Lust Control
Cheap Alternatives To Empty-Vee (Video)
Reviewed by LM
A collection of three songs, an interview, and their entire Cornerstone '89 live set...this video could easily be titled "The Lust Control Home Movie", complete with cheap effects, choppy edits, and flat mono sound. Somehow, given the offbeat nature of their two tape releases, I didn't expect much else from a band who obviously enjoys being marked for their weirdness. This project, though, achieves new heights of insanity; I watched the better part of the first two songs with a transfixed stare and my mouth hanging open. What uniqueness. What strangeness. What nerve.
The video opens with "The Big M" (from A Condom Nation), appropriately filmed by none other than M-TV's Museum of Unnatural History film crew. Only two of the band members are actually masked, and several seem to be in various stages of dress, from a Cornerstone '88 tee to a flimsy towel. Never mind that it is a sensitive subject which they are dealing; this song is potentially embarrassing even with the volume down.
The other two songs LC chose to include are from their latest tape, Dancing Naked: "Swimsuit Edition Wallpaper" and their band-slam, "You Too". The former gives the viewer a back seat ride in a rattle-trap station wagon as the band cruises the streets of Austin, fully masked (and fully clothed, surprisingly). There is even a Chinese fire drill. There aren't any police sirens, though, and you wonder, isn't the idea of four guys in ski masks driving right past the banks singing and slamming themselves against the car doors even considered unusual in this city? The latter tune is acted out in a football field with a "You Too" placard keeping time as Gene, now wearing a suit and tie, and Stanley parade across the screen with some unusual props--a glass of muddy water, a spray-painted rock, etc.
The band then succeeds in adding further doubt to the status of their sanity by breaking yet another of their original rules--they grant an interview. In Austin's state capitol, no less. While a crowd gathers, Gene and Stanley answer questions about the band, their motives, and their personal lives that, along with the fact that they apparently forgot to disguise their voices, reveal a number of additional clues as to their true identities. They also answer the one question we've all been wondering: The Big "Y". That is, "Y" all this ridiculous nonsense? There are four, no...five, no...six, but maybe four or five points to the answer, depending upon how theological you want to get, but I won't spoil it for you.
For those who missed or didn't get enough of their memorable performance last July in Chicago, the Cornerstone '89 Live Set follows. Filmed from behind an eager, enthusiastic, moshing crowd, it includes songs from both their tape releases, featuring: "Madolyn Murry O'Hair"; "Swimsuit Edition Wallpaper"; "Operation Rescue"; "Mad At The Girls"; "The Big M"; and "Dancing Naked". It also includes several exhortations, a release from condemnation, a pizza fight, and a poll of those who have performed The Big M (I'm not talking about the song), to which the entire band and most of the audience respond affirmatively. (Bet you didn't know the tape was rolling, did you?) My only disappointment, outside of the poor sound quality, is that the camera was a bit far from the stage, giving one the feeling of watching the show from the back row. A lyric sheet is also helpful throughout.
As with everything they've done thus far, originality and shock value levels are high, but here perhaps higher than usual. Most definitely not for the faint of heart.