Reviews for “Skafish” (Debut LP)
Released May 7, 1980 at 4:30 PM Greenwich Mean Time
Released internationally on I.R.S. Records (Illegal records) – Manufactured and Distributed by A&M Records
“Jim Skafish is the eccentric genius of a highly talented if bizarre new wave group. This is the type of recording that libraries wishing to expose the challenging if non-commercial side of pop music should acquire.”
- Rockingchair - August, 1980
“It’s all refreshingly off the wall.”
- Steven X. Rea - New Acts - High Fidelity - September, 1980
“His lyrics reveal a complex, confused personality mingling insecurity, paranoia, neurosis, self-mockery and bitterness.… So why should you listen to a freak prattling on and feeling sorry for himself? Because it’s done with a musical and verbal intensity that is near the knuckle in its nakedness, that’s why.
Probably autobiographical by proxy, “Joan fan Club” is about a fat pig of a girl who’s ridiculed at school for being too ugly. Bitter and twisted it is too, arranged like it was from the soundtrack of Grease. Imagine John Travolta singing this: “Hey fat pig we’re gonna push you down the stairs at school tomorrow / We’re gonna touch your little pizza face”.... ‘Obsessions Of You’ blasts in. A neo-orchestral arrangement sweeps the speakers, guitars and synths a go-go; vocal harmonies, the lot. And always the complex time changes… No feelings are left uncovered, either: “I might kill myself today cause I want you”...
Which leads nicely on to “We’ll See A Psychiatrist”. Oh boy, does he need one. The picture becomes more self-centered and just goes on getting blacker. Residentsish discordant vocals, nightmarish guitar powerchords, jazzy, fractured piano. A problem child: “Mother cries all day / She never thought her kid would flop and be so weird”... .He further denigrates himself in “Disgracing The Family Name,” describing himself as a “Pasty[SIC] little moron” and “A household germ”. He asks to be laughed at, not with, but you know he means it man, that his parents really did reject him. But again the tune’s jolly, like the music is his way to therapy, his escape.
“No Liberation Here” starts like a Black Sabbath drone, only the demon here is within him. Persecution, ostracism, extrication from society. He mourns: “You can’t stop years of conditioning / Even when you turn out the lights / Here is my bed / We pretend to understand / And make the birds and bees”. Guilt ridden sex, too, oh yes. Nothing is missed out. He aims to touch nerve endings in us all.
More frantic piano introduces "Take It Out On You", the final revenge...
...Listening to‘ Skafish’ is like being a priest hearing a confessional. Hear Skafish before he hangs himself. It’s admirable to be so open-hearted, but it can often suffocate the music; here the use of alternately simple, appealing melody and harmony and heavy, complex arrangements and rhythms is sometimes poignant, always schizophrenic….Whether tortured genius or pathetic freak, this made me feel so depressed after three hearings that I couldn’t put key to paper. One quote I read in a Chicago newspaper just about sums it up: “Before you commit suicide, listen to Skafish...”
- Betty Page - “Skafish wins by a nose” - Sounds - July 18, 1980
“Amidst the hustlings of WBCN’s move from the top of the Prudential Tower this week, the Skafish (Skay-fish) album walked into our disheveled offices and floored even the moving company. Any review of Skafish must be prefaced with one fact - the man is physically ugly, period. “So what,” you query, “Striesand beats him face down in the schnozz department.” But Skafish writes about the ostracizing and persecution of the imperfect in such a naked and terrifying manner that you may be left shaking. He is not without a sense of humor, and the music resembles Frank Zappa gone punk - but nothing prevents the acid-tipped lyrical arrows from cutting through the rock ‘n’ roll world of Bee Gee pretty boys. Highly recommended.”
- The Boston Phoenix / 104 FM WBCN
“Skafish looks like few other people you’ve known, and some of his lyrics indicate he bears a grudge against the world for it. There is human pathos in these tracks, however, and some unusual music, too, especially on “Obsessions Of You.”
- Record World - June 7, 1980
“...Javier Cruz’ demented organ drives Skafish’ strange compositions, and the backing vocals of Barbie Goodrich and the rest of the six-piece band make the B-52’s seem tame in comparison.”
