The band spent the better part of a decade banging the gong, playing every smoky dive and college frat house that called on them, earning a reputation across Dixie as a rowdy and entertaining live band. While the Government Cheese story has been accounted at length in Womack’s wonderful book The Cheese Chronicles, to date the band’s musical history is largely unknown. During their day, Government Cheese released a handful of vinyl EPs and albums for Nashville-based indie label Reptile Records, while a long out-of-print CD that included much of their best material has become a sought-after collectors’ item. Supported by a handful of true believers, Womack managed to raise the cash to put together the comprehensive anthology Government Cheese 1985-1995, a two-disc compilation that chisels into concrete the band’s underrated and overlooked musical legacy.
Government Cheese 1985-1995
Government Cheese were college radio staples throughout much of the
Southeast during the late 1980s, and a video for the delightful power-pop
ballad “Face To Face” earned frequent MTV airplay at the time. While Womack
was the band’s primary wordsmith, Willis and Hill contributed significantly to
the band’s repertoire, and the songs seemingly just poured out…for instance,
longtime audience fave “Camping On Acid” sounds like Camper Van Beethoven on
speed and steroids, Womack’s surrealistic lyrics matched by a jumble of
jangling guitars, explosive rhythms, and overall musical chaos. The
hard-rocking “Fish Stick Day” was another crowd-pleaser, this live version
offering up a chanted absurdist chorus, droning guitar-feedback, and King’s
powerful, tribal drumbeats.
Another Cheese fan favorite was “C’mon
Back to Bowling Green,” a rollicking slice of lovesick blue-collar blues with
a honky-tonk heart and electrified twang, sort of Duane Eddy meets Jerry Lee
Lewis in a back-alley dive. “Single” just flat-out rocks, with plenty of
ringing guitar tone, clashing instruments, lofty power-pop styled vocals, and
a driving rhythm. The syncopated rhythms and folkish guitar strum behind the
vocals on “No Sleeping In Penn Station” are a fine accompaniment to the song’s
real-life lyrical inspiration while the metallic “Jailbait” proves that the
Cheese could knock heads with any of the decade’s nerf-metal cretins, raging
guitars and a blistering wall-of-sound barely concealing the song’s whip-smart
pop-rock lyrics and gorgeous underlying
melody.
The band was
never afraid to take a stand on issues, either, which sometimes resulted in an
unexpected response. The emotionally-powerful “For the Battered,” and its
dark-hued instrumental intro “Before The Battered,” tackled the then hush-hush
subject of domestic abuse with brutal simplicity and a menacing soundtrack of
crashing instruments and noisy Sturm und Drang. Surprisingly, the disturbing
revenge fantasy connected with the listeners of Nashville radio station WKDF’s
local music show, becoming its most-requested song. “The Shrubbery’s Dead
(Where Danny Used To Fall)” is a brilliant story of the toll of alcoholism on
an individual and family, Hill’s lyrics bolstered by a roughneck instrumental
background. The class warfare of the spoken-word ode “The Yuppie Is Dead”
leads into the deeply introspective “Nothing Feels Good,” a hard rock 1970s
throwback (I’m thinking Starz) that speaks of the dissatisfaction of too many
years on the road.
The KKK Took My Baby Away
For us original “cheeseheads,” the album includes a wealth of
previously-unreleased material, starting with the band’s raucous, off-tilt
cover of Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died.” Delivered with punkish intensity and
chaotic energy, Government Cheese manages to capture the spirit of the
original while adding a menacing edge…or, as Womack says in the liner notes,
“we took Jim Carroll’s song and did it like the Scorchers.” The band’s
semi-biographical “Kentucky Home” has never made it onto disc until now, a
Replacements-styled triumph that speaks of growing up with rock ‘n’ roll
dreams in Podunk, U.S.A. “I Can Make You Love Me” lopes into your
consciousness with a hearty bassline and wiry guitar leading into a sort of
alt-rock dirge with sparse harmony vocals and an undeniable rhythm.
Government Cheese was always known for its spirited covers, which
ranged from classic rock (an unreleased and raucous take of Grand Funk’s
“We’re An American Band” is cranked out at twice the speed of the original in
a white light haze) to critical faves (the Stooges’ “Search & Destroy”
totally demolishes the thousand and one versions done by mundane punkers, the
band’s reckless, ramshackle performance capturing the white heat fervor of
Iggy’s worst nightmares). A live cover of the Dictators “Stay With Me” retains
the heartfelt innocence intended by writer Andy Shernoff while adding the
Cheese’s own bit of emotional longing to the mix, and a live romp through the
Ramones’ “The KKK Took My Baby Away” keeps about 90% of the original’s
breakneck pace and energy while retaining Joey’s sweetness and light.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
There’s plenty more to like on Government Cheese 1985-1995,
forty-three songs altogether from the best band that you never heard. If
Government Cheese had hailed from Athens, Georgia like their friends R.E.M. or
maybe even from Austin, Texas they might today be a household name. Instead,
they remain a fond memory for a few thousand loyal fans scattered across the
Southeast. The very definition of “cult band” and D.I.Y. poster children for
the indie-rock aesthetic, Government Cheese flirted with the big time but
never got the break they deserved…none of which makes this music any less
entertaining, the songs any less brilliant, or the performances any less
rocking. Although Tommy Womack has since forged an acclaimed, if modest career
as an indie-rock troubadour, the music he made with Government Cheese has
withstood the test of time and is ready to receive the long overdue respect it
demands. (Cedar Creek Music, released 2010)
Review originally published by Blurt magazine, 2010
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