Thin White Rope Albums (6)
What The Critics Say
Thin White Rope's second album, Moonhead, is the edge-of-chaos masterpiece of the paisley underground, an album that sounds like Neil Young & Crazy Horse tackling Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures. All of the 14 songs, even a pounding cover of Jimmy Reed's blues classic "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby," are so wound up and tense that they sound like they could explode at any point; the fact that they don't, not even on extended guitar workouts like "Crawl Piss Freeze" and the epic closer "Take It Home," gives the album an at times almost unbearable tension. The songs all start from basically the same point -- dual-guitar leads over Jozef Becker's almost Krautrock-like steady pulses and Stephen Tesluk's throbbing, minimal basslines -- but Guy Kyser's lyrics and vocals range from tortured wails to mordant, deadpan humor, providing the album with just enough variation that it doesn't become deadening. An intense, satisfying album, Moonhead is Thin White Rope's most substantial and powerful effort. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Hailing from the northern California town of Davis, Thin White Rope was initially pegged as a proponent of the paisley underground movement. Such labeling, however, tells half the story at best. The list of bands the group went on to cover over the course of their ten-year career is actually more revealing. Songs by Suicide, the Stooges, Lee Hazlewood, Marty Robbins, Bob Dylan, Can, and a James Bond theme have all been rendered by the band in the studio and on-stage. That list goes a long way in explaining the mixture of raw, angular riffs, southern twang, and icy psychedelia that characterizes Exploring the Axis, the group's 1985 debut. What it does not convey, perhaps, is the relative bleakness of Thin White Rope's music. Frontman Guy Kyser, guitarist Roger Kunkel, bassist Stephen Tesluk, and drummer Jozef Becker outline a series of barren landscapes, their instruments kicking up clouds of dust from the parched earth like a rollicking, rickety ghost-train headed south. At times Jeff Eyrich's productions approach the wintry heir of Martin Hannett's work with Joy Division. This climate is ideal for Kyser, who delivers tales of isolation, allusion, and death; his voice a perpetually unsteady quake. Unfortunately, he hadn't yet learned how to pace himself, continually reaching for the drama inherent in the songs at the expense of lyrical nuances. Though subsequent releases would see a maturing of the band's sound, Exploring the Axis would remain the blueprint. ~ Nathan Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The Ruby Sea follows in the progression that most of Thin White Rope's albums followed, slowly shedding their more blatantly psychedelic influences and polishing their sound as a surreal and chilling rock band. The record is a cold and dramatic slice of desert rock that manages to be gripping more often than it is simply campy. The band's always-keen sense of guitar dynamics serves them well, as do strangled vocals reminiscent of Peter Murphy; some of the album's production unwisely accentuates the band's already-slick presentation, but this is easily overlooked. ~ Nitsuh Abebe, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The Rope's frame of reference (no surprise to longtime fans) draws from '60s West Coast folk rock (and like-minded '80s practitioners), but with darker underpinnings and with an unpretty lead growler in vocalist/guitarist Guy Keyser. As a songwriter, Keyser (with help from bassist John von Feldt and guitarist Roger Kunkel) is hip without being condescending and occasionally (e.g. "Mr. Limpet"'s Don Knotts imagery) show a wickedly funny sense of humor...They're more interested in challenging their audience rather than simply regurgitating the same tired riffs that have propelled many of their compatriots into hockey arenas. Not everything works here...but there's tons of good stuff... ~ John Dougan, Option 21_88, All Music Guide
'The One That Got Away'
Release Date 1/1/1993
Tracks 26
Label Frontier
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The two-disc One That Got Away presents a 1992 concert by Thin White Rope, performed in Gent, Belgium (the band enjoyed European success more than American, a result of their dark and occasionally campy sound). Most interestingly, the recording's surprisingly high quality reveals that much of the slickness of the band's album work is due not so much to production, but to the band's presentation itself -- as their rhythm section churns through tight rock workouts, guitars lay smooth, atmospheric textures above them in a live format that occasionally recalls Joy Division. In addition to Thin White Rope's material, the set also includes a number of covers (presaging the all-cover Squatter's Rights). Most stunning is a rendition of Can's "Yoo Doo Right," but the discs also include Bob Dylan's "Outlaw Blues," and songs like "Some Velvet Morning," and "Silver Machine." ~ Nitsuh Abebe, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Sack Full of Silver is, in many ways, one of Thin White Rope's most fully realized sets, blending the group's early alt-psychedelic influences and a growing taste for dusty Americana flavors. Having completed a 16-date tour of the Soviet Union, the group collected covers of Marty Robbins, Lee Hazlewood, and others for the Red Sun EP, followed shortly by this batch of originals penned during the trip overseas. Like all Thin White Rope releases, Sack Full of Silver is defined by the voice of Guy Kyser: the aural equivalent of the flat, parched, endless landscape his characters seem to inhabit. Sobering realizations, like dead ends, await them around every corner. In an environment where failure, desperation, and hopelessness are common currency, adding up one's losses and moving on feels like a great victory. It's clearly no easy task. "The Ghost" catches its subject in the moment before that turning point, looking ahead as a life of loss begins to flood in. Emerging out of the final chords of "Americana," it rises from the sound of wind-swept sand to a triumphant anthem in the mold of an old folk song. Revealing that they are working within a wider frame of reference, the group adapt Can's "Yoo Doo Right," distilling the original's 20 minutes into a compact, bursting rock number. Though the gray area in between these two styles produces less memorable results, Thin White Rope's brand of American roots has aged more gracefully than the work of some of their contemporaries. Sack Full of Silver remains as fine an introduction to Kyser's vision as any. ~ Nathan Bush, All Music Guide