- Cash Box - May 31, 1980
“Chicago’s Skafish is not the prettiest pop star about, but he certainly has presence and he does write some interesting songs. With a five-person band behind him he writes of being odd, of being lonely and alone, of fat girls, guardian angels, and of “disgracing the family name.” Skafish sings in a nice tenor and his band can do his songs justice.”
- Billboard Magazine
“...He’s also the most polished performer to come off the IRS label .… and some simply devastating arrangements (all by weird Jim himself) make this disc one of the finer debuts of the year… “Work Song” and “Joan Fan Club” are downright volatile.”
- Greg Beebe – “Joan and Jim” Santa Cruz Sentinel - May 30, 1980
“There are a few Zappa-isms in evidence, but old Frank makes records neither as funny nor as smart as this anymore .… I’d love to see “Romantic Lessons” or “Take It Out On You” hit the charts and, even more so, ‘Top Of The Pops’.”
- Lindsay Hutton - New Music New - August 10, 1980
“If you’ve got it, flaunt it, seems to be Jim Skafish’s credo - whether it’s the massive hook nose he profiles so beautifully on the album jacket, or his apparently rotten childhood, deviate personality traits, masochistic tendencies and feelings of isolation and alienation that crop up in just about every song. Still, he sounds like he’s having a pretty good time of it. ...At least somebody’s found an outlet.”
- Trouser Press - August 1980
“Take a good look at Jim Skafish on the cover of this debut album and you’re likely to either laugh or recoil in horror or both. With a nose that recalls Jimmy Durante and a haircut which brings to mind Holocaust, our man of the hour obviously has no problem whatsoever getting attention…. I like Skafish. Probably because these songs send me up the goddamn wall. Synthesizers squeal like laboratory animals reeling from the effects of the latest frozen food concoction.... But don’t expect to be brought to tears. No way. Skafish would rather camp things up than emote, probably because he figures he’s marketing and ultimately bar-coding his suffering. Revenge is his forte.”
- Mitchell Schneider - New York Rocker - September, 1980
“...Skafish may feel like an alien, but he’s made out of flesh and blood like the rest of us, which is precisely his message. ... Jimmy Skafish ultimately transforms his frustration into a marvelous epistle of expiation.”
- Roy Trakin –“The Ugly Americans” The Soho News - June 25, 1980
“What makes Skafish music strikingly different, and appealing, is his unique sense of arrangement. His popular ballads have their roots in late 50’s, and early 60’s pop. His rockers contain more hooks, and vocal calisthenics than I can follow. Just check out “Work Song” once and you’ll see what I mean. You’ll be able to see him live when he opens for XTC at the Ritz in October.”
- Phoenix (Queens College N.Y.) - September 29, 1980
“...but we would bet the entire city of Destrehan against any odds (almost any odds) that Jim Skafish is destined to be the very next Big Thing.”
- Figaro - New Orleans
“Rock ‘ n’ roll has always been a freak show, but never like this. Curiosity brought many to the Whisky in February of 1977 to see Chicago’s Skafish, a rock ’ n’ roll freak show centered loosely around its hermaphroditic namesake, Jim Skafish ... Now, three years later, I.R.S. has released the first Skafish lp,....the record stands by itself as a rare gem... Skafish’s vocals are smooth, well-executed and always lyrically relevant (lyrics are included). Production is first rate. Overall, the package is touching, relevant and entertaining.”
–“Skafish has true sole” - U.C.L.A. Bruin - May, 1980
“Jim Skafish - he of the pudding-bowl haircut and shock-horror proboscis - is shaping up to become the thinking man’s Tiny Tim, ditching the sweetness ‘n’ light routine in favour of themes more pertinent to the modern American psyche (like guilt, neurosis, hatred, cynicism and general all-round screwed-upness). The record he’s come up with isn’t a lot of fun.”
- Paul De Noyer - “Battered Fish” - New Musical Express - August 16th, 1980
“Most people will have heard of the American eccentric by now, even if it was just the audience assault on him with beer cans at the Police gig at Milton Keynes. But his quirky pop will probably pick up a fair few admirers on the way, especially those with hang ups about their looks and girls.”
- Music Week
- August 9, 1980