Daniel Johnston Artistic Vice CD

ARTISTIC VICE was the first album on which Daniel Johnston fronted a band. On earlier works, the spare songs received musical accompanied from either a single keyboard or guitar. Johnson's first recordings were made a available in a series of primitively made self-released cassette tapes. These were later compiled onto several albums, including the highly recommended YIP/JUMP MUSIC. Notoriety paved the way for Johnston's first album (titled 1990), which was recorded in a true studio.

For this set, which was recorded in a house in West Virginia, Johnston assembled a six-piece band (four of whom are guitarists). It's a testament to Johnston's own innate musicality that the songs lend themselves so perfectly to the casual accompaniment heard here. They can shift easily from quiet country balladry to punkish rave ups. As always, his songs are direct, honest, hook-laden, and imminently coverable. One listen to "Tell Me Now" will yield the names of 10 artists who should record it.

Following his return to West Virginia from Austin, Daniel Johnston, along with producer and Shimmy Disc proprietor Kramer and the "Eye Band" (a group of Johnston's hometown friends), recorded Artistic Vice, an album filled with rough-hewn pop/rock that despite its lo-fi exterior was his most accessible release to date. His first full-length record fronting a band, Artistic Vice's sound may be lo-fi by most standards, but compared to Johnston's earlier recordings it seems downright slick. With the opening declaration of "My Life Is Starting Over," Johnston and company tear through 16 tunes that range from joyous and hopeful to sad and disturbing with unfettered garage-band fervor, attempting to cut through the troubled murk of the past several years of his life. Many of Johnston's usual themes are present here, from his undying yet unrequited love for Laurie, the wife of an undertaker, to Caspar [sic] the Friendly Ghost and battles with his own internal demons. The "Eye Band" does a credible job throughout, especially on the celebratory rockers "My Life Is Starting Over" and "I Killed the Monster," the uneasy edginess of "The Startling Facts," the obsessive "Love of My Life," and the garage folk of "I Know Caspar," providing them with a ragged but fitting frame. On the other hand, anything requiring any sort of subtlety seems to get lost in this straightforward approach. Tunes such as the otherwise irresistible pop of "Honey I Sure Miss You" and "Tell Me Now" fail to reach their full potential, while elsewhere "It's Got to Be Good" lacks a necessary finesse and "Laurie" and "I Feel So High" seem somewhat clunky. Still, Kramer does a good job of capturing Johnston at this transitional period in both his career (this would be his last LP before signing with Atlantic Records) and his life. Artistic Vice is a consistently strong collection of songs that at times recalls the innocence of Johnston's work prior to his breakdown, while at the same time dealing both with where he had been and where he was heading. [The 2008 remastered reissue adds for bonus tracks: demos for "Laurie" and "I Feel So High," the previously unreleased "I Get Depressed When You Undress" and "The Monster Inside Me," which is taken from a single.] ~ Brett Hartenbach

Recording information: Chuck Picklesimer's House, WV (07/1991).

Personnel: Daniel Johnston (vocals, acoustic guitar); Dale Dudgeon, Tom Gruda, Donny Spencer, Brent Conkle (guitar); Mike West (bass guitar); Fred McMahan (drums).

Liner Note Author: Kramer.

Option (5/29/92, p.113) - "..naive, brilliant, disturbing, and seductive...This album, like the rest of his catalog, will likely outlive us all.."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]his is possibly his best album, with some great, if always rather unsettling tunes."