"F*cking Hoosiers. We brought you Jim Jones, Michael Jackson, Axel Rose, David Lee Roth, Rahsaan Roland Kirks hot-shot of dope, Americas widest spread infestation of the Ku Klux Klan and a bunch of flat land covered with republicans, bibles, corn and soy beans. Though even in sh*thole towns exceptions abound and often the bubbles amongst the bleakest territories are the most potent. We could jabber on about exiles like Phill Niblock, jump way back to Gennett Records, cull the vineyards for the lost White Noise recordings of the late 70s, cross-examine Xenakis various teaching assistants at I.U., draw a family tree connecting MX-80 Sound and John Cougar Mellencamp to the same branch or suss out the collective Hoosier psychic-retribution following the night both DNA and William S. Burroughs shared stages in Bloomington... but the wax winged frisbee from the dead that we have HERE is the last nail in the wheezing coffin of INDIANA PUNK ROCK. 13 years after the fact, JACKWACKERs recorded remains have finally been excavated for your ears and Ill be damned if they are not as vital as ever, proving to be the final chapter of the story told by MX-80 Sound, Dancing Cigarettes, The Gizmos, Dow Jones & the Industrials, Panics, the Red Snerts comp and of course, the Belgian Waffles! What we also have here is one of very few early 90s groups that could keep their blowtorch ablaze between the sh*tstorm of their contemporaries HARRY PUSSY and MONOSHOCK. If Harry Pussy stoned the blues and Monoshock winged the Hawk with a hiss, then Jackwacker lit up a diesel-doused NO-WAVE with a couple hits of speed a la throned & one arm left gropin for some sh*t tickets danglin on a wire hanger in a drafty busted out skyroof like a wabber-jawed fish out of water with an under-bite, flapp-flossin the gills of its tail betwixt the holes in your head. They strapped on Nikola Telsa ear goggles and dropped some towers while everyone gawked at the planes. Jackwacker crawled out of the bleak bubble of early 90s Bloomington followed by a short lived relocation to Madison, Wisconsin, where they soon dissolved. Thriving briefly as outsiders of the Midwest No-Wave hula bahloo, they shared bills amongst folks like Couch, Duotron, the Scissor Girls, The Flying Luttenbachers, To Live and Shave in L.A., Zerobot and Lake of Dracula. This scene often relied on theatrics and the lions share of its sound artifacts are not up to snuff but thankfully Jackwacker aint like that. Elijah Prichett sang and played a guitar strung with 3 bass strings and 3 guitar strings. Rob Stockwell played drums. Both grew up as musicians with serious chops honed in the classical and jazz world. This physical endurance/precision/memory cant be hidden with JACKWACKER but they both had the HEAD, HEART and BALLS to stear clear of flaccid progressive rock virtuoso noodling or incidental rote-ranting bullshit and INSTEAD created the perfect juxtaposition of fryin an egg on your g-spot primal ID and know-how intention/control; plainly speaking they just f*cking rock. Of the handful of people that cared about the Harry Pussy sound sphere back in the day, there is now a bus load of handfuls aping their sound into a retrograde orbit. Lets correct the mis-readings, go back to the source, tap the well and realign, post-haste." |