It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're trying hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. Well, Rocks Off can't say we haven't been to an opium den anymore.
Our own Fired for Walking is a loud and thoroughly hell-bound rock band, and that's just how we like it. The music is somewhere between the Stooges and the Cult, with just enough of that modern radio rock sensibility to anger us into enjoyment. Their self-titled debut EP is an audio fight scene well worth the download. On our highly complex celebrity-based rating system we give them a two and a half Buseys.
That name though...Fired for Walking? Who gets fired for walking? What, did you walk into work naked or something? We're pretty sure that you'd be fired for naked, not for walking, in that case. The more we thought about it the angrier we got, so we put on a trench coat and a fedora and managed to find guitarist and vocalist Joel Hoyle in an opium den near the Port.
He was pretty far gone between chasing the dragon and having his feet rubbed by a one-eyed prostitute, but he rose just enough from the couch to be heard over the music of a koto when we asked him where he came up with the name.
"Mescaline," said Hoyle. "Fired for Walking means the Lord loves a working man; don't trust whitey. See a doctor and get rid of it."
We're used to conventional crazy here at Rocks Off. When Cory Sinclair of the Manichaean talks about the dead rising, or when Paul Fredric expounds for hours on the theory that the Partridge Family was actually a satanic cult, we can nod along and keep up. Here was a man deep into chemical delirium. Like Hunter S. Thompson said, "Never turn your back on a drug."
"Hoyle?" we asked. "What were you fired for? Was it walking? What brought you to this lowly state?"
"I don't remember the technical reason, but it involved dumping a beer in someone's lap, too much weed, and I got lost while driving to work," said Hoyle.
We took our leave of Hoyle, and walked out in the comparably fresh air of the Port. It seemed such a contrast. The music of Fired for Walking, while primal, still speaks of true artistic temperament. The technical competency of their playing is beyond argument, and the songwriting shows great style. How can something like that be born out of nothing but a narcotic miasma of half-muttered non sequiturs?
Guess we'll have to see the show at Rudyard's to find out.
FINAL DEFINITION Fired for Walking (n) 1. Chaotic hard rock. 2. Don't trust whitey 3. Someone needs the D.A.R.E. program real bad.
Fired for Walking plays Friday April 8 at Rudyards with Bald Eagle Burger. Free Admission.
