Shit and Shine – Cherry (Riot Season) 2008
2008 has seen some cracking records come out and it only feels like in the last couple of months I’ve had a chance coming to terms with some of them. It’s funny in some ways, but I find that the first half of any year is taken up trying to get hold of all the stuff that I missed form the year before. This year has been no different. I’m glad to say that I think I may have tracked down everything I was keen to listen to from 2007 and I finally have some time to focus on this years output.
Shit and Shine are a revelation. So much new music seems to ape the past and every now and then when I buy some new record that gets rave reviews in the music press, I get awfully dissappointed. Sometimes its the lack of a cohesive idea in the music, sometimes they mirror their influences far to closely (I’m looking at you A Place to Bury Strangers), at times it’s because they just plain suck but most often its because there is a lack of fresh ideas and a definite lack of oomph. For the first time in a long time I spent a fair while figuring out what I would buy next and this CD + DVD set from Shit and Shine came with universally great reviews. I’m glad to report that those reviews are spot on. On the front cover of Cherry, the record label has been kind enough to include one of those stickers touting the positive reviews it’s received. A couple of them compare Cherry to Butthole Surfers, one mentions Bongwater and another Royal Trux. I don’t disagree from those comparisons but to my ears much of it sounds like a cross between Gonzales and Lightning Bolt. I’d like to say that it’s a druggy and at time’s drone orientated take on psychedilc metal but that description is selling Cherry way to short. For instance the second track Am I a Nice Guy reminds me of the late, great, Steven Jesse Bernstein. There is something here for noise heads, free folk lovers, acid rock tragics and heavy avant-rock pigs. This in an epic record and is one just to buy on a whim. Awesome stuff.
Live at SxSW March 2008
Ducks Battle Satan 
November 19, 2008 at 2:30 pm
i saw shit and shine a couple of years back. they played that youtube track for about 45 mins straight. and that was that. awesome. keep up the cool posts
December 5, 2008 at 10:23 am
Rub it in why don’t you. The funny thing I’ve noticed about about Cherry and the recent release on Load is that their studio records sound very different that the transcendent live shows they do. Still awesome stuff not really not representative of what they do live.