★★★★★
In Erik Barnouw's memoir, Media Marathon, the young media polyglot gets his first job in commercial radio at the very dawn of its Golden Age. With a wide-open space ahead of him, what does he do? A depression era Howard Stern Show: Brother Can You Spare a Stripper? No, he does the only thing he can think of: dramatic plays on the radio--summer stock for the blind. Years later, radio formats grew beyond their grease-painted roots. But Barnouw was right to fall back on his theater background...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
Fishbone's latest album is a slight departure from their heavily-produced and more homogenous predecessors. In interviews, the band has stated that this album demonstrates the stylistic diversity of various influences that have had an impact on them. That's pretty accurate, and it's obvious that the band's influences are horizontal. The tracks are more "raw" sounding than on previous albums; Fishbone's highly energetic style is clearly heard...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
Fishbone's five previous releases throw everything at you with two-fisted fury ? from funk to hardcore to hard rock to ska ? in an attempt to re-create the spasmodic energy of the band's apocalyptic live shows. While this mayhem has earned the group a strong cult following, it has not broken them onto the pop charts. But The Reality of My Surroundings does not find Fishbone toning down their music for a larger audience...
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
For some bands, the appearance of a "greatest hits'' record is the beginning of the end. Seeing how badly Fishbone's latest Rowdy/Arista release, Chimchim's Badass Revenge, tanked, we can only hope Fishbone 101 is just a placebo for fans until something better arrives. The 36-song, two-CD set includes a pretty comprehensive what's what of "classic" Fishbone and a collection of rarities and loose demo recordings. It's actually misleading to distinguish this album as a "greatest hits...
- www.nudeasthenews.com
2009-07-28
★★★★★
On their first album of new material in over 6 years, Fishbone prove that they are still the same colorful band of freaks they have always been! From the band that was one of the first to throw funk, punk, ska, reggae and metal into the proverbial blender I'd expect nothing less!The band still features founding members Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher, but for Still Stuck in Your Throat they've brought in a new slew of musicians including Suicidal Tendencies' guitarist Rocky George...
- www.ink19.com
2009-07-20
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Songwriting on this Xmas novelty was so noticeable I thought maybe they'd reconstructed some obscurity from the flick of the same name, but the pissed-off title track's an original, as are Saint Nick as debbil-cum-wino, Christ as comsymp, and Uncle Scrooge as Uncle Jam. All are well-served by the band's feckless eclecticism, too. Call it a gift from God and hope it presages a brighter future.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
After thedismal artistic failure of their last album, Fishbone, the kings ofska-punk-funk, try again. Unfortunately, Chim Chim's Badass Revenge is a similarlymessy hodgepodge. But songs like the crunchy, metallic titletrack or the guitar-driven swirl of "Psychologically Overcast"stand out. B-
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Early on, in the mid-Eighties, Fishbone were a mildly interesting ska band in bohemian clothes -- never as exciting on record as their dreadlocked-and-mohawked appearance or their frenetic live show led you to hope...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08
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