OFF: Catching Up Fast

[Keith Henderson]

>>King's X - Ear Candy (1996)
>>Summary description: Screaming Trees meets It Bites
>>
>>This is pretty standard material.  The proggish pop-rock writing style of It
>>Bites' Frank Dunnery but with that enormous dude from Screaming Trees on
>>rhythm guitar pretty much explains everything you need to know about King's
>>X (is it pronounced 'ex' or 'cross'...I always wondered).  The vocals are
>>indeed unusual, again very reminiscent of Frank Dunnery (alone), but also
>>like Echolyn (a 'truer' prog band) when doing the harmonizing thing.  I
>>found it only marginally interesting.  And they get quite soulful (or even
>>'gospel-ish') once in a while. But the main problem is the drummer.  This
>>guy is clumsy and plodding (see Chronicle of the Black Sword), which is
>>unfortunately emphasized by the fact that the sound of his drums on this
>>album is also pretty much dead.  This is a major label recording, so can't
>>imagine what the engineer was doing to make the drum track so lifeless.
>
>Ok before I start please do not take this as flaming or harsh criticism...to
>each their own.
>
>There is a professional drummer that works here in my building and I
>recently shared some King's X music with him.  I also shared your post and
>it made him scratch his head.  I'm no muscian so it was bit hard to follow
>what he said.  Nevertheless he was in total disagreement with your thoughts
>about Jerry Gaskills drumming.  Jerry is very unconventional (guy even
>showed my some stuff to explain what that means but again I couldn't follow)
>but he is hardly clumsy.  He finds Jerry's work to be top notch.

I thought he plays like me, which is why I quit.  :)  I dunno, I listen to
the ending (last two minutes) of Track 7 ('67) and I hear a guy who if not
clumsy, then is certainly 'awkward.'  (That's just the worst example.)  And
the bass drum/tom sound is total crap.  Sound engineer's fault there probably.

>Now who the hell is It Bites?  KX have been compared to some people mostly
>Rush or Queen but I've never heard anybody compare them to that band.

Well, they're not infinitely popular like Rush or Queen (the latter would be
a particularly bad comparison IMHO, and Rush not so good either).  It Bites
OTOH is a close comparison I believe. And their drummer wasn't so hot
either.  :)

Anyway, there were on Virgin (UK) and Geffen (US), so I consider them to be
*huge*.  :)  I saw them open for Jethro Tull, and went out and bought 'Eat
Me in St. Louis' (yeah, a title as stupid as the band's name).  They're all
from Cumbria, England, which is the far north where noone lives.  :)  They
put out three albums and an EP, but only that one here in the US.  They had
a couple famous producers, Steve Hillage and Mack (there's yer Queen
reference).  I guess 'Calling all the Heroes' was somewhat of a single, but
not over here.  They broke up around 1992, when Frank Dunnery went solo.  He
actually had a bit more success over here then, as I remember hearing his
first single "American Life in the Summertime" on the radio.  That album
(but for that decent pop single) was crap IMHO though, and I haven't picked
up any future releases.  He also was to be seen sharing the stage with one
Robert Plant as a 'hired gun' for a time.

http://www.mandy.co.uk/it-bites/index.html for more.

Keith H. (FAA)