Sky Is Falling, The - Jello Biafra

...DOA, and this gem "The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy" with NOMENSNO. This album is almost perfect as it is almost impossible to not only pick out the best track on it, but it is impossible to spot a single duff moment. Lyrically it is awesome featuring some of Jello's most insightful, inspired and paranoid lyrics, musically it is one of the best things that has been released on Alternative Tentacles. The combination of Jello's lyrics ...
.../> Kicking off with "The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy (falling Space Junk)" with its tectonic slabs of rhythm punctuated by Rob and John Wrights Drum and Bass whilst Andy Kerr's guitar buzzes around. This is Jello's paranoid vision of what would happen to society when we all realize that we are going to die horrible deaths when all radioactive junk that NASA fires into space comes back down. Imagine night of the living dead meets ... more

Way back in 1990 or 91 who really cares about dates these days anyway? Punk rock legend Jello Biafra was working with DOA and NOMEANSNO on a few tracks for the soundtrack of the film "Terminal City Ricochet", which Jello also started in. These recording sessions proved to be highly fruitful and resulted in the release of two albums worth of material "The last Scream of The Missing Neighbors" with DOA, and this gem "The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy" with NOMENSNO. This album is almost perfect as it is almost impossible to not only pick out the best track on it, but it is impossible to spot a single duff moment. Lyrically it is awesome featuring some of Jello's most insightful, inspired and paranoid lyrics, musically it is one of the best things that has been released on Alternative Tentacles. The combination of Jello's lyrics and NOMEANSNO's music which quite often disappear off on tangents of their own making complement each other perfectly.

Kicking off with "The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy (falling Space Junk)" with its tectonic slabs of rhythm punctuated by Rob and John Wrights Drum and Bass whilst Andy Kerr's guitar buzzes around. This is Jello's paranoid vision of what would happen to society when we all realize that we are going to die horrible deaths when all radioactive junk that NASA fires into space comes back down. Imagine night of the living dead meets 28 Days. "Jesus Was A Terrorist" is a scathing attack on the religious moral right opening with the lines "Jesus was a terrorist, Enemy of the State" it continues down that lines asking what would Jesus make of the moral religious right musically it is fast paced blistering punk with the guitar sounding like a bee on speed.

"Bruce's Diary" slips into disturbed lounge Jazz territory with John and Rob Wright providing a solid Jazzy backbone, whilst once again the guitar weaves complex shapes and textures by buzzing around the place. The music is topped off by some wonderfully disturbed horn work provided by the totaliterrortones. The lyrics cover everything from control of the population by feeding them with genetically engineered frankenfood, to media manipulation. Wonderfully paranoid with more than a good lashing of truth in there. The mood is lifted by a cover of "Bad" by the Hanson Brothers which is a blistering Ramones-esque slab of punk with lyrics dealing with the fun of being bad "doing bad is better, than doing nothing at all"

"Ride the Flume" is inspired a tale of the joys of riding lumber down the Sanger Flume in the Sierra Hills. Far better than any amusement ride, the rhythm section is suitably energetic countered with the bumblebee on speed guitar of Andy Kerr it successfully creates the atmosphere of riding lumber down rapids. "Watch out for the tree, or its pine cone sex face first, for you and me". Then we are treated to "Chew" where the music delves back into highly disturbed atmospheric Jazz with bursts of punk rock mayhem a song that is guaranteed to put the willies up you musically and lyrically. It deals with rats taking over the city and gorging on human flesh which is of course a metaphor for something else, as it also deals with gentrification of poor areas.

"Sharks in the Gene Pool" deals with messing about with genes to create what we want out of ourselves and our food and the possible consequences of doing so, it also questions if gene technology is safe in the hands of those who posses it, a question that is even more valid today. Musically it is disorientating as it buzzes around your hand and tempo's and time signatures are changed gratuitously because they should be. The album finishes off with "The Myth is Real Lets Eat" where NOMEANSNO sound uncannily like Jello's previous band "Dead Kennedys" and it deals with the myths we are fed that don't really stand up to close inspection and is still as valid today as it was 15 year ago "the world is full of connections, So many sheep in Wolfs Clothing, Scary times are never dull, How long before our empire falls".

This is an utterly fantastic album both lyrically and musically challenging and as I said at the start one of the best albums ever……………….. providing food for your brain
 

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