One Fierce Beer Coaster

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One Fierce Beer Coaster is the second studio album by American band Bloodhound Gang, released on December 3, 1996. Produced by Jimmy Pop, it was the band's first release on Geffen Record, and the first to feature "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff on bass guitar, and DJ Q-Ball on the turntable. The music of One Fierce Beer Coaster encompasses a number of genre, and its lyrics are rife with toilet humor. One Fierce Beer Coaster was initially released by the independent label Republic Records before being re-released by Geffen Records due to underground popularity. The album has received mixed to moderately favorable review. Three singles were released from the album, including "Fire Water Burn", "I Wish I Was Queer So I Could Get Chicks", and "Why's Everybody Always Pickin' on Me?" The first single, "Fire Water Burn", was a modern rock hit, landing on nine national chart. The Bloodhound Gang began as a small alternative band from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The band took its name from "The Bloodhound Gang", a segment on the 1980s PBS kids' show 3-2-1 Contact that featured three young detectives solving mysteries and fighting crime. The band comprised Jimmy Pop, Daddy Long Leg, M.S.G., Lupus Thunder, and Skip O'Pot2Mu. In April 1994, the band released their second demonstration tape, The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Hitler's Handicapped Helpers (1994). This earned the band a record deal with Cheese Factory Record, which was later renamed Republic Record. Later that year, the Bloodhound Gang released their first EP, Dingleberry Haze (1994). In March 1995, the group signed to Columbia Records and released their first full-length album, titled Use Your Fingers (1995), but they were subsequently dropped by the label. At this time, Daddy Long Legs and M.S.G., who were angry with Columbia Record, left the band to form another rap group, Wolfpac. Bass player Evil Jared Hasselhoff, drummer Spanky G, and turntablist D.J. Q-Ball joined Bloodhound Gang as replacement. In addition, Skip O'Pot2Mus eventually left to pursue a career outside of the music industry. While the album's predecessor, Use Your Finger, was written and recorded in a more hip-hop-oriented style, featuring distinct rap beat, One Fierce Beer Coaster featured a more alternative-oriented sound. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described the Bloodhound Gang's sound a, "smarmy, smirky alternative funk-metal, complete with junk culture references and "ironic" musical allusion."Former Bloodhound Gang guitarist Lupus Thunder credits Weezer as an inspiration for "Fire Water Burn" and Lemonade and Brownies-era Sugar Ray for "Kiss Me Where It Smells Funny." When working on the album, Jimmy Pop used the standard hip-hop technique of sampling. The chorus for "Fire Water Burn", for instance, is taken from "The Roof Is on Fire" by Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three Likewise, "Why's Everybody Always Pickin' on Me?" is built around a re-recorded sample of "Spooky", by Mike Sharpe as performed by Classics IV and also features a small lift from the Bill Cosby track "Greasy Kid Stuff." Finally, the track "Your Only Friends Are Make Believe" features a chorus melody lifted from the Duran Duran song "Hungry Like the Wolf", and "Lift Your Head Up High (And Blow Your Brains Out)" is built around a sample from "Get Up and Boogie" by the Silver Convention. The lyrics for One Fierce Beer Coaster use over-the-top parody and toilet humor as means for comedy. For instance, the album opener, "Kiss Me Where It Smells Funny", is a song about cunnilingu, and it was written by Jimmy Pop about his then-girlfriend. The band's next two albums would each have one song about said girlfriend: "Three Point One Four" and "No Hard Feelings”. "Lift Your Head Up High (And Blow Your Brains Out)" is a dark satire in which the singer encourages the listener to die by suicide. Three minutes into the song, Jimmy Pop say, "Rewind and let me reverse it backwards like Judas Priest first did." Immediately after thi, a four-second segment of backwards vocals repeats four time. When played in reverse, this segment say, "Devil shall wake up and eat Chef Boyardee Beefaroni." The album's best-known single, "Fire Water Burn", is a pop culture-laden track in which Pop alternates between self-deprecation and braggadocio. "I Wish I Was Queer So I Could Get Chicks" plays on the stereotype that that women only like gay men because they are ostensibly better looking and more sensitive than straight men. "Why's Everybody Always Pickin' on Me?" is mainly about how Jimmy Pop was constantly picked on in high school and has since developed an intense fear of being ridiculed. The album also includes a cover of Run-DMC's "It's Tricky" and "Boom", which features an appearance by Vanilla Ice. One Fierce Beer Coaster was originally released on Republic Record, which, under its earlier name, Cheese Factory Record, had previously released material by the band. As word-of-mouth praise for the album spread, however, Geffen Records signed the band after two month. The original release contained a song called "Yellow Fever", which was about having sex with Asian women, as well as a hidden track on track number 69 on the original release. It consisted of an audio collage featuring Howard Stern talking about peanut butter, a televangelist, a news broadcast on the disease lupus (a reference to Lüpüs Thünder), a phone call from a drunk friend of Jimmy', and other assorted odditie. The Geffen re-release omitted this track, although both it and "Yellow Fever" were later released on an EP called One Censored Beer Coaster. "Fire Water Burn" played a major role in the slow build of interest that ultimately led to the band's mainstream breakthrough. Because the band could not afford financially solvent national tour, they promoted themselves by sending their music to alternative rock-based radio stations across the country. Eventually, an intern brought the band to the attention of the music director of 107.7 The End in Seattle. The director, liking what he heard, played "Fire Water Burn" on his Friday night show. After airing, the station was flooded with phone calls asking about the song and the band and the director passed the song onto the music director at KROQ-FM in Los Angele. This snowball effect eventually overwhelmed the band with demands for their new record. After hearing of the underground success One Fierce Beer Coaster was receiving, many record labels began courting the band. According to manager Brett Alperowitz in an interview with HitQuarter, Madonna's label Maverick "really wanted to sign the band in the worst possible way, even to the point where I had to tell Madonna that I couldn’t put her on the phone with Jimmy Pop." The band eventually signed a record deal with Geffen Record. .

via Last.fm

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