Byron Coley on Chris Knox: "He may insist on playing his songs over backing loops that sound like sumo wrestlers pulling crescent wrenches out of each other's wet asses, but a song as lovely as "Not Given Lightly" remains world class pop in spite of it's chunk-burl arrangement." Insights like that are what kept me reading Forced Exposure even though they hated most of the records I liked and heaped praise on things I couldn't fathom like Jandek and Borbetomagus.

Chris Knox's melodic gifts seem to get shinier with every passing year; lyrically he has always been a fascinating character with a variety of moods, capable of the most horrific imagery imaginable one moment, touching philosophical insight the next, and exquisitely expressed romantic sentiment immediately afterward. "One Fell Swoop" tends toward the latter, a lovely pop tune in the mold of the much-beloved "Not Given Lightly." "Song Of the Good Wife," on the other hand, shows Knox's gift for rather more depressing subjects. I really like the mournful cello, and the lyric is just brutal; it could be from the Davies School of Social Observation, but it's way too pointed and accusatory, and not nearly so arch.

As a bunch of you know, this was the first record by Kendra Smith and David Roback (Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade respectively) who would eventually become Opal. (This track appears on the Opal Early Recordings LP.) It's possible that neither Roback nor Smith have topped this particularly haunting goth-pop-psych since. We love its loping groove and consider it perhaps Smith's best vocal performance. There was a nice, much perkier cover by the Pale Saints on one of their LPs.

Worth every penny. I was spinning this the other night while the most amiable Shamrock J. Cat sat on the arm of my chair and grinned his handsome grin. Mickey came prancing in and said "Hey this is cool. But what's up with you guys? I thought Shammy liked punk rock." Mr. Cat replied patiently that in his estimation playing music this wimpy and singing with fey English accents in Memphis in 1965 was likely to get the performer beat up, and that therefore this was punk rock. Then he offered to beat Mickey up so that he could be punk rock too. Mr. Cat is getting a bit cranky in his old age.

I tried to encode this at a better rate to make up for the craptacular sound quality.

My favorite track from this band which features a Flamin' Groovie and a Barracuda.