Press for “Critical Times - Fishbone’s Hen House Session’s” (DVD)


The New York Times - 1/1/2004

Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions 

Fusing ska, funk, rock, punk, and anything else that struck its musical fancy, Fishbone was a popular and wildly influential band who gained a massive cult following in the mid ’80s but failed to cross over into mainstream success. In 2001, after record company problems and personal changes had stalled the group’s momentum, Fishbone entered Hen House Studios and began recording what many in the band regarded as a “make or break” project.

Video cameras recorded the proceedings, and Critical Times: Fishbone’s Henhouse Sessions is a documentary which examines both the tensions and the creative flow of Fishbone as they struggle to make magic on the clock - Mark Deming

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MTV News: Headlines - 9/21/2008

MTV Networks

A new Fishbone collection is coming out on DVD. “Critical Times: The Henhouse Sessions” will feature the band recording new material at the Hen House, a free community recording studio, via multiple DV cameras. Songs include “Last Dayz,” “Critical Times,” “Demon in Here” and “Skank N’ Go Nutts.” It’s due out October 5.

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AMG - All Music - 11/19/2004

DVD Review: Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions 

Say what you will about Fishbone, but you can’t deny that they still enjoy what they do blasting out furious punk-funk to this very day. Despite many line-up shake-up’s (’only three original members are left standing’. Angelo Moore, Norwood Fisher, and ’Dirty’ Walter Kibby) and record company shifts, the group continues to roll along.

In 2001, Fishbone had come up with a new batch of originals, which they laid down at a ’free community recording studio,’ the Hen House. The entire sessions were videotaped, with the only rule being to ’leave your shoes at the door’ (which as proven by a shot in the opening sequence, was an actual rule!).

With new band members in tow, the recording of six tracks are chronicled, including the intense “Frayed Fucking Nerve Ending,” which does a fine job of capturing the recording process, warts and all. It turns out that Moore is the leader of the band in the studio, but he’s not above getting his ideas either shot down or questioned, as he attempts to work an elaborate Theremin part into one of the songs, much to the chagrin of the other members.

Also included are interviews from outside the studio with Moore (who gives a tour of his self-described ’humble abode’) and Fisher (who discusses his unique hairstyle, a cross between an antennae and a unicorn). Also included are several bonus bits, including a pair of tracks recorded at the Henhouse by the Fisher-led side project, Trulio Disgracious. Nothing as dramatic as Some Kind of Monster here folks, but still a worthwhile view for any serious Fishbone fan. - Greg Prato

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The Coast - 12/10/04

Let’s get Critical 

Let’s get Critical…Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions is under threat of being as neglected as the band it’s about. The feature had a single theatrical screening at Hollywood’s Silver Lake Film Festival. On the eve of its DVD release, Fishbone angered its ever-patient fanbase by requesting a boycott. Whatever disagreements occurred between the filmmakers and their subjects, Critical Times doesn’t deserve the stigma. It’s the great rockumentary of a year that’s had a surplus of very good ones.

The LA punk-funk-ska-metal collective is documented in their 2001 recording sessions in Venice, CA’s community-owned Hen House Studios. Director Harlan Steinberger doesn’t incorporate serious band dysfunction or dirty gossip, instead serving up an engaging look at the long hours and bickering of the creative process at work.

Arguments over pitches and time signatures are likely to remind viewers of high school band class. Guitarist Spacey-T challenges frontman Angelo Moore’s theremin obsession by saying, ‘If you’re gonna do this, every note has to be perfect. This is a black funk orchestra, not a crackhead orchestra.’

Fishbone’s history reads like a sad one, dwelling in cult fandom and corrupt record deals while musicians they inspired (OutKast, No Doubt, the Chili Peppers) became millionaires. ‘I’m a jester,’ Moore explains. ‘A jester leads the kings and queens to the road of fame and fortune.’

It’s a sour note that these recording sessions never produced an album (although concert versions of five songs are on Live at the Temple Bar). But Fishbone’s spirit is unbreakabl—a guided tour through Moore’s home plays like a humble MTV Cribs episode. The music is extraordinary, but Critical Times excels as cinema in its authentic feel for the joy and struggle of collaborative art. - Mark Palermo

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Mean Street - 1/1/2005

Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions 

Anytime just one member of Fishbone enters a room, things get crazy. So when you cram the entire band into a tight recording studio space in Venice (especially one called the Hen House), it’s simple off the hook. This documentary follows the legendary rap/jazz/funk/punks as Angelo Moore and Co. work on their most outrageous tunes yet, try to recapture some glory after a few rough years and figure out what it’s all about. With interviews to the members’ homes, Times is the most telling glimpse into the band members’ lives yet. This is critical viewing for anyone with good musical taste.

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Connected - 1/1/2005

Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions 

From the San Fernando Valley and South Central areas of Los Angeles came the band Fishbone, which began in the early 80s as a group of black teenagers heavily influenced by punk, funk and ska. Though the lineup has changed over the years, their commitment to performing mosh pit inducing, genre-hopping, adrenaline pumping music has never slowed down—even if the same can’t be said for the record companies which dropped them along the way.

From the hippie enclave of Venice Beach, California, there emerged Hen House Studios, a recording studio that exchanges free recording time for unfettered video access of a band’s creative process.

Take a band without a recording contract, combine it with a project like Hen House, and you get the DVD Critical Times—Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions, an in-depth look at one of the hardest working bands around.

The band was captured at Hen House in 2001, recording both new material (“Frayed F*cking Nerve Ending”, “Last Dayz”) and re-recording songs that have long been in the Fishbone repertoire but never quite coalesced onto acetate (“Premadawnutt,” “Skank N’ Go Nuts”).

