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Posted by jiminy on 02-09-2009 at14:17:
finally spinning this!!
15 seconds in - R of the Beat Menace-
you can INSTANTLY (divinely?) tell the remaster efforts-
now my original has plummeted in value...it sounds like cotton in a can.
THANK YOU - A-ROCK n All
Posted by dennis on 02-11-2009 at11:45:
the original still sounds good to me!
Posted by audiori on 02-20-2009 at18:19:
*
www.danielamos.com
*
www.myspace.com/danielamosmusic
* Rating: 10 / 10
In 1987, Daniel Amos put the gospel truth to music, for those few with ears to hear, back when they first released Darn Floor, Big Bite. Tom Gulotta, in his liner notes to Darn Floor, Big Bite, sums it up best when he writes:
“The 1980s were the decade of star-spangled optimism and helmet-haired televangelism.
America, with sparkling teeth and bulging muscles, sat gloriously at the right hand of God, who blazed like neon on his velvet throne. This was no time for talk of mystery, humility and doubt. Yet this was the very decade when Terry Taylor and Daniel Amos (the favored sons of the West Coast Jesus Movement of the ‘70s) took an honest gander in the glass, and rather than regurgitate the same simplistic slogans, sought to mine the deeper veins.”
I was a relative music business virgin working at Frontline Records back then, and thrilled to death to be promoting my all-time favorite Christian rock band. And I’ll never forget the day I asked a famous Christian magazine editor what he thought of this new Daniel Amos record. “Great F-in noise!” he exclaimed. (Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best spiritual assessment of this fine work). But during a time when sugarcane in cellophane was constantly playing at the radio station and it was almost a deadly sin to admit that one didn’t exactly have this whole Christian thing down pat, Darn Floor, Big Bite allowed many of us to just enjoy the mystery of it all and be okay with that. We were like those kids in class honest enough to raise our hands and say, ‘Okay, would you mind explaining that one more time?’
Few at the time even understood the meaning of this album’s title to begin with, let alone appreciate its overall impact. How can average floors and general mastication have anything to do with Christianity, anyway? Well, Taylor took the title from a science experiment where a gorilla was taught to speak in sign language. And when this gorilla experienced an earthquake for the first time, the best means he had to describe it was: Darn floor, big bite. Similarly, as Taylor reminds us with one lyrical line, our “language is weak.” Yet in the title track he also notes, “I pray that writing it down is part of loving you.” God’s ways aren’t man’s ways. Man has an awfully big opinion of himself, but when he looks at himself next to a holy God, he’s shrunk down to realistic size. In a nutshell, this God-to-man comparison is what Taylor has done with Darn Floor, Big Bite.
The notes to this welcome reissue, which include an extra disc of music and Taylor interviews, give new insight into this pivotal release – even for those of us that were there at its inception. For instance, Taylor mostly wrote his lyrics to music beds created by guitarist Greg Flesch and bassist Tim Chandler. This made Darn Floor, Big Bite Daniel Amos’ most collaborative effort to day. Chandler’s booming bass is best showcased during the title track, whereas Flesch’s out-of-this-world electric guitar explorations are all over the place. It’s the sort of album where, even if you don’t dig – or even want to dig — the themes, you can enjoy it simply for the way it rocks.
To paraphrase Taylor from one of the CD interview, Darn Floor, Big Bite is probably the one Daniel Amos that cannot be easily linked to any particular musical era. It’s not New Wave, as were earlier efforts, nor is it as Beatle-esque as much of the group’s succeeding recordings. It stands alone, timeless.
Darn Floor, Big Bite is the sound of a great American rock band biting off more than it can chew — and loving it.
Dan MacIntosh is a freelance writer from Bellflower, CA.
http://www.soul-audio.com/album-reviews/02-18-2009/daniel-amos/
Posted by dennis on 03-14-2009 at06:05:
"Great f-ing noise" is my favorite review of that album.
It really does sum it up best!
