More infatuated with the image of pop music than its sound,
B.A.L.L. set out to satirize bloated '70s rock in all of its glory. And it wasn't
Dark Side of the Moon that was their target; it was
George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, as well as
T. Rex and
Bob Dylan. The cover of their second album, Bird, lampooned
the Beatles' "butcher cover" for
Yesterday and Today.
Not surprisingly,
B.A.L.L. featured two superstars of the American indie underground -- ex-
Shockabilly guitarist
Kramer, and former
Half Japanese and
Velvet Monkeys guitarist
Don Fleming. Along with their two drummers,
David Licht (also of
Shockabilly) and
Jay Spiegel (also of
Half Japanese), the band cranked out four albums of driving guitars soaking in distortion with a relentless beat. After their final album in 1990, the group split with
Kramer pursuing production work for his Shimmy Disc record label among other side projects like
Bongwater;
Fleming became a highly regarded record producer (
Sonic Youth, the
Posies,
Alice Cooper) and formed another band,
Gumball.
–
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi