Album Reviews
Noteboard Magazine September/October 1989
by Fred McNaughton
Yodelling, trombones, heavy metal, country and western and psuedo eastern rhythms abound on
Outdoor Elvis, the second release from Alarma artists The Swirling Eddies. It perspires with more sounds than a K-Tel presents Slim Witman and Megadeath peform the best of the Beatles with special guests the Beach Boys and Willie Nelson.
This is as diverse a collection of styles as you'll ever want to hear in one package. It is a veritable plethora, a panoply, a vast cornucopia of "world music," old and new. It is truly an epic, deserving of its grandiose title. The album's namesake, Outdoor Elvis, really likes this record. He told me so last week.
Uncle Camarillo Eddies Cowboy Bob Terry's voice is as suited singing surf music as it is yodelling. Not only does he span styles, but decades as well. He's as comfortable sings (sic) the "Bo-bo-deo-bo" of the forties and early swing of the fifties as he is screaming something approaching the unintelligible future-sounds of 2000 and beyond.
There are more songs on this album than a week full of NBC sitcomes (21 in all), so I'll only tell about a few. The first song on Side Two, "Hole Back the Wind, Donna," proves Tom Petty is a superstart, now that others are copying him. New Eddie Prickly Disco (whom I would love to disclose the identity of, but won't in case they have a contest Again) trades vocal licks with Uncle Eddie in the sentimental "Billy Graham." In a case where (hopefully someday) life will imitate art, the boys will sing "Elimination (The Band That Won't Go Away)" with the lyrics "bow out/get lost/I'd like to to pull the fader down." My favorite cuts are the title track and "Knee Jerk," a sort of dance stop for political activists.
The differing styles and profuse abundance of subject matter almost too much to be contained in one package. But who cares, it's another Eddies/DA album. My guess is that one day in the near future the Swirling Eddies will shorten their name to SE, and then se (pronounced "seh"), before embarking on a career as the Traveling Eddies.
Harvest Rock Syndicate 1989/90
4 1/2 points out of 5
by Brian Q. Newcomb
They're back!!! That's right, just when you thought it was safe to go into the back corner of your favorite Christian bookstore where they hide the rock music, those Swirling Da boys are back and this time they're pissed off. (Look, if that last phrase offended you, please don't think about buying this one, it's not for you.) That's right boys and girls, after over 15 years in Christian music the Men from A.M.O.S. are sick and tired and they're not going to take it anymore.
Perhaps it's that last year's Swirling Eddies debut sold more than any other Da project, maybe it was that they weren't invited back to Cornerstone after becoming the high point in three straight years, maybe they've been reading over all that hate mail they've received over the years (excerpts of which make up many of the comments in verses for the song "Elimination [The Band That Won't Go Away]"), because Outdoor Elvis is a record that humorously and pointedly explores the place of Terry Taylor and company in this mixed up world and the Evangelical ghetto where their music has been cloistered. They know how some out there will respond ("Knee Jerk"), but for now it seems they needed to make an album for themselves, and some of us. And you know, it's the meanest, nastiest album to come down the pike since Doppelganger, and it's very likely the most fun I've had listening to a record this year.
Oh don't miss the point, of course this is a spiritually correct record. It's just that the cultural confines that impinge on artists recording from a faith
perspective can be debilitating. Here Taylor, backed by Tim Chandler, David Raven, Greg Flesch, Rob Watson, Jerry Chamberlain and new Eddy, Gene Eugene, seem willing to accept the fact that they don't quite fit in to the expectations of some, and they make the best of it.
"Rubber Sky" reveals they are familiar with the role and punishment of prophets: "bounce him off the rubber sky/and he'll come back and taunt you/sling shot snap/brings him back/a lover's eyes that haunt you... he'll be returning-a glutton for more/you cannot tell if he's devil or angel/he drank with the sinners, he hung with the thieves/he stayed out so long that he wore out his welcome/you smiled kindly and asked him to leave." They are used to going against the grain ("Driving In England"), but the rejection always hurts more than expected. The best revenge, some say is living well and Taylor writes "they say I'm wasting away/a star-crossed lover doomed for tragedy/not true, baby not true/I will arrive/I'll realize my full potential," to express that all that has passed is of worth.
With 21 tracks (two are just filler), Taylor seems to have been influenced more than a little by Elvis Costello, although the LP's title refers to The King, who observed in "This Town:" "You're nobody in this town, til everyone thinks you're a bastard." Here the Eddies blast TV preachers again ("Attack of the Pulpit Masters"), Christian metal bands that wear spandex ("All The Way To Heaven"), Christian colleges and folk who use external rules to discern spirituality ("Hide The Beer The Pastor's Here") and folk who
have a small, culturally defined understanding of God ("Yer Little Gawd"). "I'm just a cynic," Taylor sings in 'Hell Oh,' "talkin' 'bout a white bleach sepulchre/I'm bringing ants to your picnic." Which may well describe Outdoor Elvis, it's ants in the church's pants.
But all is not just doom, gloom and cynicism. There's "Blowing Smoke" a love song written for Taylor's wife, "Billy Graham," which speaks of the TV pulpiteer's integrity, "Hold Back The Wind, Donna," with it's encouragement to stand strong, "Urban Legends," which holds high the importance of telling the truth, and "Strange Days," a song of hope. Not to mention "Arthur Fhardy's Yodeling Party," which is more or less self-explanatory.
Tired of the same ol same ol? Want to laugh a little, cry a little, live a lot? Are you not afraid to face the music, even some of the best rock 'n' roll around? Maybe a little cynical, and a little hopeful? Me too, well this album's for us. But don't tell anybody, they'll assume we're not very spiritual.
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