Posted by wakachiwaka on 03-14-2009 at13:11:
| quote: |
Originally posted by dennis
"Great f-ing noise" is my favorite review of that album.
It really does sum it up best! |
I'll bet dollars to donuts that was BQN (he of the many pseudonyms) who gave such an eloquent summary (doesn't seem quite John Styll's, er, style)...
Posted by audiori on 08-25-2009 at16:17:
Anyone want to write a quick review of Darn Floor? A couple of people have already responded it looks like, but the actual reviewer is pretty clueless. Not looking to flood their site with posts, but it might be nice to have a few from people that actually enjoy DA's music.
http://www.aversion.com/bands/reviews.cfm?f_id=3924
Posted by dennis on 08-25-2009 at19:35:
| quote: |
Originally posted by wakachiwaka
| quote: |
Originally posted by dennis
"Great f-ing noise" is my favorite review of that album.
It really does sum it up best! |
I'll bet dollars to donuts that was BQN (he of the many pseudonyms) who gave such an eloquent summary (doesn't seem quite John Styll's, er, style)... |
Posted by dennis on 08-25-2009 at19:40:
| quote: |
Originally posted by audiori
Anyone want to write a quick review of Darn Floor? A couple of people have already responded it looks like, but the actual reviewer is pretty clueless. Not looking to flood their site with posts, but it might be nice to have a few from people that actually enjoy DA's music.
http://www.aversion.com/bands/reviews.cfm?f_id=3924 |
Holy Cow, that review seemed to be written by a guy who had a chip on his shoulder. Ouch. That was just painful to read, like a kick in the crotch.
Posted by dennis on 08-25-2009 at19:46:
This is the review that made me want to buy DFBB.
I had never even heard of DA up until that point.
arvest Rock Syndicate Winter 1987/88
5 points out of 5
by Mark Eischer
Darn Floor, Big Bite is an exercise in discovery a moody, magnificent album which defies easy description. Each listening brings new insights, impressions building up like the coats of lacquer on a Japanese jewel-box. Maybe this shouldn't even be called a 'review.' A review is after the fact, past-tense a summation. I'll be frank-I'm still in the process of absorbing Da's newest record. Chalk it up to the weakness of language, I guess.
Greg Flesch continues to amaze as Da’s resident mad scientist of Guitar and Attendant Technology. His innovative, angular guitar effects complement Terry Taylor's provocative lyrics. Tim Chandlers dissonant bass lines crawl like big lizards through the underbrush of engineer Doug Doyle's mixes. Ed McTaggart again contributes excellent artwork and of course, Big Drums.
The album's basic idea is that all human attempts to describe God fall short and fail. A thought Which - has probably never creased the brow of Chris Christian, it is basically just another variation on the "now we see as through a glass darkly" theme.
Taylor adds a new twist by relating humanity's futile attempts at grasping the Divine to the story of Koko the Gorilla, a primate some scientists taught to 'sign" simple words. The gorilla's best attempt at describing the experience of an earthquake came out as 'darn' floor, big bite.' Terry Taylor apparently read that line in National Geographic, a little light went "Sproing!" ' and the rest is history, as the animal kingdom provides its richest literary alussion since Lassie, Come Home.
Calling the Koko experiment "sign language” is itself a faulty description, as I discovered when I tried to explain the album to a friend of mine who works as an interpreter for the deaf. She didn't really see much humor in it in fact, she was rather offended by the whole Koko idea, as though it were somehow a putdown of deaf people. So it goes.
"The Unattainable Earth" continues the communication-as-distortion theme, propelled along by some of the album's most memorable hooks and- a looping guitar riff reminiscent of the Beafles' Revolver period.
Da fanatics looking for their newest cult Classic need look no further than the opening track, "Return of the Beat Menace." Terry Taylor takes on the Baton Rouge Bomber with this account of a backwoods ayatollah gone hog-wild. The song is not so much about rock-bashing, though, as about clashing cultures and media manipulation. At the downlink end of the televangelist's satellite network sits an eskimo "He buys a suit and tie/re-styles his hair like girls in Tupelo/and sings 'Sweet Bye and Bye." It's too real to be funny.
