Jeff Suffering is Suffering and the Hideous Thieves. Oh, sure, other musicians are featured on Real Panic Formed including note worthy's, Matt Johnson, drummer for the defunct Roadside Monument, and the joke-telling folk singer, Sub Pop recording artist, Rosie Thomas, who sings harmonies on several tracks, but for the most part this is another one of Jeff Suffering's metamorphoses.
Back in 1995, Suffering started 90 Lb. Wuss, a punk band sonorously not unlike Drive Like Jehu. The band released the overlooked, accomplished, and visceral Short Hand Operation in 1998 after two earlier average attempts at anarchistic punk. The group disbanded in 200 after a continued lack of wide support. Suffering, continued on, collected some other players, and released an album under the moniker, Raft of Dead Monkeys called thoroughly. This release strayed far, far, and away, lyrically, from his previous Tooth and Nail outings with the repeated use of fuck and other naughtys; a lethal blow to an artist wishing to keep strong ties with the Christian Booksellers Association. Now detached from the Christian scene, Suffering has cooled off, toned down the swears and levitated back to the middle ground with his morose, maudlin, and emotionally wrought outfit, Suffering and the Hideous Thieves.
Suffering's pipes on Real Panic Formed or any other Jeff Suffering effort do not sound classic pop and I think that's intentional as Suffering's vocal work can be downright shearing to the ears and have qualities of someone singing with a head cold. But when he was with 90 Lb Wuss, that vocal approach didn't matter because the music was so violent and grating that all the voice needed to do was be violent and grating right along with the instruments. But on Real Panic Formed everything is slowed down, the vocals are out front, naked, accompanied by a slowly picked guitar, or wheezing accordion, or harrowing cello or a shrill violin depending on the track and in total the instrumentation is in the vein of a Swordfishtrombones or a Trout Mask Replica or a perhaps a No More Shall We Part. But in this case, we don't have Waits or Cave or Vliet singing, we have Suffering and his plaintive wails.
Real Panic Formed was originally released in 2002 with 8 songs on it and is now being re-released by Velvet Blue Music in 2003 with an additional track “Vomit Your Forgiveness.” The first release had “Sex is Dead” as the final track blasting the listener into sad oblivion with a 7 minute long funeral like instrumental dirge epitomizing the whole feel of the album. Although a thunderstorm brews in the background of “Forgiveness;’ it is still the happiest tune on the whole album and ends it with a sense of hope instead of bleakness as the previous finale “Sex,” did. “All My Friends are On Prozac” and “The Other Side of the Moon” are highlights and the throwaway, “Ugly,” is the lowlight.
Real Panic Formed, as a whole, is not ugly or unlovable, but kinda like touching pretty prickly needles. They're pretty and all, but dammit, they're prickly needles. Maybe this album is best suited for cold showers, torture cambers, and the end of the world.
1. All My Friends Are on Prozac
2. Ugly
3. The Other Side of the Moon
4. Cure Violence With Violence
5. Lonely Tonight
6. My Black Heart Infection
7. Prelude
8. Sex Is Dead
9. Disappear
More about: Suffering and the Hideous Thieves
