LP Shimmy Disc 1990
CD Shimmy Disc Europe 1990
CD reissue Instinct Records 2004
"Essentially a vehicle for the musings of John S. Hall, King Missile merged off-kilter spoken word monologues with eclectic, mildly psychedelic rock & roll. Hall's dry, absurdist sense of humor colored much of the group's output, blurring the lines between comedy, Beat poetry, narrative prose, and simple rock lyrics. Yet in spite of their focus on Hall's literary bent and all its New York artiness, King Missile was most definitely a band, and relied on music to play a much more than perfunctory role in their overall effect. The band initially won a following on college radio with several albums for producer Kramer's eccentric Shimmy-Disc label, while surviving a major lineup overhaul. (...) With Kramer contributing musical assistance on bass and other instruments, King Missile's early sound was somewhat akin to the Velvet Underground, with elements of '60s folk-rock and psychedelia".
(Steve Huey, All-Music Guide)
"In the mid-1980s, John S. Hall would get up on NYC anti-folk stages (centered at the East Village's Sidewalk Café), and spout his wonderful poetic nonsense about fish betting on horseracing, driving cheesecake trucks, and way-cool saviors baking delicious cakes, in his inimitable wry, deadpan, ironic voice. By the end of the decade, he had hooked up with guitarist Dogbowl and built up a band whose cobbled-together, gleefully directionless, lower-than-lo-fi sound paired deliciously with its frontman's wandering stories. King Missile caught the eye of avant-garde producer Kramer, signed to his Shimmydisc, and released three bizarre records that built immense college buzz about the band. Mystical Shit / Fluting on the Hump gathers together the top songs from the act's Shimmydisc recordings, including the now-standards hinted at in the first sentence. The highest peak is the irreverent Take Stuff From Work, which ends on a classic note: 'I'm getting paid to write songs about stuff I stole from them. Life is good'. This ultimately sums up the spirit of the irascible Hall (and to an extent King Missile): for all his angst, he's clearly having fun".
(reissue press release 2004)
ENJOY
Take Stuff From Work
Jesus Was Way Cool