In "Strange Animals," Taylor applies the theme to human relationships: "If I were to give you/an animal's name/Could I keep you locked/in a (age in my brain?" Taylor will probably win few friends among Biblical Inerrantists, thanks to the implications of this albums theme. Yet, for all its dissonance and angularity, its tribalistic Techno-Primitive rage, Darn Floor, Big Bite is ultimately a prayer for deeper understanding. The title song sums it up: "Illuminate my muddled/Sweep the shadows from my mind/so I might imagine what you are like/and understand the great design.”
"The Shape of Air" seems to quote the melody of Amy Grant's 'I Can Fly. " Whether the reference is intentional or not, it helps create a sense of innocence and wonder which concludes the record.
Posted by dennis on 08-25-2009 at20:05:
I bought Darn Floor based on the above review and could not make head or tales of the album. Well the cassette tape to be truthful.
The music, the lyrics seemed bizarre and otherworldly to me. They seemed so confused and jumbled and full of doubt and trepidation. They seemed all too human and private. Also there seemed to be more going on than I could get a handle on. To make things worse just as it started to seem to make some sort of sense, the tape was over.
I studied the lyrics, the artwork and listened to the music over and over in futility. I got to the point where I was going to tape over it. I even erased the song titles from the side of the tape, but as I placed it into the tape-recorder (with the holes taped over) I had an epiphany. I decided that even though I could not make any sense whatsoever of this bizarre and strange little album I reasoned my music collection would be more interesting with it, than without it.
So I kept it. I then listened to the music without expectation. I would just let the music be and wash over me. I would play it for my friends and ask them if they could make anything out of it, and very often they would glean some insight that I had missed.
Another helpful aide to me was the purchase of Fearful Symmetry. It gave me a frame of reference for Terry's writing and a little more insight into his music.
Growing older helped and becoming more comfortable with my faith and doubt and getting a better grasp of the sublime aspects of poetry and it's use of language.
Over the years the album has become something of a very good friend that I almost blew off when we first met.
After all these years, well over 20, Darn Floor - Big Bite has continued to be "an exercise in discovery a moody, magnificent album which defies easy description. Each listening brings new insights, impressions building up like the coats of lacquer on a Japanese jewel-box."
Darn Floor - Big Bite was my first DA album, and you never forget your first.
Posted by audiori on 08-25-2009 at21:33:
Hehe.. some reviewers seem to have a weird view of what their job is. Although the internet breeds people like him..
Posted by sondance on 08-25-2009 at23:16:
| quote: |
Originally posted by audiori
Hehe.. some reviewers seem to have a weird view of what their job is. Although the internet breeds people like him.. |
the internet breeds people? oh, mama!
there's got to be a sci-fi thriller in that one
does the AL the pal know about this?
Posted by audiori on 08-26-2009 at00:54:
| quote: |
| the internet breeds people? oh, mama! |
It does, and if you refuse its advances it'll grab your skull in its big robot hand. At least, thats what I've heard.
Posted by Mountain Fan on 08-26-2009 at14:21:
i'm gonna hafta get DFBB 20th one of these days ...
price is still holding up pretty well in the aftermarket ...
so much music ... so little time and $ ...
think my next music purchase maybe the latest Dylan Together Through Life; the samples sound better than Modern Times which was good but a little overrated.
Posted by dennis on 08-26-2009 at16:25:
Modern Time is maybe my favorite Dylan of the last ten years or so.
That said, Together through Life is excellent.
But you need to get Darn Floor.
Posted by dennis on 08-26-2009 at16:26:
| quote: |
Originally posted by joey
the m*gz of music reviewers it sounds like.... 
|
Pretty much yeah...
Posted by wakachiwaka on 08-26-2009 at17:55:
Left my rebuttal this morning...
Posted by dennis on 08-26-2009 at19:10:
| quote: |
Originally posted by wakachiwaka
Left my rebuttal this morning... |
Good job!
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