Holy Smokes

Holy Smokes

Holy Smokes

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
After nine albums and 18 years with her two older sisters as the Roches, Suzzy Roche has become the first one in the group to release a solo album. As the funniest and most charismatic of the three on stage, Suzzy seems more likely to sustain a solo live show than her siblings. She was the least impressive songwriter of the three, however, possessing neither the sharp verbal insights of oldest sister Maggie nor the musical know-how of middle sister Terre, who handled most of the guitar parts. On "Holy Smokes," Suzzy wrote 11 songs herself and put music to an old poem by her mother for the 12th tune.

Too many of the songs are neither funny enough to make one laugh out loud nor serious enough to make one swallow hard. Instead they occupy that broad middle ground of somewhat amusing, somewhat touching songs about the trials and joys of growing up a smart, middle-class American woman. Such songs can be found by the bushel in the folk coffeehouses snuggled into suburban churches and restaurants all over this great land, and nothing about the melodies or language here separates these songs from the pack.

Suzzy alludes to an old heroine, Laura Nyro, in the title of "The Second Coming of Eli" and comes up with a funny-sad break-up song in "Crash." Stewart Lerman, who produced the last three Roches albums, does the same for Suzzy, and northern Virginia's Steuart Smith adds his graceful electric guitar. But the album comes closest to the old Roches magic only when Maggie sings harmony on the tongue-in-cheek parable, "Rules." --Geoffrey Himes

Holy Smokes,Suzzy Roche,Red House,Contemporary Folk,Folk,Folk & Traditional,Pop,Popular Music,Singer/Songwriter
Talk to Your Kids About Gangs
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		Talk to Your Kids About Gangs
    Holy Smokes
    Manufacturer: Skin Graft Records
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
    Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
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    1. There's No 666 in Outer Space
    2. Camoufleur

    ASIN: B000H5TUS6
    Release Date: 2006-09-12

    Tracks:

    1. The Big Picture
    2. Too Many Wives (All You Need Is Blood)
    3. Pretty Much None Of Us Know Anything
    4. Missed Connections
    5. Don't Squab On God's Tracks
    6. Young Accent
    7. Upsidedown
    8. Quantum Leaper Of Los Angeles County
    9. No Dice
    10. If You Pull It Out, You Better Use It
    11. Welcome To Say You're Welcome
    12. Afternoon
    13. I Wasn't Scared, He Couldn't Feel His Hands
    14. Universe's N.A.R.C.
    15. Young Man's Blues
    16. The Big Picture (Reprise)

    Album Description

    "Holy Smokes are a supergroup better than the sum of its incalculably impressive parts. A balancing act of incredible dexterity ... a scorching mangle of instruments igniting waves of dreamily emotive melodies upon a dizzying volcanic terrain. This is barefoot shoegazing on a bed of hot coals." - INDEPENDENCE NOW

    "Worth telling and re-telling, moody enough for a post-midnight mass blowout and subtle enough to dampen the darkened corners of a sullen Sunday morning. Read with feeling, listen with guileless regard." - SPLENDID

    Talk To Your Kids About Gangs is the culmination of a recording process that began in 2003, with the line-up of Zach Hill, Dan Elkan, Rob Crow, Carson McWhirter, Jonathan Hischke, Ian Hernandez, and J.R. Thompson. The group first assembled for the album Masculine Drugs, a soundtrack to a book penned by founder Zach Hill and released by Suicide Squeeze Records. On their Skin Graft debut, Holy Smokes arrive fully formed with an album that operates on its own terms, lines drawn, standing assuredly on it's own. Where the band's debut offered a discordant free-jazz-noise-rock shock, Talk To Your Kids About Gangs emerges as a harmonic tangle of pitches and thunder claps that, as they unravel, come into focus as intelligible, infectious oddments of grooving sonance. Make no mistake, these are songs.
    Masculine Drugs
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • feast your ears rad & groovy weird music.
    • a magician at work
    		 Masculine Drugs
    Zach Hill & The Holy Smokes
    Manufacturer: Suicide Squeeze
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
    Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
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    1. Talk to Your Kids About Gangs
    2. Total Bugs Bunny on Wild Bass
    3. There's No 666 in Outer Space

    ASIN: B0002KVUV6
    Release Date: 2004-09-14

    Tracks:

    1. Royal Jelly/Maybe Another Lover
    2. Explosions Came By Nine Skulls
    3. Do The Death
    4. Eggless Entry/Friendless Landscape
    5. Getting In The Head Of Your Galaxy
    6. Big Nature Getting Lazy
    7. The Idiot Found Blood
    8. Mountains In My Chest
    9. Bad Circulation
    10. Cannibal Kids/The Nine Palmers
    11. Gardens Of Various Heat
    12. Post-Pattern Battle Celebration
    13. Royal Loner/Possibly Another
    14. Masculine Drugs (Tri-Duplex Edit)

