Album Review: Bean Monster Rituals
Reprinted from the Daily Texan (University of Texas newspaper), March 6, 1989, “Images” section (Arts and Entertainment Supplement to the Daily Texan), page 10.
Note: This article is reprinted with its original errors and typos. Most notably, the author incorrectly states that “the dominant instrument on the tape is an antiquated Moog synthesizer.” Aside from his perplexing use of the word “antiquated,” the driving sound he refers to is Ran's Casio keyboard. While the Moog is a powerful instrument, Kar used it sparingly at strategic points on the album.
The Blanks: Nonsensical garage rock, the way it was meant to be
The Blanks
Bean Monster Rituals
Blanks Enterprises
By Trevor Wallace
Recorded on the eighth day of the eighth month of 1988, the Blanks Bean Monster Rituals is a tribute to the nonsensical silliness that seems to permeate much of the garage-rock genre of popular music. On this cassette, however, they appear to take themselves and their laughable-ness seriously – which makes the tape even more silly.
Every single one of the band members has a stage name. Is this because they are too embarrassed to allow their real names to be known? Maybe, but the musicians' pseudonyms (Spike and Mr. Ed, to name two) are actually appropriate to the overall feel of the tape.
That “feel” is one of those “Let's get drunk, record an album and see if people will actually buy it” type attitudes that characterizes much underground music. Now, there's absolutely no way of knowing if there was any alcohol consumed during the recording sessions, but suffice it to say that at many points, the cassette sounds as though when the mikes were on and the tape was rolling, the band was partly there but partly somewhere else – an altered consciousness, perhaps.
The cassette leads off with a little ditty titled I Am a Fireman, a song which, like most of the other tunes on the tape, seems to rely on “doo-wops” and “yeah, yeahs” for a hefty portion of its lyrics. While these monosyllables are sometimes distracting, they admittedly make it much easier to song along with the song, as the unintelligible lyrics are easier to memorize, even in a drunken stupor.
The overall feel of the tape is one of those 'Let's get drunk, record and album and see if people will actually buy it' attitudes that characterizes much underground music.
By far the best song on the tape is Phoung Nam's a song about a small grocery store described as a “teenage hotspot,” with a very hooky, hummable tune driven by a Moog/bass/drum combo that draws the listener in and keeps him/her trapped. The song serves to illustrate the fact that high schoolers have always managed to hang out at the most ridiculous spots.
Other highlights include Byron's Song (Tribute to Insanity Plea-Part II), which describes a man's descent into madness “because he missed the Blanks”; and FCA, which instead of poking fun at some acronymic federal agency, seems to merely be a vehicle to allow vocalist Kar to recite the entire alphabet.
The music is simple, depending on a fertile assortment of clichéd riffs to drive each of the songs. However, this simplicity can be seen as a bonus to the listener – it makes the songs catchy and easy to remember, and catchiness may be the Blanks's chief goal in creating this cassette. Also, the dominant instrument on the tape is an antiquated Moog synthesizer, giving the collection of songs a somewhat retrograde ambiance.
Despite the pervasive silliness, the familiar hooks, and the rambling lyrics, the bottom line on Bean Monster Rituals is that it's a fun tape. And sometimes – especially on homemade, non-pretentious cassettes – that is all that matters.
Bean Monster Rituals, a cassette only release, is available at Sound Exchange and Hastings Records on Guadalupe Street.
