Search - Fugs :: First Album

Carpe Fugum

Noddy | New York | 11/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A scrappy happy antidote to the streamlined blare of ultraslick melody makers. What The Fugs First Album lacked in polish though it more than supplied the want in anarcho-comical fark you attitude. A period piece now to be sure, a relic, but one that remains for me oddly comforting and frankly indispensable--there's still nothing like Tuli and the boys singing Slum Goddess or My Baby Done Left Me or Nothing to thoroughly recombobulate the banjaxed brainbox. Subversive imperfection never sounded so redoubtable. Like the dude sez here, cacophony forever.



And wasn't that amped-up and spliffy live version of CIA Man over the closing credits of the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading just an inspired fugging choice? The answer is like totally yup and yessum if you ask me."

One of a kind

Carl Slim | the factory | 04/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'll just get right to describing the disc. Shorter songs than normal, on average. Songwriting style (lyrically) that could be considered very artisitic or just guys screing around trying to be vulgar in a pop-music format, dependign on your perspective.



Singing: Too many people singing at once, with no attempt at perfection, or slick-ness.



instruments: Standard pop-rock instruments, but a little heavy on the odd percussion (but so was Bo Diddley). Some guys know how to play. Some do not. Bassist John Anderson is fascinating in his "I know a little" approach, and would have been a famous musician in backwoods string bands in the early 20th century. I love his stuff. His style tends to "country folk" here, just a wall of noise there.



production: They must have done this all in one take. This is raw. Heavy, in a primituive "pre-metal" way. It was the 60's. Could not be done today."

The Real Stuff - Where it all came from

davequ | 07/16/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Lots said before in all the other reviews so I'll try to keep it brief:



If you want to know from where the "counterculture" sprung - this is one of the true original sources.



Terrible musicianship and recording quality - technique is the last thing this is all about. It's primitive, true and tribal Fugs at their very best.



At the very least, "Nothing" - "I Couldn't Get High" - "My Baby Done Left Me" ( " I feel like homemade s#t" ) in themselves alone are worth the price of this cd, but with 21 tracks of real '65 East Village / Lower East Side energy it's a bargain.



I was lucky enough to hear this when it first came out and then see Tuli Kupferberg & the boys at the Family Dog in '67 (backed by a later band that could actually play). When I listen to it now all that same primitive anti-Lyndon Johnson / George Westmorland / [...]-Vietnam" energy is still there.



[...]

but he rides again in full revolutionary splendor on this cd. Makes me want to go downtown to the "New Customs House" and burn down my draft board (or at the very least, soil the front porch)."