - Julia
07 - Lesbians Of Russia
08 - Frank
09 - We Did It Again
10 - Homer
11 - Joy Ride
12 - Decadent Iranian Country Club
13 - David Bowie Wants Ideas
14 - Rock 'N Roll Pt. 2
15 - Just May Be The One
16 - There You Go
17 - Shark
18 - Jimmy
19 - Crime
20 - Pornography
21 - Pew
22 - Dazed And Chinese
23 - Bullaby
24 - So Help Me God
CD2
01 - His Old Look
02 - Stone
03 - Number
04 - Love You To
05 - Reaganation
06 - Double Birth
07 - Bruce
08 - Pool
09 - Rain
10 - Havana
11 - Pentagon
12 - Truth
13 - You Don't Love Me Yet
14 - The Porpoise Song
15 - The Living End
16 - The Drum
17 - Mr. And Mrs. Hell
18 - Too Much Sleep
19 - Talent Is A Vampire
20 - The Bad Review
21 - Ill Fated Lovers Go Time Tripping
CD3
01 - Psychedelic Sewing Room
02 - Splash 1
03 - He Loved The Weather
04 - Teena Stays The Same
05 - One Hand On The Road
06 - Then The Babies Return
07 - Why Are We Sleeping
08 - Khomeini Died Tonight
09 - One So Black
10 - No Trespassing
11 - The Power Of Pussy
12 - Great Radio
13 - What If
14 - Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
15 - Chicken Pussy
16 - White Rental Car Blues
17 - Nick Cave Dolls
18 - Bedazzled
19 - Obscene And Pornographic Art
20 - Connie
21 - What Kind Of Man Reads Playboy
22 - I Need A New Tape
23 - Women Tied Up In Knots
CD4
01 - Junior
02 - Mystery Hole
03 - Time Is Coming
04 - Folk Song
05 - Ye Olde Backlash
06 - The Real Thing
07 - Free Love Messes Up My Life
08 - You're Like Me Now
09 - I Wanna Talk About It
10 - What's Big In England Now
11 - Schmoozedance
12 - Celebrity Compass
13 - When Johnnie Dies
14 - The Big Sell-Out
15 - Over The Credit Line
16 - Flop Sweats
17 - Holding Hands
18 - Flute Of Shame
19 - On The Cusp Of 1970
20 - Her Litigious Nature
21 - Love Song
22 - Everybody's Talking
23 - Love Life [Edit]