''Mystical Shit'' is the third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

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 humorous single " Detachable Penis". Vocalist John S. Hall has fronted several disparate incarnations of the group since founding it in 1986. History King Missile ...

, 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, Low, Fly Ashtray, Galaxie 500, King Missile, Boredoms, Ruins, W ...

. 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. H ...

and bassist

Chris Xefos Christopher Xefos (born January 5, 1964) is an American multi-instrumentalist musician/engineer/ producer and former member of band King Missile. He plays various instruments such as accordion, bass, piano, and synthesizer, among others. He began ...

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 Col ...

had departed the group to form

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

. The album was first issued on

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, ...

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 Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

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

Reception

Stewart Mason of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

called ''Mystical Shit'' "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. Mason said the album was "weaker than both its predecessors and King Missile's later career high point, ''

Happy Hour Happy hour is a marketing term for a time when a venue such as a restaurant or bar offers reduced prices on alcoholic drinks. Discounted menu items like appetizers are often served during happy hour. This is a way for bars and restaurants to ...

'', where Hall would finally regain the proper balance between music and lyrics." Richard Gehr 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 influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

chose the track " Jesus Was Way Cool", by Hall and bassist

, as the album's "choice cut".

Track listing

Personnel

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

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

* 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 the ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(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 incl ...

(B3) *

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

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 us ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

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

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"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 (mou ...

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

, backing vocals Production and design *

Mark Kramer Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

–

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 stat ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

, mixing

Release history

References

External links

* *
''Mystical Shit''
at

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

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