DOA Unappreciated Album of the Month - Carnival Art, Welcome to Vas Llegas. Beggars Banquet (1992)
Written By: Gary

(About this Feature: Regardless of how extensive your album collection, there are always one or two albums that touch you in a way none of the others do. Most of these did not bring in the critical success they deserved, but sometimes they're better because of that. This monthly feature will look at a few underappreciated albums from the mid-90s and earlier and what makes them so special.)

So, back in the day when I was 13 or 14, I didn't exactly know a whole lot about the music industry, or, to be honest, music in general. I thought all radio stations sounded just like commercial radio stations, which all tended to sound the same with the exception of their format differences. I really didn't mind it, though, because through middle school all I really listened to were my cassettes, and all of those were either late 80's hair-metal or any sort of rap or hip-hop I could get my hands on.

Somewhere along the way, my tastes changed thanks to my older cousin introducing me to Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine. Things were all fine and dandy from that point on, as I was 'discovering' all sorts of guitar rock stuff like Quicksand, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Monster Magnet and the like, thinking I'd cornered the market on music since absolutely no one at my school gave two craps about any of these bands. One fateful night, though, an accidental button mash on my Dad's car stereo brought us to 89.3, WHFR - the radio station for a local community college. Within half an hour, we'd literally heard no less than six different songs that eventually warranted shopping trips to by the respective CDs/cassettes that contained them. I still remember the DJ's name - Steve Chesney. He was quite the little music stud (at least, to me he was), and my dad and I would religiously listen to his show on Sunday afternoons from 5 to 7 p.m.

Well, one day Steve played a song by Carnival Art called "Pill Bugg," and while a bit on the slower side, it had a killer hook. My Dad was sold after about two minutes, so that weekend he headed to the store to pick up Welcome to Vas Llegas, and within days, it's one of my Dad's favorite records. Of course, I'm too busy to listen, since I'm busy playing Pearl Jam's Ten and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger over and over, but at least I knew it was there.

Fast-forward a year, and my Dad's not living at home anymore. Mom was working 60 hours a week, so I spent a lot of time sitting in my room listening to music at obscene volumes. Money was a bit scarce, so I started digging out the tapes my Dad had left in the basement to pass the time. One day I found the fated Carnival Art cassette, and from that point, I've been completely and hopelessly hooked on Welcome to Vas Llegas.

First off, I guess I'll qualify the fact that current Weezer guitarist Brian Bell played bass for Carnival Art (a nugget of information that I didn't know until about three months ago). Putting that aside, though, this is one solid release from beginning to end, regardless of who ended up in what bands. Carnival Art is a perfect example of an incredibly talented guitar rock band that simply got lost in the alterna-fad of the early 90's.

Carnival Art's first Beggars Banquet release, Thrumdrone, actually came out in 1988. The disc garnered the band a surprising amount of attention, most of which was centered around the band's oddball cover song choice of Syd Barrett's "Octopus." Also, the vocal style of Michael P. Tak drew some initial Carnival Art comparisons to the Pixies, but eventually the band made enough of a buzz to merit attention based on their own style, and not such blatant comparisons. That's not to say that the band doesn't have moments that sound eerily familiar, even on a first listen; for the most part, though, Carnival Art sticks to it's own brand of "twisted, heavy, guitar driven psycho pop" (taken from the Welcome to Vas Llegas liner notes).

As much as I hate having to agree with PR blurbs, that six-word take on Carnival Art's sound is pretty much a dead on description of this disc. The record is loosely tied together by the imagined concept of standing in the middle of a huge city for the first time, looking around, and having your brain react to it all like you were back in your Podunk hometown. Again, from the liner notes:

"Vas Llegas lies between here and there, next door to nowhere, just outside of town. It's that place where 'You Go' and 'You Get' to at the same time. Not for a visit or a vacation, you just sort of end up there and realize that you've been there before."

The sounds of casino bells and drones opens the disc and paves the way for the album's instrumental opener, a fast-paced minute-and-a-half guitar romp that pretty much sets the mood for the disconnecting stories the band is about to spit forth. From the casino buzz comes the wicked groove of "Shit Thick," with a lead guitar line straight from Kyuss matched with a bassline from some 70's funk porno soundtrack. P. Tak spits venom at an unnamed source, with his voice bursting from a nonchalant drawl to a grind as he declares, "Big dumb fork tongue / Lying son of a bitch / You're shit thick." The track's bridge is simply brutal, sounding like a Black Sabbath outtake (complete with reverse-gated guitar noodles fading in from the background) before breaking down into a simply nasty bass-and-drum break.

"Sucker Punch" follows with a set of one-two punchy rhythm guitars bearing down on P. Tak's tale of feminine mystique. The bass throbs as P. Tak relates the tale of "Half a man who's twice as drunk / From one cup of your sucker punch," leading the guitars and bass into another nasty break-down groove sequence. From there, the band punches things into a more upbeat tempo with "Which is Wig," led by one of the most infectious lead guitar lines to ever come out of the 90's. The drums play a bigger role in this one, especially during the rapid fire lead guitar parts and the catchier-than-thou tongue twister chorus ("Which is which / Who wore the witches' wig? / Who's the witch that wore the wig? / The witches' wig").

"Dread Full Head" sees the band slow the beat down a bit and return to the 'groove' feeling that was prevalent in the first two tracks, chugging along on thick chords before putting a bit of bounce in the chorus. The thick 'underwater, echo' reverb on the ending guitar piece is a nice touch, leading nicely into the much more subdued, bluesy rhythm guitar lead of "Blue Food." Of course, after hearing the thick grooves pulled out already on Vas Llegas, something bluesy isn't all that surprising. Still, the band pulls double-time again on what stands as the track's chorus, with P. Tak emoting "Roll away" over another fly lead rhythm line and solid drumming. Finally, the band just breaks out into a full-fledged freak-out, led by an effect- and wah-pedal-drenched solo by guitarist Ed (and yes, 'Ed' is the full name given in the liner notes) that leads right back to the blues again.

