Music Matters Albums Listen to samples of music that matters. Through iTunes Through Amazon Issue 15 Issue 16 Issue 17 Issue 18 Issue 19 Issue 20 Issue 21 Issue 22 Issue 23 Issue 24 Issue 25 Issue 26 Issue 27 Issue 28 Issue 29 Issue 30 Bad Livers Links: Bad Livers Sugar Hill Records

Bad Livers Blood & Mood 2000, Sugar Hill Records Bill Monroe is probably very confused. The Bad Livers are on traditional Bluegrass' premier label, Sugar Hill. The Bad Livers are mainstream. Mainstream wee-yurd and quir-key. Mainstream like The Residents. Mainstream bizarr-o. In the same way that The Residents bend reality, Ed Barnes takes life and makes it unrecognizable. Well, actually, it is recognizable and that is the inherent value of what he does. Using a rock motif, strange vocalizations, Moxy Fruvous-like banjo accentuations and a very damaged world view, the Bad Livers deliver on their promise. They create a hepatotoxic cocktail of looped sounds, drum cycles and dark lyrics based in a sound that may actually have its roots in hillbilly music among other influences. I hope you find it as disturbing, refreshing and awakening as I did.—Mark Gresser [Click here for a RealAudio sampler from Blood & Mood on the Sugar Hill Records website.]