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars feast your ears rad & groovy weird music. .......2006-01-18

    Way under the radar... This inventive kook music."real" psychedelic music. Is it really drug influenced? probably not . This is exploding creativity and strangness. It's musically amazing especially drum wise. It's very raw and gritty and bouncy and chewy and noisy. This is within the noisy advent-math-rock circle. Think bands like Ruins,Lightning Bolt,Volta Do Mar and Oh yeah.... HeLla (same drummer by the way) mixed with psychedelic bands like Pink Floyd or Hawkwind. A touch of surf rock. The songs are quite interesting and Zach playing with a full band is fresh . Zach Hill is one of the greatest and the most inventive of modern drummers.Behold...this magnificient funky fresh jem..??

    4 out of 5 stars a magician at work.......2004-12-08

    The phenomenal drummer from Hella spreads his creative mind out onto the pages of "destroying yourself". Telling the tale of clans meeting in a strange mythic land of Zach's own creation. Hard to comprehend at first, but after about 5-10 pages, characters and plot form out of the seemingly chaotic sentences.
    As for the CD, fans of Hella, as well as fans of noise/distortion or masculine drugs, will find this only a little familiar. Zach's band of friends (the holy smokes) work as a hive mind, swithing from complete chaos to almost lovely pop songs in the style of My Bloody Valentine. But don't worry, Hill's skills are still in full order (or disorder) as he lays down the backbone in his usual frantic manner.
    hard to find item, but very worth the search.
    Holy Smokes
    Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    • A rather ho-hum outing
    • The best Roches recording
    • Suzzy on her own remains quite enjoyable
    		 Holy Smokes
    Suzzy Roche
    Manufacturer: Red House
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    GeneralGeneral | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Folk | Styles | Music
    Traditional FolkTraditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Pop | Styles | Music
    Singer-SongwritersSinger-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music
    Contemporary FolkContemporary Folk | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Pop | Indie Music | Stores | Music
    Similar Items:
    1. Songs from an Unmarried Housewife and Mother, Greenwich Village, USA
    2. Why the Long Face
    3. Zero Church
    4. Can We Go Home Now
    5. Speak

    ASIN: B000001BBQ
    Release Date: 1997-09-16

    Tracks:

    1. My My Broken Heart
    2. Crash
    3. Eggshell
    4. Holy Smokes
    5. Rules
    6. The Second Coming Of Eli
    7. Losing
    8. Lightning Storm
    9. ABC's
    10. Pink Ballet Slippers
    11. Breathing
    12. Two Bumps On A Log

    Amazon.com

    After nine albums and 18 years with her two older sisters as the Roches, Suzzy Roche has become the first one in the group to release a solo album. As the funniest and most charismatic of the three on stage, Suzzy seems more likely to sustain a solo live show than her siblings. She was the least impressive songwriter of the three, however, possessing neither the sharp verbal insights of oldest sister Maggie nor the musical know-how of middle sister Terre, who handled most of the guitar parts. On "Holy Smokes," Suzzy wrote 11 songs herself and put music to an old poem by her mother for the 12th tune.

    Too many of the songs are neither funny enough to make one laugh out loud nor serious enough to make one swallow hard. Instead they occupy that broad middle ground of somewhat amusing, somewhat touching songs about the trials and joys of growing up a smart, middle-class American woman. Such songs can be found by the bushel in the folk coffeehouses snuggled into suburban churches and restaurants all over this great land, and nothing about the melodies or language here separates these songs from the pack.

    Suzzy alludes to an old heroine, Laura Nyro, in the title of "The Second Coming of Eli" and comes up with a funny-sad break-up song in "Crash." Stewart Lerman, who produced the last three Roches albums, does the same for Suzzy, and northern Virginia's Steuart Smith adds his graceful electric guitar. But the album comes closest to the old Roches magic only when Maggie sings harmony on the tongue-in-cheek parable, "Rules." --Geoffrey Himes

    Customer Reviews:

    2 out of 5 stars A rather ho-hum outing.......2002-10-18

    I'm not a big Roches fan, though I like some of their stuff a lot. However, I found this album to be rather boring. The track with the most interesting lyrics is "Eggshell," and those are kind of hokey.

    Overall, the lyrics are better than the melodies, which, after one listening, did not inspire me to put the CD back on the turntable. I recommend Suzzy's second album, or better yet, "Zero Church," as a more worthwhile use of your money.

