White Knuckle Sobriety

White Knuckle Sobriety --

Fat End First

(E.C.A.E.) 13-song CD

From the ashes of the popular, and ultimately forgettable Missionaries come the unforgettable White Knuckle Sobriety. This trio write about the important things in life -- Schaefer beer in the appropriately titled "Schaefer" (stirring fond memories of the "when you're having more then one" jingle, as well as one of the two worst hangovers of my entire life. It was from the keg . . .), taking (literal) dumps on people on "Special Chair," pissing (figuratively) on women-fronted bands in the classic "Chick Singers (The Lilith Syndrome)," and driving around town loaded on "Hammer Head." Part punk bluster, part experimental mental, foot-in-mouth, head-up-ass and dedicated to anti-PC good-timing, the Sobriety boys are still more than a joke band. Through a combo of great lyrics, sonic muscle, and twisted vision, these freaks have succeeded in putting out one of the strongest and enjoyable rock-and-roll albums of the year.

URL: http://www.worcesterphoenix.com/archive/music/99/05/14/on%5Fthe%5Frocks.html - Worcester Phoenix

Heavy Dates

We dig the noise of White Knuckle Sobriety, really we do. Equal parts muscle, nuance, bluster, and foolishness; we also have a sneaking suspicion that sobriety doesn't play into the picture very much at all. They play a set at Commercial Street this Friday night, along with mindFIELD and Jack.

URL: http://www.worcesterphoenix.com/archive/music/99/06/04/heavy%5Fdates.html - Worcester Phoenix

Top of the local pops albums and such of the '90s

(sorry, no demo tapes)

1. Curtain Society -- Life is Long Still (Bedazzled)

2. Thinner -- Sonic Dinner (Ruggy)

3. Huck -- Honey Wagon (Orcaphat)

4. Puddle -- And They All Began with A . . . (Apostrophe)

5. Time Beings -- It's About Time (BFD)

6. Little Big Wheel -- Home (indie)

7. White Knuckle Sobriety --Fat End First (ECAE)

8. Life Goes Wrong -- You're Soaking in It (DBS Godman)

9. Bob Jordan -- Four Corners (indie)

10. Upsidedown Cross -- Witchcraft (Final Injection)

URL: http://www.worcesterphoenix.com/archive/music/99/12/31/on%5Fthe%5Frocks.html - Worcester Phoenix

2) White Knuckle Sobriety, Fat End First (ECAE; 13-song CD)

Formerly three-quarters of the Missionarys, WKS have forged ahead to create a band who are beefier, smarter, and a hell of a lot more enjoyable than their previous incarnation. Fat End First would get the nod as the year's funniest album, a 13-song manifesto dedicated to the simpler things in life. "Hammer Head" is a great song about growing up drunk and aimless in the 'burbs; "Schaefer" is a tribute to the trio's beverage of choice; and "Special Chair," a lovely number about crapping on someone's puss. Do not be deceived, WKS aren't a joke band. "Chick Singers" is a nuts-on assessment of the current music establishment; "Spastic #13," a tough, experimental punk piece; and "Far from the Tree," an almost-pretty country romp. It's smart, gritty, cheeky, and a blast for anyone with a sense of humor and half a brain.

URL: http://www.worcesterphoenix.com/archive/music/99/12/24/on%5Fthe%5Frocks.html - Worcester Phoenix

Fat boys
White lines, white trash, and White Knuckle Sobriety
by John O'Neill
White Knuckle Sobriety It was the best of punk, it was the worst of funk; it was everything an album should be: sonic bluster meets brains, stoner goof-off meets smart-ass tongue-in-cheek. There were big hooks, harmonies,

dumb-dumb lyrics, power-pop sweetness, indie-rock sweatiness, grade-school rhymes, high-school pranks, old radio ads, chanting, ranting, celebration, and decerebration. A rocket ride
into the heart of rock and roll that took a sharp turn and ricocheted around the brain pan of dementia before finally exiting (and the disc does have a preoccupation with bum-function so we'll pass on the easy orifice reference) to crash land as a heaping testament to fun. It's a Good, God Damn Time, which is just what White Knuckle Sobriety promise on their opening track disclaimer/modus operandi "In the Beginning" from their debut, Fat End First (ECAE). And don't be confused, the title means exactly what you think it does.

