Around the time Human
Scarecrow lifted off, I was sleeping on a couch at 210 West Georgia St. in
Tallahassee, the home of Tommy Hamilton and his cat Mofo, and Lee Folmar, and
then Billy Taylor…The goings on at Georgia St. – listening to records, sitting
on the couch, making food, riding with Tommy in his white pickup truck, moving
stuff around so Gruel could rehearse or record, drunken parties – were
punctuated by recording sessions helmed either by Tommy or by Tom Lewis. Using
a 1/4" 8-track Tascam machine, classic recordings emerged from the
converted living room, den, and kitchen of that house: Insect Fear, Singing
Spoons, Gruel, et. al.
This batch of catchy tunes is
oddly fresh and familiar to my 56-year-old ears, and I realize I must have
heard these songs a whole bunch of times, while I was allegedly attending FSU
and actually working typing up field reports for a state agency who visited the
homes of the poorest children in the Florida panhandle…Had the band stuck
around, and had this recording come to the attention of a label like SST,
Homestead, or Amphetamine Reptile, you would have heard a lot more of it. It's
in that league, one hit after another, with a fresh-faced southern charm that
undermines some of the subject matter. I'm sure glad that these resurfaced, and
I was very fortunate, lucky in fact, to have been around for that scene for
three years, from 1987-90.
Side 1
1. The Painting 2:26
2. Black & Decker Homewrecker 2:24
3. Shirley Temple was Devoured by the Ocelots 2:14
4. Sweet Crack 3:36
5. Take It Out 2:44
6. Lightspeed in a Toyota 1:59
7. Ballad of a Serial Killer 1:34
8. A Normal Day 2:18
9. Grave Mistake 2:52
Side 2
1. The Pope Went Surfing 1:33
2. Dear 2:18
3. Horizontal Crucifixion 2:17
4. Rudy Huxtable 1:57
5. Jon Cox Ice Skating 3:28
6. Instrumental 1:32
7. Lay Down By Me 3:04
8. Time to Die 4:41
Human Scarecrow were:
J.C.M. – Guitar, Bass, Vocals
Travis Folmar – Guitar, Vocals, Power Tools
Jimmy Bleyer – Bass, Guitar, Vocals
Will Ryan – Drums
Recorded and engineered by Tom and Tommy at Georgia Street, Valentine’s Day, 1988. Limited to 100 copies on Black & Decker orange vinyl. Includes an insert and band sticker. Panhandle Punk Productions catalog number Archive 3.
