Government Cheese (official band site)

Thanks for the add from another KY boy,the state not the jelly! LOL,ROCK ON! 

Great f-ing show last night. Thank you! 

Monday, September 05, 2011
Exit/In's 40th Celebration a benefit for MusiCares w/ Royal Court of China, Jimmy Hall, Lee Roy Parnell, and Special Guest

In September of 1971 Nashville was coming of age as Music City U.S.A. The “Rock Block” on Elliston Place was born out of a storefront transformed into a music venue to be known as Exit/In – Nashville’s Music Forum. From humble beginnings this seemingly out of the way club (entrance in the rear) was to become the ground breaking effort for the now vibrant live music culture in Nashville. Forty years later Exit/In is celebrating this great heritage with a series of concerts during the week following Labor Day. The shows will feature greats who have played there from the very beginning down to the current time. In recognition of the efforts of musicians who have backed, traveled and recorded with such artists, proceeds from the event will benefit MusiCares (non profit arm of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, NARAS) which assists musicians and their families in need.

Saw the show at the Rutledge it was awesome!....

I think I am going to dive on people before we start the first song Saturday. ~S

Hello!thanx for the add!

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From BLURT Online Mag.

12/23/2010
Government Cheese

Government Cheese 1985-1995
(Cedar Creek Music)

www.cedarcreekmusic.com

Chances are, unless you happened to be attending college in the Southeast U.S. or lived in the region during the late 1980s, you've never heard of Government Cheese. Inspired by influences like the Replacements, Husker Du, R.E.M. and especially Nashville's Jason & the Scorchers, Government Cheese was formed in Bowling Green, Kentucky by WKU students Tommy Womack and Skot Willis (guitars and vocals). The two added a strong, stealthy rhythm section in bassist Billy Mack Hill and drummer Joe King, and promptly set out to conquer the world with their own unique brand of rock 'n roll, a curious mix of 1960s-era garage, vintage 1970s classic rock, and contemporary '80s college rock delivered without guile and with a fair amount of tongue-in-cheek humor.

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 were college radio staples throughout much of the Southeast during the late-'80s, 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.

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 Alive" keeps about 90% of the original's breakneck pace and energy while retaining Joey's sweetness and light.

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.

DOWNLOAD: Everything here rocks, so just pony up for the CD will ya?!! And while you're at it, pick up a copy of Womack's chronicle of the band, The Cheese Chronicles, the best book about life on the road ever written. - REV. KEITH A. GORDON

Hey!i love you music