Another Nail in the Coffin was originally released in 1989 on the tiny and doomed Resonance label -- a company so doomed, in fact, that it went out of business just months after the album's release, consigning this minor classic of Cleveland rock & roll to the dustbin of pop music history. Not permanently, however, thanks to the good folks at the defiantly indie-minded ROIR label, which reissued the album in 2004 with new liner notes and another entire album's worth of live tracks, alternate takes, and even rarer rarities. To say that the notes are as good as the album isn't to disparage the album -- it's just to point out that guitarist, singer, and bandleader
Jamie Klimek is one of the funniest and cleverest writers around, a guy with both flawless comedic rhythm and a charming gift of self-deprecation. As for the music, it sounds like a weird and strangely wonderful cross between
Pere Ubu,
the Velvet Underground, and
the dB's.
Klimek writes songs that are funny without being jokey or goofy, plays guitar like he pretty much knows what he's doing but could run off the rails at any moment, and sings like a slightly saner version of
David Thomas. Everything about this album screams Cleveland! and the wonderful "To Do We Do" is especially
Ubu-esque. Other highlights include "Good to Me" and the rather bitter "Big Lie" (is it about a girl or a record company or both?), and the (maybe intentionally) hilarious overlapping lead guitars on "Swept Away." The album ends with three punky, no-fi live tracks that make up in energy for what they lack in listenability. Recommended.