The final two albums by the avant rock trio
Shockabilly were their creative high points, the albums where their combination of silly, antic humor and experimental noise finally truly came together. It's not that these albums are any less goofy than what had come before -- guitarist
Eugene Chadbourne still sings a lot of the songs in those silly cartoon voices that
Primus stole outright, and bassist
Kramer introduces that bizarre sped-up voice that he later used on the
Bongwater records with
Ann Magnuson. New drummer
David Licht, who became an integral part of
Kramer's world starting with these records, gives the band more of a rock & roll wallop, the same sort of heft that
Sonic Youth suddenly gained when
Steve Shelley joined. These are still self-consciously abrasive, "difficult" records filled with alternately giggly and creepy sound collages, but songs like "How Can You Kill Me, I'm Already Dead" (a disturbing musical recasting of some of
Charles Manson's public rants) and
Kramer's unexpectedly bouncy "Pity Me Sheena" have a musical presence and authority that
Shockabilly's earlier records lacked.
–
Stewart Mason, Rovi