'Black Snakes' by Red Crayola...

i just sold the cd, but kept the mp3s. it's kinda cool. funky post punk, but i wasn't in the mood for mayo's singing. there's another single from the same period (micro fish & chips - on roughtrade) that's AMAZING.

"Micro-Chips & Fish" isn't really from the same period - it's from four or five years earlier than "Black Snakes" and has a very different sound. Much of the "Rough Trade" era stuff had a similar line-up which included Lora Logic, Gina Birch and Epic Soundtracks but these folks were gone by the time of "Black Snakes." I like the album; it's still somewhat "songy" a la "Kangaroo?" but it sounds more sterile and bleak than any of the Rough Trade stuff which preceded it. The two German language songs on the "Singles" compilation turn up on "Black Snakes" in rerecorded English language versions, and they're hugely inferior to the German takes. I guess one could consider "Black Snakes" to be a huge step towards a "post-rock" kind of unlistenable quasi-pop music, but it's still on the good side of it all; just a let down from the brilliance of "Soldier Talk," "Kangaroo?" and affiliated singles.

Hm, now I think the Black Snakes should release an album called Red Crayola just for spite.

I think "Black Snakes" is awesome. It's Mayo accompanied by a head-throbbing (very loud), super-technical accompaniment of bass, drum, and sax. The production is really spacious and echoey (like a mutant kind of '80s slickness), and the playing is great. It also has some of Mayo/A&L's funniest lyrics.