Jun

6

Harder and heavier than other releases, sonically ‘Self-Aggrandizement’ elevates the Show Business Giants into the company of Wire, NoMeansNo, and the Ex, albeit with Holliston’s fractured viewpoint still fully on display, and occasional side trips into sonic silliness. Pop culture references still abound: the chorus for ‘My Brother’s Kid’s a Waste of Sperm!’ delightfully compares the awful child to The Fall’s Mark E. Smith, and the band obviously had fun writing ‘Generic Childrens Song a la Yngwe Malmsteen’. Unlike on some other releases, the humor on ‘Self-Aggrandizement’ isn’t alloed to overshadow Holliston’s highly-literate and articulate writing skills. In the song ‘Why Don’t You Fuck Off?’, for example, Holliston bemoans corporate co-option of art:’In every Chapters window, on every Wal-Mart’s rack
From obscurity to resurgence and into paperback
Posterity’s taken a shine to you and
there’s fuck-all you can do.
Your lovers are now impotent, your apostles can only moan
As they watch Michael Eisner pry the jewelry from your bones
Meanwhile some distant nephew, is busy setting sights
On a protracted battle over foreign rights’

The production and mastering, assisted by noted Vancouver producer Marc L’Esperance, is top-notch, making ‘Self-Aggrandizement’ easily the best-sounding CD in the Show Business Giants catalog. Any fan of NoMeansNo, Hanson Brothers, or hard-edged alternative rock will be happy to add this gem to their collection.


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