Search - Firewater :: Psychopharmacology

Sipping on a Oxygen Cocktail

Elizabeth Schroeter | Brooklyn, NY United States | 07/27/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"?I?m a raging success as a failure,? sings Tod A. Don?t be so modest, Tod. While many bands can only do one or the other, Firewater is not only successful at writing great music, but also at writing brilliant lyrics. The songs on Psychopharmacology are both beautiful and funky, clever and demented. A regular barstool philosopher, Tod pokes fun at everything from technology to death with his one-too-many-cigarettes-smoked voice. While this could be a real downer, Firewater?s songs are laden with enough piano, sax, tambourine, and sitar to be nearly rockabilly. Tod isn?t crying in his beer, he?s dancing on the bar ?sipping on an oxygen cocktail.?Psychopharmacology comes four years since Firewater?s last release, The Ponzi Scheme, which was close on the heels of the first release Get off the Cross (We Need the Wood for the Fire). In the past, Tod A. (who used to front the band Cop Shoots Cop) has had help from Duane Denison of The Jesus Lizard, Yuval Gabay of Soul Coughing, and is joined once again on this new release by Jennifer Charles of Elysian Fields. Firewater is more irresistible than Harvey Danger and less lollipop than Squirrel Nut Zippers, while still appealing to the wit and sound of those two bands. Rarely is an album so catchy and so tongue-in-cheek that it keeps getting better and better each time you hear it. Psychopharmacology is destined to take up permanent residence in your CD player, so make room. Lyrics like, ?And I would train to be an astronaut if I weren?t afraid of heights, and you know I could be a supermodel if you turned out all the lights,? will be swimming around between your ears for days. It may require therapy, even a lobotomy to get Psychopharmacology out of your head."

Not only a great Firewater album, but a great rock album too

figurat | 07/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Firewater seems to need to struggle to release an album. With their first release, GET OFF THE CROSS WE NEED WOOD FOR THE FIRE, a couple of retailers in Florida refused to carry the album because it featured a version of the "Sacred Heart of Jesus" with two minor alterations-- Christ was depicted holding a high ball in one hand and a cigarette in the other. They probably would have been only slightly more offended if they had listened to the album. It combined a kind of Tom Waits/Kurt Weil sensibility with middle eastern and eastern europeans flavors, with just enough of the Doors to come in handy. A quite good, but ultimately uneven album.Then came "The Ponzi Scheme", who's release had to be delayed because of its innovative design. Tod A, who is both a frontman and a graphic designer, decided to encase the CD in a metal tin. Unfortunetly, there was a surplus demand in cat food, and the tin manufactorer had to delay. The Ponzi Scheme, with its spy themes and broken dreams headed Firewater more towards a rock direction, with several songs sticking in the listeners head for hours on end (but in a good way).Now, almost four years later, comes PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY, delayed ultimately by a protracted battle with a record company and several producers. Perhaps the album is better off for it, however. The three years in time seem like three light year sin distance, and here is a brand new firewater that manages to combine all of the disparate influences rather than bounce almost self-consciously from one to the next. DOn't get me wrong, I love Ponzi and Cross, but PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY is a truly great and ground breaking rock album in and of its own right, regardless of whether you like the band or not. Spanning rock history from the Beatles to Radiohead, the album is a revolution in Firewater's signature sound. Little violin, almost no hors, and the occasional sitar and acoustic guitar may have old fans wondering, "Is this the same band?" but the key is in the sensibility. That sensibility-- to make a great honest rock album dripping with depression and irony, is certainly felt in PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY. An album filled with lyrical gems, musical genius, and plenty of rock. Buy it now."

Third cd from Firewater is the charm

Jason T. Hill | Phoenix, AZ United States | 07/31/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Firewater has always been a band that is trying to push the envelop as far as sound. Their lyrics are angst-ridden affairs attacking religion and government. A band that matters is something sacred. There aren't many bands like Firewater in the world. They sound like a mixture of the Pogues, Tom Waits and The Doors. On Psychopharmacology the group is in fine form. Catchier than their previous two cd's it's a must buy for anyone searching for something more than the latest rap-core, teeny punk bands, grunge ripoff bands that are labelled rock. The latest cd is a great intro to Firewater. It's as catchy as I'd ever want them to be."