''Mystical Shit'' is the third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

band

King Missile King Missile is an American avant-garde art rock band best known for its 1992 single "Detachable Penis". Vocalist John S. Hall has fronted several disparate incarnations of the group since founding it in 1986. History King Missile (Dog Fly Rel ...

, released in 1990 by

Shimmy Disc Shimmy Disc is a New York City-based independent record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. Before it was sold to the Knitting Factory, artists like Bongwater, Daniel Johnston, Fly Ashtray, Galaxie 500, King Missile, Boredoms, Ruins, Ween, Gwar ...

. It is the first of their albums to be recorded after guitarist

Dave Rick David Matthew Rick is an American guitarist and former member of underground rock bands B.A.L.L.,True Bongwater, King Missile,Strong, p. 390 Phantom Tollbooth, When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water, Wonderama, and Yo La Tengo. He ...

and bassist Chris Xefos had joined and composer

Stephen Tunney Stephen Tunney (born December 1959 in Bronx, New York) is an American artist who is a novelist, a painter and a musician. Education Stephen Tunney graduated from Parsons School of Design with a BFA in 1982. He received an MFA from the City C ...

had departed the group to form

Dogbowl Stephen Tunney, also known as Dogbowl, is an American artist, musician and novelist. He was a founding member of the avant-garde band King Missile (Dog Fly Religion), and has recorded many albums as a solo act. He is also the author An aut ...

. The album was first issued on

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

in 1990 and was later included on the

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

''Mystical Shit & Fluting on the Hump''.

Reception

Stewart Mason of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

described ''Mystical Shit'' as "a transitional album" and said "

had decamped for a solo career and King Missile was firmly in Hall's hands; as a result, the album is much less musically interesting, the songs consisting of little more than noodly jams underneath Hall's surreal, often funny monologues. The critic went on to describe the album as "weaker than both its predecessors and King Missile's later career high point, '' Happy Hour'', where Hall would finally regain the proper balance between music and lyrics." commended Hall for "spearheading New York's electric poetry movement" and said "the revamped King Missile sounds more focused than before, with the humor coming off as conceptual rather than jokey.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

chose the track " Jesus Was Way Cool", written by Hall and bassist Chris Xefos, as the album's "choice cut".

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the ''Mystical Shit'' liner notes. King Missile *

Steve Dansiger Steve Dansiger is an American drummer and member of the first two incarnations of avant-garde band King Missile and of the band Pianosaurus. Dansiger is now a therapist and author with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Dansiger has appeared ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* John S. Hall –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(A4),

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

(B3) *

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

* Chris Xefos –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, organ,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

, backing vocals Production and design *

Mark Kramer Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

–

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

, mixing

Release history

References

External links

* *
''Mystical Shit''
at

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

{{Authority control King Missile albums 1990 albums Shimmy Disc albums Albums produced by Kramer (musician)