"Those three words together are really hilarious. You know, `Shut-up,' `No you shut-up, or I'll take this bottle and stick it up your ass fat end first.' And it was our first album, so it kinda made sense," says Doug Wedge between sips of his drink before finally coming clean. "Okay, it definitely has to do with shoving things up your ass."

Wedge, guitarist Rich Maliska, and bassist Mick Lawless may be best remembered as three-fourths of the Missionaries, the early '90s alt-phenom known for their willingness to play anywhere, as well as for a hot-looking singer who would come unglued at a moment's notice. After the band spun completely out of control -- in direct correlation to their growing popularity -- the trio joined Black Rose Garden castoff Terri O'Toole and her sister Traci in the short-lived Tripstick. Then, in rehearsal, the seeds of foolishness that would bloom into the genius of WKS were sown.

"Yeah, we came out of the whole Tripstick thing, we would jam together while waiting for Terri and Traci," says Wedge (who, by day, is a Worcester Phoenix designer). "We started having separate practice for ourselves and decided to only do one [band]. We were happy doing White Knuckle Sobriety so we went right off into the studio."

But it took a bit longer than expected. Wedge split for more than a year to attend college, while Lawless and Maliska went into post-production armed with raw tracks culled from sessions in December 1996 and March of 1997 at the not-so-famed Toad Hall Studios in East Douglas (also responsible for recording the should-have-been-legendary Roy Hinkley Trio's Jesus Ray). With a little help from producer John D'Orto's home computer, the band began throwing everything they could find into the kettle and sorted it out from there. Disco whistles, backwards loops, groupies talking, mix tapes, friends pretending to be pirates, distortion, haunted keyboard embellishments, Big '80s Jan Hammer-style synth, and celestial backing vocals are added to basic pop and punk tracks creating the total Knuckle sandwich. Owing as much to the Monkees as it does Zappa, Fat End First is one of those rare repeat-listening projects that takes a half-dozen spins through to get to the bottom of it. The plus is, unlike most complicated albums, this one doesn't have that nasty side-effect of wanting to pitch yourself out of the second-floor window. And that's because their "deepness" is actually simple: Fat End doesn't labor to be either different or cool. Smart enough to realize that music has all been done before, the Knuckleheads are fine spray painting their own twisted vision across everything the Pixies, Big Black, Cheap Trick, Pavement, Neil Young, and Sonic Youth have done.

"We all have wide influences, and we've all played different styles. We're open minded to listening, and we'll try anything once," explains Wedge. "I really didn't think it would come together at all, we kept adding and adding. But once we took segments, and faded songs into one another, it became a whole alcohol concept album."

Which explains "Schaefer" (currently on the WAAF Sunday-night charts), a loving rehash of the old "when you're having more than one" campaign. It's also a natural fit alongside "Big Brown Cow," the old school-yard rhyme. (Think back -- "milk, milk, lemonade, turn the corner fudge is made . . .") Not to be outdone, there's a slew of brilliant, though screwy, original thought: "Chick Singers (The Lilith Syndrome)," a less-than-PC take on the state of commercial music; "Hammer Head," which is an accurate picture of Friday nights along small-town Main Street filled with booze, burning rubber, cop ditching, and dope smoking; and there's "Special Chair," which is about a, uh, chair that's special. ("This guy really into porno showed us this movie. He said it would change our lives. It was disgusting and we were laughing at the same time. It was about unloading in [someone's] face. We wrote that so - Worcester Phoenix

White Knuckle Sobriety was a finalist for both Best Local Punk Act and Best Local Recording for Fat End First.

URL: http://www.worcesterphoenix.com/supplements/bmp/00/winners.html - Worcester Phoenix