Fans of the band are shown around band leader Angelo Moore’s modest but eclectically decorated home, treated to the rooftop ramblings of perpetually stoned bassist Norwood Fisher, and get to listen in on Walter “Dirty Walt” Kibby bitching about Moore’s use of the theremin, a hands-free electronic instrument that can be problematic when one is recording a staccato passage of heavy metal exactitude.

Though attending one of their concerts is still the best way to get to know Fishbone, Critical Times is an entertaining behind-the-scenes look at a band that shows no sign of letting up on their mission to bring a musical message to the masses. (Steel-toed boots not required.)

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Cosmic Debris Magazine - 1/5/2005

Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions 

The Hen House is a unique recording studio in Venice Beach, California, where bands can come in and record for free (and with studio prices being what they are, that’s nothing to sneeze at), with the one catch being that there are cameras literally everywhere you turn and you must sign papers saying they have the right to film you and do what they will with the footage. As anyone who has been subjected to cameras over a long period of time will tell you, the self-consciousness soon fades and you soon forget they’re there, for the most part. Hen House Studios is home to a lot of interesting film of musicians being themselves, for better or for worse.

Fishbone decided to take Hen House up on the offer in 2001, following the studio’s one set-in-stone rule by leaving their shoes outside the door. Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions is a kind of video highlight reel of interesting moments during those sessions, and there were certainly plenty of those to see. First of all, if you’re a fan of the band and their radical blend of funk, ska and high-energy punk, this is an hour and a half of bliss, because despite the fact that only three original members remained by this point (vocalist Angelo Moore, bass god Norwood Fisher and trumpeter/harmonist/attitude Dirty Walter Kibby), Fishbone was still unbelievably tight.

Another aspect that makes this interesting is the prevailing attitude they bring to work. We’ve been inundated with thousands of hours of “Behind The Music”-style mini-films that have left us with one belief perma-locked in our minds: pro musicians, much like pro basketball players, are self-destructive morons with no work ethic to speak of. It’s not true, but that’s what we’ve been sold. Fishbone is so far the other way it’s shocking even to those of us who know better than to expect every band to be Motley Crue. Their work process is fascinating to watch. A lot of the nuts and bolts are worked out by Fisher, drummer John Steward and guitarist Spacey T. When we speak of nuts and bolts in terms of a Fishbone song, we’re talking about shrapnel flying at high speed, yet there’s no posing, no flexing; just three guys dedicated to getting intricate parts down to a science before it’s time for the others to step up. Sure, it’s a little hard to concentrate on all this because Fisher is sporting a… I guess you’d call it a hairstyle that is basically all his hair twisted into a foot-long spike sticking frontwards out of a backwards baseball cap. As his head bobs, so does… it, a desperate cry for a Viagra-based shampoo. After a while you get used to it. Okay, after a while YOU might get used to it. I couldn’t stop staring at the thing and thinking it was the most ridiculous looking hairstyle I’d ever seen, but that’s just me. It just goes to show you how professional these guys are. Not one snicker. Just work.

Oh, but between those blocks of hard work there was plenty of laughter. Despite brief moments of very minor tension, these guys laugh and laugh and have a great time working together, and that makes for a very enjoyable film. The music is pretty damned hot, too, and fringe fans are going to find themselves well into the fold after this. The recently completed documentary about the world famous band Fishbone, just premiered at the Silver Lake Film Festival and is now available for purchase (DVD) at: www.HenHouseStudios.com.

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The Great Nothing - 2/5/2008

Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions

“Critical Times – Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions” is an interesting look at a highly influential band doing what they do best – experimenting and breaking all barriers. Fishbone is known for their eclectic mix of punk, jazz, fun, and pop, and this DVD shows the band in the process of reforming.

The Hen House is a free community recording studio.

Going in with no producer, the newly reformed Fishbone set out to record new songs.

What becomes apparent through the course of this DVD is that Fishbone’s eclectic style is not an accident.

Each band member pushes the limits of creativity.

From working out horn arrangements to writing theremin solos, this is what it’s like in the studio with Fishbone.

While an interesting look into the creative process, and the personal lives, of this legendary band, the amount of repetition does drag a bit.

For ninety minutes Fishbone works on six songs.

The viewer is never treated to full versions of these gems.

Still, I found this a very interesting watch.

The insight into the inner workings of the creative genius that is Fishbone more than made up for the sometimes slow pace.

Key Tracks: “Skank N’ Go Nutts” “In the Heat of Angrrr”

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VH1.COM - 2/9/2005

Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions

Fusing ska, funk, rock, punk, and anything else that struck its musical fancy, Fishbone was a popular and wildly influential band who gained a massive cult following in the mid ’80s but failed to cross over into mainstream success. In 2001, after record company problems and personal changes had stalled the group’s momentum, Fishbone entered Hen House Studio and began recording what many in the band regarded as a “make or break” project. Video cameras recorded the proceedings, and Critical Times: Fishbone’s Henhouse Sessions is a documentary which examines both the tensions and the creative flow of Fishbone as they struggle to make magic on the clock.

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New-Sounds.com - 3/21/2005

Critical Times: Fishbone’s Hen House Sessions

This is a documentary of Fishbone, a band ever-moving forward, working in Hen House Studios. This is a close inspection of the band at work in the studio getting such material recorded as “Last Dayz”, “Permadawnutt” and “Demon in Here”.

Angelo also gives us a tour of this house and we get to see him try to convince his bandmates more time is worth investing to get a theremin worked into the mix. Multiple cameras and good editing keep this documentary well paced and interesting. Special features are three videos: Fishbone’s “Skank N’ Go Nutts” (alternate take), Dr. Maddvibe (“The Undesirable Desirables”), and two from Trulio Disgracious (“Get Drenched” and “Food for Squirrels”).

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