Michael Gerald.

Distorted, head-splitting bass and singing about guys being pinched between train couplers.
All of this while standing on top of an old trunk because, frankly, the brother was a bit short.

Didn't he become a travel agent?

SO fucking NOT CRAP!

never seen them live. and i've only heard one album "God Hears the Pleas of the Innocent"... absolute fucking crap. it's like the same bad song, over and over. i realize people love the live show, say the singer's crazy and stuff... and i don't know about the rest of their albums, but this one album anyways is pretty much unlistenable. annoying. boring. repetative in a most non-cool way. makes me picture, if you took the Jesus Lizard and sucked all the life and talent out of the band, got them wasted, and put them in the studio. oh, and turned the suck knob *way* up.

total CRAP. no waffle.

On my birthday, in England, I got to play drums with Killdozer on the song "King of Sex" at the end of their last show in the U.K...
There are so many NOT CRAP things about them, it bogles my mind someone would think they were Crap.

Jay

I'm originally from small rural town in Wisconsin, so Killdozer meant a lot to me. I now live in the Dairy State's biggest town and Killdozer still mean a lot to me.

When I was a lad, this lumbering sound and growling voice provided a soundtrack to corncob wars and sandbox floodings. Later on, it soundtracked alcoholic rituals and copulatory thrustings.

I first got to see Killdozer live at a Touch'n'Go showcase show in Green Bay, WI. Other bands featured were Shorty and the Jesus Lizard. I dig those bands, too, but Killdozer are closest to my heart. Yeah, it was the Greek guitarist era that some have griped about, but they were still fucking great.

Saw em' a couple of other times, including a time when my mom got me in to see them at the now-defunct Unicorn here in Milwaukee cause' I was under 21 at the time. I missed their last show ever at the same venue a year later, because I was still underage by a few months and my mom couldn't make it! I ended up spending that night in the lakeside shantytown of Manitowoc, Wi drinking Kingsbury Beer. Yarrrgggh!

I think the high points of their recording career are the "Burl" EP and the "Little Baby Buntin'" LP. Two of my favorite records of all time.

I must say that I find Michael Gerald's vocals to be one of the most comforting things on the planet. Not in some new-age wussy way, but more along the lines of some old drunk at the bar who says a lot of crazy shit, but is really a likeable guy full of stories and wit. Or an uncle who takes you fishing up north when you are 16 and lets you get drunk without telling your folks. Killdozer really calms me the fuck down when I'm ready to kill someone and for that I'm eternally grateful.

I'd like to see Michael Gerald spend his spare time (when not practicing maritime law) as a country/folk solo act.

FUCK YOU, I QUIT. Killdozer were one of the best.

NOT CRAP

The start of Cotton Bolls or whatever it's called - first track on Little Baby Buntin'...... AWESOME & PUMMELLING I believe it's known as.... one of the best openings of anything, ever.... and the cover of I Am, I Said.... good god.....I'm weeping as I type

NOT CRAP for "The Pig Was Cool" alone, not to mention all the other hits!

"Enter the 29 gates of uncleanliness, said she pushing up her skirt"

Even God Hears the Pleas of the Innocent is quality. I don't they put out anything that was less then stellar. The weakest output was "Intellectuals are the Shoeshine Boys of the Ruling Elite." It's worth a look because it suggests the greatness they would later achieve.

It took may a minute to get to "Uncomprimising War on Art..." but it's worth the effort. Knuckles the Dog? Come on that's quality.

Having lived beyond the Cheddar Curtain for some time I think Killdozer embodies the Wisconsin cultural experience.

A couple years back I was in the Wisconsin Dells at a bar on the main drag that had a polka band with a mother-son rhythm section and the dad playing tuba. They were singing about fat girls, "you can keep her I don't want her".

It was like a breath of fresh air.

Rick Reuschel wrote:A couple years back I was in the Wisconsin Dells at a bar on the main drag that had a polka band with a mother-son rhythm section and the dad playing tuba. They were singing about fat girls, "you can keep her I don't want her".

It was like a breath of fresh air.

I believe that would be:

I don't want her, you can have her,
She's too fat for me, HEY!
She's too fat for me, HEY!
She's too fat for me, HEY!

I used to call the T&G offices regularly just to hear Michael's voice on the other end.

The same thing when he worked at a travel agency, when he first moved to NYC.

This has been a stalker moment.

Back when CBGB had good shows, there was a Killdozer/Steel Pole Bath Tub/dis- show on my birthday. I think I was turning 24 or 25, and dammit I was going to have fun, despite the fact that my then-boyfriend had decided to forget my birthday (something that has happened more than once but that is another post for another day) and had one of the worst days of my life to date.

I was so happy to see Killdozer that night. As a short person, Michael Gerald gave me the courage to stand on a box while playing my instrument. They opened with "Hottentot" and all was right with the world.

Killdozer had the power to heal my broken heart. Not crap.

Saw them multiple times back in the day.

The singer/bassist was short, they played slow, everyone loved them.

Crap.