Filter -- Short Bus

6/10

For any talk of "industrial rock" or associations with Nine Inch Nails, Filter's debut album is about one thing: riffs. Frontman, Richard Patrick (this guy's brother), employs a little bit of NIN guitar tone, but this is just driving, straightforward, heavy music. Patrick's howling snarl, though one-dimensional on this debut, backs the music well enough, and the other band members follow in this spirit--I'm pretty sure the drummer must have torn a few holes in his snare.
For me, the most memorable moment on this album is the pause in the middle, "Stuck in Here." It replaces the muscular, distorted riffing with an acoustic guitar, the driving beats with an ancient sounding drum set, and adds some light keyboard and ambient static for atmosphere.
"Stuck in Here" is not just a welcome respite. I feel it also comments more on the end of the century this album was released in then the rest of the album combined. One can easily visualize sitting in a moldering room housing all the burnt out, barely operating artifacts of the 20th Century, as this crackles from a rusting phonograph(Powerman 5000's "Watch the Sky for Me" serves the same purpose on 1999's Tonight the Stars Revolt!). Very nice.

But forget all that stuff. The reason I, and just about any kid from the 90's bought this Filter album is because we heard "Hey Man Nice Shot" in this scene from this movie.

And on a final note, the back cover image for Short Bus has got to be one of the most memorable, ever.


1995 Reprise
1. Hey Man Nice Shot 5:14
2. Dose 3:53
3. Under 4:18
4. Spent 4:37
5. Take Another 4:23
6. Stuck in Here 3:34
7. It's Over 3:36
8. Gerbil 3:21
9. White Like That 4:17
10. Consider This 4:18
11. So Cool 4:26