SCATERD FEW - JAWBONEOFANASS (*NEW-VINYL 2023, Retroactive Records)
- Black vinyl with a 12x12 insert
- First time on vinyl!
- Limited to just 200 units
- Remastered for vinyl by Rob Colwell at Bombworks Sound
- Originally released 1994 on SOPA Records
- Drummer Samuel West would go on to play with Stavesacre and Saviour Machine
- Guest appearances by members of Adam Again, Daniel Amos, Mortal, Savior Machine, The Choir, etc.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT JAWBONEOFANASS...
Jaw Bone of an Ass, is more polished musically, more introspective lyrically. The musical influences are more cohesively blended, delivering an aggressive post-alternative, postgrunge sound that is as safe to the establishment as a well-placed knee to the groin. --Brad Caviness
..."a Shotgun wedding between complex musicianship and scathing punk rock"
Mark Allan Powell / Encyclopedia of CCM
True Tunes Magazine hailed Jawbone as “brilliant” in its portrayal of “psychotic, poetic angst” and predicted the lyrics would spark less controversy this time around: Aguirre “represents the sincere yearning of a saved man crying out in the desert” and “peppers his raw ‘grit and bear it’ message with doses of humor so as not to be too heavy handed.”
ABOUT THE ALBUM
Jawboneofanass's musical influences are more cohesively blended this time around, delivering an aggressive post-alternative, post-grunge sound that is as safe to the religious establishment as a well-placed knee to the groin. It had been four long years since the epic Sin Disease revolutionized the sanitized religious subculture we like to call CCM (Contemporary Christian Music). The band's fortitude was tested when they recorded the album for mainstream label Vox Vinyl (1991), then again for Michael Knott's Blonde Vinyl Records (1992), and then a third time (1994), as an independent release). The end result was what music critic, Mark Allan Powell called, a "Shotgun wedding between complex musicianship and scathing punk rock!" It was another artistic triumph for the band. You can still hear influences such as The Clash and Bad Brains but this time the lyrics are more accessible, and the music more mature. This is exactly the album that fans were begging for - fans tired of the stagnant, traditional religious scene who needed something real, something authentic...something for the ones whose experience didn't allow them to fit neatly into a religious box and who were tired of being told something was wrong with them. Jawboneofanass was the lifeboat that kept our heads above the water and gave us hope - even a confidence that God's love still reigned down upon us. The importance of this album cannot be overstated. It towers above standard classics both musically and lyrically. It was released at the perfect time, and the Retroactive Records 2023 black vinyl reissue comes with a 12x12 insert, and has been mastered for vinyl by Rob Cowell of Bombworks Sound. Limited to just 200 units world-wide.
...MORE ABOUT ABOUT THE ALBUM
Next in the Scaterd Blüe box (refer to the Sin Disease Gold Disc or Vinyl reissue for chronological order) is a chapter of epic proportions. Jawboneofanass may not be the eclectic cacophony that Sin Disease was. But as we all know, Scaterd Few never put out the same album twice. It is in this stoical persistence to keep evolving that birthed an album like this one. Jawboneofanass took three separate recording stints before a finished product emerged, explaining four years elapsed for the album to materialize.
This album has a quintessential line-up of Allan Aguirre, Paul Figueroa, Drew Domkus, Omar Domkus and Samuel West. Omar rips it up masterfully on bass, Figueroa throws down guitar with precision and fluidity, and Sam West owns drum finesse as only Sam can. There is also nearly an all-star cast participating: Jyro of Mortal, Eric Clayton of Saviour Machine, Edie Goodwin of Headnoise, all on background vocals, as well as Mark Rodriguez (Mortal, The Blamed, Aunt Betties, Lost Dogs, etc.) recording and Dave Hackbarth (The Choir, Prayer Chain, etc.) editing.
Forty-five seconds into the first cut Witchcraft, one can experience transcendence from a band that understands their alchemy. That transcendence does not let up, dancing between the rhapsodic Sinking In Sorrow to the sinuous balladry of Dame, and ending with Pinnacle, a fast wielding number rebuking corrupted spiritual leaders. There within the album are twelve indispensable cuts of dark and weighty content played with reggae-infused punk likened to Bad Brains, with whom Scaterd Few played backing band for their singer HR. The funk and rhythm of Oom Pah Pah serves as kudos to their comradery. Another point of intrigue is the ballad Once Upon…, narrating a veiled tale of biographical nature with references to Godsent Humans and Native Son (Mark Solomon’s hip-hop project).
If by chance you did not receive Jawboneofanass with the ecstatic welcome as Sin Disease, give it another listen. It may surprise you how well it has aged.
(Doug Peterson / Music Critic)
Tracklist
1 Witchcraft
2 Dreams
3 Sinking In Sorrow
4 Sheets
5 Stretch
6 Once Upon...
7 Oom Pah Pah
8 Reel Not Real
9 Holding Stare
10 Dame
11 Ransom
12 Pinnacle