return to review menuBedridden "It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye"
format: album, released: 1991
review by James Andean
Bedridden (or The Bedridden, depending where you're looking) is an
Australian band, formed in 1989 and centered in Adelaide, South
Australia. Their music is (for the most part) all acoustic, but
beyond that it is difficult to do their sound justice with a quick
description; the term "folk" is the first to present itself, but is
wildly inadequate - more of a constant flow between folk, punk, pop,
and back to folk, with sidelines to everything from Celtic to Mexican
balladry. Alternately frenzied and introspective, their music is
energetic, barely controlled mayhem, with occasional moments of deeply
melancholic beauty, all coupled with an absurd, irrepressible, and
occasionally morbid sense of humour. With a broad, and somewhat fluid,
cast of characters and an even more impressive array of instruments,
the band most often sounds like they are having an outrageously good
time, which one quickly discovers to be deeply infectious.
Coming up with comparisons for the Bedridden sound is difficult. Bands
like The Violent Femmes and The Pogues come to mind, with similar blends
of various folk stylings with driving energy and a punk sensibility,
but don't really do the band justice; their irresistible charm is all
their own, and needs to be experienced first hand.
I first encountered Bedridden's debut album, It's All Fun and Games
Until Someone Loses an Eye some eleven years ago, loved it to death,
and so began singing their praises to friends - which proved to be
something of an error in judgment. The album was tentatively lent out,
only to be whisked away and rapidly lost track of, carried on a long and
winding hand-to-hand journey, with only an occasional teasing glimpse
from time to time - for example, turning up on the answering machine of
a friend of mine in another province - before suddenly reappearing in my
parent's mailbox a full decade later. Such is the band's appeal.
It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye is Bedridden's first
album, released in 1990, and it's a wonder and a joy from beginning to end.
Nearly twenty songs long, the album comes across as a raucous, irresistible
bash, the five members sounding at least double that, and clearly having a
very, very good time. With a loose, relaxed feel, people casually sing
along, shout, whoop, and play whatever instruments happen to be laying
about - abundant guitars, banjo, bass, plenty of clarinet, cello, and
plentiful percussion (or rather, banging on whatever happens to close by).
The songs are nearly exclusively brilliant, displaying what immediately
became the band's trademark black humour and fascination with illness,
injury, and death, with an absurd and irreverent wit that makes it all
both wickedly mischievous and captivating. The strong playing and relentless
energy serve the songs well, all of which display a wonderful melodic sense,
and are every one catchy, memorable, and permanent favourites.
It's difficult to pick stand-out tracks on this one; it's not just that they
outnumber less memorable songs, it's that there are no less memorable songs.
From the opening one-minute instrumental clarinet-and-guitar overture, to the
thirty-second throw-away bitter lament that closes the album, it's an unbroken
series of gem after gem: the whooping party of "Bateman's Bay", "Resurrection
Blues", or "How Death Comes"; the gentle melancholia of "Why Did Bodidharma
Come to China", "Sheepdog", "Run", "The Fishing Song", "Eliza's Dirge", and
the absolutely brilliant "Yo Ho Lital Fisheye"; and tracks that manage to be
both at the same time, like "Tread It". Other highlights include the mock
Celtic epic "Hamish MacDougall", and, possibly the album's finest moment, a
cover version of the old Sesame Street song "Capital I", replacing the brilliant
original's psychedelia with an equally brilliant, thrashing acoustic-punk drive.
The lyrics are as irresistible as the tunes; generally narrative, and often
very, very funny, in a very, very black way. Their obsession with pain and
death has already been stated; this runs from the name of the band, through
the album's title, through a good many of the songs themselves - witness the
"Gonna die gonna die gonna die again" chorus of "Resurrection Blues"; the
narrator of "Sheepdog", who poisons her mother after her dog runs away, but
feels better when her dog comes back and goes to the funeral with her; Hamish
MacDougall, who is struck down by the monster of old Loch McGilty; the nearly
indecipherable "How Death Comes"; the deeply despairing mourning of "Eliza's
Dirge", or "Stephen McKenzie", hit by a truck on his way back from the shops.
The incredible thing, though, is that therein lies much of the band's charm:
their irrepressible, defiant glee in singing wild and carefree of such bitter
subjects, and unabashedly finding humour throughout. It is all so undeniably
catchy it must be heard to be believed.
So, without a doubt, It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye is an
enduring favourite, and none who have heard it once have been able to resist
its charm. Anyone who hears this album and remains unmoved should probably
check their pulse.
Over time, the band changed from something of a collective to a more
or less stable foursome, which may lead one to hope for more regular
output in the future - so far the band has three albums to their name,
over a twelve year period.
Luckily, there are solo outings to fill the void. Baterz, (pronounced
"batters",) one of only two founding members to still be in the band,
has released a superb solo album in the meantime, as well as a live album
and several singles, which can, by virtue of his being one of the central
characters in Bedridden, be reviewed here simultaneously with the band.
Word has it that both Bedridden and Baterz are working on new material
for release in the not too distant future, which is very good news indeed.