Beasts of Bourbon

By the early '90s, two of the Beasts of Bourbon's key members -- James Baker and Boris Sudjovic -- had left the group to be replaced by Tony Pola and Brian Hooper, who are also both members of guitarist Kim Salmon's project, the Surrealists. The ex-Scientists took some of the chaotic edge with them -- and left the group with a straighter, less garage punk sound that resembles more the direction taken by Tex Perkins with the Cruel Sea later in the '90s. With this new lineup, the Australian rock supergroup enlisted producer Tony Cohen, an engineer best known for his exceptional production work with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and the Birthday Party. Despite his awesome skills with capturing sound, it proved a little tough to get the live energy of a performance to tape. What results is a little disappointing after a string of three awesome albums since 1984. Following the release and touring of The Low Road, members went on to pursue greater things with their separate groups, Kim Salmon with his Surrealists and Tex Perkins with the Cruel Sea. Beasts of Bourbon never officially split, but at this point reverted back to part-time concern for all the groups members, which was in fact the way that they conceived their greatest work as a an ad-hoc side project. ~ Skip Jansen, All Music Guide