Search - Groundhogs :: Crosscut Saw/Black Diamond

Nothing soft here!

WaltSnipe | Austin, Tx United States | 06/24/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not sure I understand the previous review. I've got all the Groundhogs albums, and Crosscut Saw has got to be the heaviest, most distorted, twisted, sick guitar that TS ever played. I mean that in a good way, of course. There is an air of menace to TS's guitar/keyboard playing and singing that, in its own way, is more ominous that any Black Sabbath recording (and I love classic Sabbath). TS doesn't minch words in his lyric writing (not very PC on the mysogeny front, as he acknowledges on the song which is a pun on the term) or his guitar playing. He has an extremely bitter outlook on life, and he means it in these songs. I wouldn't want to mess with this guy. This factor gives the album the same harsh realism of a brutal football game, and is worth experiencing for the same reason--there can be no question that it is REAL. Not staged, not done for commercial gain, not pandering to any goal other than the animalist expressions of the tortured insides of one Tony TS McFee. Somewhere in his past, TS must've had the mother of all breakups.... Hair-raising stuff. Black Diamond is a good album too (though "Body Talk" is so mysogenistic that it's kind of hard to take in this day and age), but Crosscut Saw is the THING YOU MUST HAVE.ps. if there's ever a snow-ski slope that you're afraid to try, crank up "Eleventh Hour" on the headphones, scream loud and bloody, and head straight down..."

Guitarist supreme

WaltSnipe | 04/21/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"crosscut saw / black diamond were mcphee's final run with his synthi-hifli guitar synth - he took it farther than anyone !!! -his over the top guitar work on crosscut saw can acutally scare people - 3 way split, promiscuity and fulfillment are some of the most dynamic in your face guitar you'll ever hear.black diamond actually contains better material but isn't quite as aggressive as crosscut saw - friendzy, fantasy partner, live right , black diamond are all exceptional tunes - not a bad one on the album - this is probably mcphee's most under-rated lp. highly recommended!!!"

Oh yeah!!

WaltSnipe | 12/04/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Crosscut Saw is the album wherein T.S. McPhee launches you INTO the universe. Beautiful, powerful guitar work that grasps the mind and bends the consciousness. In an era of Jean Luc Ponte's Moog violin work and Pink Floyd's lazy psychedelia, Mr. McPhee gives muscle to an otherwise too-sweet genre. Bravo for voicing the masculine male's malaise in that last gasp of white boy angst fueled by too much speed, acid, smoke and wine!!!!! A vocalization that is truly a definitive chapter in American rock and global master craftsman guitar musicianship!!!Misogynist? Sure. But it is all true. The deep feelings of betrayal, the resentment of abandonment, the love/hate of unrequited or "dis"requited affection is all there. The man must have truly loved his woman with a furious passion in order to disaffect with such vehemence. I respect his words and have for nearly 20 years. His pathos and telling tales of the women he has known, as portrayed in this work, should give pause to all men and make us mindful of the power of woman. T.S. McPhee surely was totally aware of their incredible power and communicates it quite effectively through his instrument."