    4 out of 5 stars The best Roches recording.......2000-04-04

    This remarkable record-- one of the best of 1997-- proves two things no one would necessarily have expected: one, that Suzzy Roche is the most talented of the Roche sisters; and two, that this is the best record to have come out of any of the three, even better than the 1979 Robert Fripp-produced "The Roches," which had remained the high point for almost two decades. The subtle and mostly gentle musical accompaniment supports rather than overpowers the songs and allows their strengths to shine through. Melodic and "traditional," but in interesting ways, with thoughtful lyrics, these songs draw the listener in with inviting tunes and Suzzy's graceful singing. Then the lyrics begin to sink in, and one catches Suzzy's delightful blend of humor and psychological incision. The title song [which might just as well be called "The Way We Fall Apart"] is the highlight, employing humorous imagery to detail the failure of a relationship, from its throwaway beginning ["is it love or is it hate/ i'm a stand there fence/ you're a swinging gate/ if i was a shoe/ i would walk away"] to its final kindness, even in breakup ["the worst thing is how you are so beautiful and kind/ when i am leaving you behind."]

    3 out of 5 stars Suzzy on her own remains quite enjoyable.......1999-08-22

    While The Roches as a trio have never succeeded in matching the quality of their 1979 record (The Roches, a classic), their vocal qualities and witty lyrics make most of their albums quite irresistable. This solo-album by the youngest of the sisters shares these qualities, although the lyrics are less sharp and you miss the beautiful harmonies on all except one song (Maggie sings on Rules). Having said that, it's quite an enjoyable album that's excellently produced. Roches-fans won't regret adding this one to their collection, though I hope this doesn't mark the end of them singing together.
    Holy Smokes
    Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    • This guy is so good that he can't afford to be famous.
    • This CD is hot!
    • Heard it all before
    • Great second CD
    		 Holy Smokes
    Greg Serrato
    Manufacturer: J-Bird Records
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    GeneralGeneral | Blues | Styles | Music
    Electric Blues GuitarElectric Blues Guitar | Blues | Styles | Music
    Modern BluesModern Blues | Blues | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Blues | Indie Music | Stores | Music
    ASIN: B00000IJAT
    Release Date: 1999-04-20

    Tracks:

    1. Cadillac Blues
    2. That Ain't Right
    3. Holy Smokes
    4. Living On A High Wire
    5. Crying Like A Fool
    6. Going Insane
    7. Val
    8. Kids Have The Blues Too
    9. Jump Baby Jump
    10. Warrior Of Peace
    11. Cheatin' Hand

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars This guy is so good that he can't afford to be famous........2003-03-07

    For his second release "Holly Smoke" Serrato presents 11 new original songs and offers a tasty variety of rockin' blues, funky grooves, Texas stroll and it also features some great instrumentals. The instrumental ballad 'Val' is a dense musical meditation that hypnotizes. Grrrreat guitar slinger.

    5 out of 5 stars This CD is hot!.......2000-12-31

    I listened to this CD and felt I got my money's worth. It is smokin', just like the title. The songs are well written and the different styles Greg plays makes it more interesting. I would highly recommend this CD to any blues lover.

    1 out of 5 stars Heard it all before.......1999-08-17

    Can't tell you how disappointed I am...sounds like a garage band!!

    4 out of 5 stars Great second CD.......1999-06-26

    Although not quite as good as his first album "Child of the Blues", this CD is never the less very good. Its a bit more jazzy than the former and a couple of songs seem a bit strained, but for the most part its very enjoyable. I recommend it without reservation. However, if you don't have Serrato's first CD be sure to pick it up while your at it.
    Holy Smokes
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      		Holy Smokes

      ProductGroup: Music
      Binding: Audio CD
      ASIN: B000FIJULC

      Product Description

      Song List: Ode to django; Baby's coming; A minor swing; Body and soul; Cheer up; Holy Smokes; Tears; All of me; Hey lil Darling; Take the A train; New York Swing; Freaks like us; Solitude
      Holy Smokes! Ice Cream for Breakfast
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        		Holy Smokes! Ice Cream for Breakfast
        Dave Nachmanoff and Participants from the Davis Elders Song Proj
        Manufacturer: Troubador
        ProductGroup: Music
        Binding: Audio CD

        GeneralGeneral | Folk | Styles | Music
        ASIN: B000CADP8M
        Release Date: 2002-03-12

        Tracks:

        1. Ice Cream for Breakfast
        2. Snow Falls in Sioux Falls
        3. Tryin' to Dance
        4. In My Green Valley
        5. Caregivers
        6. Winter Is the Quiet Time
        7. Peggy the Rodeo Queen
        8. Keno's in Love
        9. I Love Animals
        10. Time to Change
        11. Perfect Day (Everything's Good)

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