Prisonshake: The Cut-Out Bin

Prisonshake missed their moment in 1988 and god bless them for that. Right at the critical time when they could have dropped an album (which was not the parlance in 1988) to take the mantel of drunk sloppy rock and roll from The Replacements, they stepped on their own dicks by releasing a box set: CD, LP, cassette, and 7" vinyl all packaged in a green foam stadium seat. By the time they released "The Roaring Third" CD in 1990 their best songs were gone and the moment had passed. And now after a ten year hiatus they come back with what? A double CD. Of course? And it is a brilliantly sloppy collection of rock songs. One that would have cemented their place in the record rack had it been released about twenty years ago. But one that sounds even sweeter today, when it stands alone.

The signature song, the coup de grace, is The Cut-Out Bin. Beginning with an answering machine message (though sadly, not left by or for GG Allin) (could anything be more dated than an answering machine message? Sounds of the telegraph tapping?) the song launches into a melodic mid-tempo corker containing all the truth about rock and roll and Prisonshake's place in it and our place in it.

Lyrically, the song breaks into three distinct sections with three powerful messages:

1. [Back in the day/before songs were numbered/and only bikers and sailors had tattoos/I worked all day, selling records to assholes/and huffing boo/and screwing you.] Has the particular sweet science of record store retailing every been so perfectly characterized? this is the view from the other side of the counter, where that apparently seething self-loathing bastard staring at you lurked.This nostalgic turn concludes with the line [Some say rock and roll has died/and at times like this I wish they were right] So goodbye record store and goodbye records. We have turned our back on the mighty transformative project of rock music.
   
2. [When they bring back the Cut-Out Bin/Save a spot for us right behind the Pretty Things] Did Prisonshake actually look into my record collection before writing this line? There they are in the lineup: ...Powertrane, Pretty Things, Prisonshake, Psychedelic Furs, Q65... Its uncanny how well they know their place in the rock order.
3. [No one gets a twilight to their career anymore/No gets to make mediocre record number 4] Depending on how you slice it, this could be Prisonshake's 4th record. Coincidence?

A more seemingly romantic and unwittingly unaware approach to the record rack came from The Kinks in 1996 with their final released song, To The Bone. [In the back of the record rack/ there's an old double pack/12 inches and black with an old crumbled cover but every track is stacked] The song takes a nose dive into being a pleasant romantic diversion after these towering introductory couplettes, and why shouldn't it? The Kinks had been loading up the Cut-Out Bin since 1973. Still it was nice for them to backhandedly acknowledge the dusty end of their output before packing it in.
Play:
Prisonshake - The Cut-Out Bin

The Kinks - To The Bone


Download:
Prisonshake - The Cut-Out Bin
The Kinks - To The Bone