Search - Daniel Amos :: Darn Floor Big Bite (Bonus CD) (Dlx)

One of the best albums ever recorded

Ritchie A. Roesch | Houston, TX | 01/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw the two prior reviews, and, while I'm not much of a reviewer, I thought this album deserved more. So here it goes....

First, the title of this review is not an overstatement. Darn Floor - Big Bite is really one of the best albums ever recorded. No lie. No kidding.

OK, now what is it? It's mid-to-late 1980's new wave...well, sort of. Really, it's much more than that. It's a mix of experimental rock, 1960's pop-rock and 1980's new wave that, for the most part, sounds surprisingly fresh today. Much of it was many years (decades?) ahead of its time. And it was performed by some great musicians.

The album is almost completely guitar, drums and bass. There's some pan flute and a small amount of keyboards on "Earth Household" and accordion on "Pictures of the Gone World." The rest of the effects you hear are guitar.

Terry Taylor is right up there with Bob Dylan as one of the great songwriters of our time. And, really, he was at the pinnacle of his writing on this album. The songs on Darn Floor - Big Bite were inspired by several great and often obscure poets (and a "talking" gorrila). If you like deep and sometimes puzzling (in a good way) lyrics, look no further.

Greg Flesch is maybe the must underrated guitarists in the business. He's not what you'd call a "technical" player (although he does have the sensibility of a technical player), but more of a pioneer, inventing new ways to make noise. In a lot of ways, this album (musically) was his.

Tim Chandler is one of the top bass players in rock 'n' roll. He does things most won't and somehow makes it work.

Ed McTaggart is Charlie Watts. Well, not literally, of course, but, figuratively, yes.

And Terry Taylor. I've already talked about how amazing his songwriting skills are. But he's also a good singer. Yes, he's got a unique voice, but it's certainly not annoying. Far from it, in fact, it's a joy to listen to.

So there you have it. A deep and forward thinking rock album that stands the test of time. That's Darn Floor - Big Bite.

Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the great bonus disc...."

Do do do DA dada

Gord Wilson | Bellingham, WA USA | 04/16/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I remember my college days, when I lived with a sponsored surfer named Rob, and Darn Floor Big Bite had the honor of most played cassette. Why? I don't know. I liked that the title was from a gorilla describing an earthquake. Rob liked the energy it gave him to surf. We had followed Terry Taylor's quirky journey and inventive writing from the four volume Alarma! records, and now here. The Band known as Daniel Amos was now streamlined to DA, and there were so many other Taylor-made projects, with the Swirling Eddies, and later the Lost Dogs, and Terry's great songs most would never hear, like "Kingdom Come" on Canadian rocker Carson Cole's rare debut.



DA made great music, but it was 1988 and there was so much great music around. Only now, reading the extensive liner notes in the 20 page booklet in this 20th anniversary retro CD edition did I find out that Terry was inspired from reading Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz. As an English major, I would have relished that thought-- I loved to trace ancient ideas into modern rock: Pascal in the 77s, St. Augustine in Randy Stonehill. Larry Norman seemed to read voraciously and be inspired by everyone.



But I didn't know all that then, and you wouldn't need to, because there was the music. Darn Floor had a sort of stripped down, minimally produced sound, but so many electronic effects were being introduced at the time, I wondered if it was a gimmicky sound that couldn't be reproduced live. The second "bonus" disc in this set put those fears to rest, as it features four live performances at Chicago's Cornerstone festival in 1988 and 2000. There's also a 22 minute interview with Terry Taylor (divided into six sections) by Tom Gulotta, who also penned the insightful blurb in the back of the booklet. Pieces of the interview include rough demo tracks of the songs in progress, providing an unusual look at the band's creative process. The final track is a very rough demo of an unreleased song, "Sacred Heart", which this listener hopes to hear in future in more finished form.



If that's not enough, slip the bonus disc in your PC or Mac, and there are also two videos. The first, "Covershoot" shows the band members jostling for position, Tim Chandler smoking, Terry trying on looks, until it devolves into a manic free for all. The second video shows the band rehearsing for, and then playing at Cornerstone in 1987. Afterwards, they're awarded the Readers Choice award from the late, great Harvest Rock Syndicate magazine, which, true to form, they promptly break.



Reading the liner notes it was a revelation to see that the backing vocals on "The Shape of Air" are by the late Gene Eugene and his wife, Rikki Michelle, both of Adam Again, and the Altar Boys, who around that time had produced their own classic punk rock album, Gut Level Music. But there were lots of great bands and there was lots of great music. And when I put on Darn Floor, it seems like yesterday."

One of the greatest albums of the 80s

R. Bellomy | Dallas | 12/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the band's greatest albums in the 80s. I honestly have no idea why it garnered so little attention when it was first released. I had this on cassette and listened to it for YEARS. I was very happy to find it here at Amazon's MP3 download store.



Now... What about Kalhoun, Shotgun Angel, the Alarma! Chronicles?"