"Gold Plated Crazy" brings back the casino theme, finding the beginnings of this tale of a gold-digging female buried beneath the sounds of a card game. The rhythm guitars here alternate between stop-and-go stun sounds and stutter-step pieces that break into a simple but catchy fuzz-and-cleantone bit for the chorus. The talk of "gold guns" leads nicely into one of the catchiest songs on the disc, the thinly veiled letter of advice known as "Bullet Surprise." A strong rhythm guitar lead fronts the song, breaking down into a sweet chord transgression that backs up P. Tak's tale of a broken man. Eventually, the guitars rise up alongside the driving bass and laid-back drumming, creating a strangely happy mood to support P. Tak's advice to the man to "Pick up your bullet, sir / And push it into the black part of your eye / Then a speech would be in order, sir / For you have won the bullet surprise." The second chorus leads to a guitar break featuring the fantastic lead again, and P. Tak paints a somber picture with "Now he has his smokes and a murder book / A beer cap puzzle and the TV's glow / On a special night, when it comes in right / He'll see the light of the Lucy show." This is quite possibly the most upbeat and listenable track about death that I've ever heard. I mean, here's Carnival Art, describing this poor guy's pathetic life while telling him to just kill himself and get it over with, and I'm bouncing my head and singing along. Amazing.

"Crepitus" keeps the dark vibe going with a moody groove and a few unnerving pace changes. P. Tak's voice is downright eerie here, as he goes from his standard drawl-whine to a soaring, effect-enhanced echo that's just spooky. The rhythm guitars have a definite groove going again on this one, backing up P. Tak's tales of some creepy, creepy folk. Oddly enough, from there the band launches into the most positive and upbeat track on the disc, a tale of a drifter known as "Little Elvis" that's out to make a name for himself. This is about the most pop track on the disc, with a rockin' dual rhythm thing going that perfectly meshes chords with another undeniably catchy lead rhythm hook. The bass, of course, is all over the place again, and the drums anchor everything down quite nicely. There's a ridiculous line in the song ("She smiled full and beamed / And said her name was Coochaline") that still cracks me up with every listen, but it all just seems to go along with the positive vibe of the song ("And everywhere he goes, he sings / Like Presley, I'll be King").

The disc ends with Carnival Art's opus, "Pill Bugg," a tale of a lonesome man who does everything he can to keep himself from feeling so alone. A very psychedelic, winding guitar groove starts off the track, meandering along through the first verse before kicking into a mean set of dirty chords for the bridge. The chorus is the complete opposite, though, completely lifting the track from the heavy groove and lifting P. Tak's tale on a bed of acoustic guitar and almost jubilant rhythm guitars. Where in "Bullet Surprise," P. Tak took responsibility for telling someone to end his own life, "Pill Bugg" sees him almost rooting on this loner, telling him to "Curl up in your shell (hide inside) / Pill Bugg," as if he's trying somehow to defend this frail figure from the world outside. This 'pill bugg' speaks about himself throughout the song ("I saw them coming yesterday / Their horses led the fleet / I wrote it in my diary / So I'll have things to read"), and he seems to be feigning a generally positive attitude about his life. It's not until the final verse that his true hopelessness is discovered. "Shadows are my only friends / Eternity's a lie / Every high still has an end / In holes are where they die," he declares, showing for the first time in the song that he does understand the situation he's in. The music, of course, alternates perfectly beneath the lyrics, creating amazing mood beds for each part of the track. For the acceptance of the 'pill bugg', the band uses the same basic groove from the first two verses, only they drop out the second guitar, making the low crunch of the original rhythm seem so much more desperate and desolate. It really is the finest moment of Vas Llegas, even if the band did decide to tack a minute-long piano and guitar feedback joke on the end of the track ("The Pussycat Song" as sung by Horace Blue Veins).

Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot else to say about Carnival Art after this release. The band put out one more release, Black Food/Blue Sparks, which I believe was only an EP or a CD-5, and after that they were gone. Michael P. Tak became Michael Petak and put out a solo record called Pretty Little Lonely on Slash Records in 1994, and of course, bassist Brian Bell went on to join Rivers Cuomo as Weezer's rhythm guitar player. Drummer Keith Fallis played on Big Drill Car's 1994 album No Worse for the Wear, and Ed … Well, no one really knows what happened to Ed. Damned shame, too, because the man can play a guitar. Incidentally, a quick check of the Beggars Banquet website (www.beggars.com) shows that they are still currently selling both Thrumdrone and Welcome to Vas Llegas.

This record is absolutely amazing, and I think the fact that I've been listening to it for almost eight straight years now says something for that. Why Carnival Art didn't get more attention commercially is beyond me, although I have to admit that this record might not have been 'grunge' enough for the scene at the time. Still, there are some amazing tracks here, and I can guarantee that if this record were released nowadays, "Little Elvis" would be all over 'modern rock' radio (as well as four or five other tracks). Unless you order through the Beggars Banquet website, this one may be a little hard to find. Still, I found a few CD copies lying around the used bins at the old record store I used to work at, so it is feasible. I know for a fact that my old employer doesn't have any copies left, though. After I bought one, I played it incessantly in the store for a week and managed to sell the other three copies based on walk-in listens. This album really is that good.

Pathetic Music Review Archives: Carnival Art Welcome to Vas Llegas (Beggars Banquet, 1992)
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