Caroliner Rainbow Scrambled Egg Taken for a Wife

Banknotes, Dreams, & Signatures (Nuf Sed)

At first glance, the 7th LP from SF's Singing Bull squad seems unusually straightforward (for them), with a more coherent cover than prior packages. But once cued up, it's still the same chaotic 19th Century Noise Band we all know and love, with the customary multi-instrumental pandemonium and maniacal vocals jabbering ergot-spawned yarns circa 1800-something.

Like the "restless nightmares and tortured dark dreams" these surreal songs resemble, sensically encapsulating a Caroliner disc can be problematic. Suffice to say that listening to Banknotes is as disorienting as a jug of high-octane moonshine and creepier than a barrel fulla wood ticks. After initial listenings, my subconscious seems to favor side B, which lumbers to a start with the clamorous trudge of "Beeline for the Wet Spot," and subsequently ranges from the practically rocking "The Worst of Toys" to the strangely beautiful, discordant drone of "Poat Room."

On the fun-with-vinyl front, Caroliner really crammed the music on this time. Play either side backwards, and you've got music right up 'till the needle falls off. Cool. You still have a turntable, right?

Caroliner Rainbow Memories Tortured-Battling in the Slurs of the Fikenest play Fri., May 27 [1994] at On Broadway, 435 Broadway, S.F. -Mike Rowell