Boil That Dust Speck
	Produced by Mike Keneally
	Released on 1994
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
2302 cover [high resolution scan]

T he franktastic followup featured even more songs (30 to hat’s paltry 25) and introduced such indelible stains of sonic dementia as “Cause of Breakfast,” “The Desired Effect,” “Them Dolphins Is Smart” and “Blameless (The Floating Face).” The Frank Zappa and Adrian Belew-era King Crimson comparisons still hold, with furtive shadows of Galactic Cowboys and They Might Be Giants aglimpsed in the agoggery. The only knock I have on the sophomore effort is the track placement; the opening “Sooth” doesn’t (no surprise there) and it takes the second track to properly calibrate expectations. Yet the adrenal glandbusting parade of oddities is only around the corner, and just when you’re beginning to think you’ve seen the same animal twice (“Weekend,” “Land of Broken Dreams”), Keneally trots out some of his best bits: “Faithful Axe” (which skewers the beloved prog-band Yes in loving and hilarious portraiture), “Natty Trousers,” "Frang Tang the Valentine Bar," “Scotch.” The disc closes with the three-part “The Old Boat Guy,” dedicated to Frank Zappa and featuring some busy percussion work (though Ruth Underwood needn’t worry). With his Frankness no longer among us, Mike Keneally’s place with heirs Ahmet and Dweezil in Z took on an added importance, although I disagree that Keneally inherited anything in the passing. He has a streak of sweetness that, for all his surreal surroundings, escapes the gravitational pull of Zappa’s moon in pursuit of that elusive beast, the perfect pop song birthed in gelatinous weirdness. Keneally infrequently catches the heel of it (“I Will,” “Blameless,” “The Desired Effect”), and the rest of the record’s a relentless chase interspersed with musical phantasms and furious bursts of energy. The notes that drive the hunt? They might be galactic belew cowboys. In 2007, Exowax reissued this with a bonus DVD of stuff that I haven’t even watched yet because 30 new songs is as much candy as my little brain can hold.

2302 picture sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. SOOTH    2:29
2. 'CAUSE OF BREAKFAST    5:08
3. THE DESIRED EFFECT    3:33
4. SKUNK    2:42
5. I'M GLAD THERE'S LEMON-FRESHENED THROAX IN YOU    0:08
6. TOP OF STOVE MELTING    2:42
7. AGLOW    2:48
8. BRYAN BELLER'S FAVORITE SONG    0:20
9. DEEP-FRIED SKINKS ARE GO!    0:31
10. GOOD MORNING, SOMETIME    1:40
11. THEM DOLPHINS IS SMART    0:59
12. 1988 WAS A MILLION YEARS AGO    3:33
13. YEP, THEM DOLPHINS IS SMART, ALRIGHT    1:59
14. BULLYS (SIC)    5:57
15. MY DILEMMA    4:03
16. HELEN WAS BRASH    1:13
17. WEEKEND    3:55
18. LAND OF BROKEN DREAMS    2:28
19. BLAMELESS (THE FLOATING FACE)    2:14
20. THAT CLAIM-JUMPING SWINE, O'BANNON    1:06
21. FAITHFUL AXE    1:25
22. NATTY TROUSERS    2:26
23. SCOTCH    3:47
24. THERE HAVE BEEN BAD MOMENTS    4:43
25. FRANG TANG THE VALENTINE BEAR    1:52
26. I WILL    0:43
27. IN THE BONE WORLD    2:32
28. THE OLD BOAT GUY PART ONE    2:28
29. THE OLD BOAT GUY PART TWO    2:04
30. THE OLD BOAT GUY PART THREE    2:47
    
    All songs by Mike Keneally
    

CREDITS

MIKE KENEALLY -- vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass, tambourine, synth percussion, slit drum, drums, slide whistle, triangle, bicycle horn, bug keychain, mixing, design
DOUG LUNN -- bass
TOSS PANOS -- drums
Bryan Beller -- bass
Doug Booth -- flutes (10)
Mark DeCerbo -- backing vocals (3)
Tom Freeman -- drums
Satnam Ramgotra -- tabla (1), ending mouth (17)
Alan Silverstein -- percussion (28-30)
Bob Tedder -- backing vocals (3)
Joe Travers -- drums
Jeff Forrest (Stutz Bearcat) -- engineer, mixing, spoken word (20)
Karin Borger, Scott Chatfield, Victor Molina -- photos
Joseph Garcia -- layout

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