Description
Screaming Brittle Siren is the first official solo release by the American singer and songwriter Michael Knott of Lifesavers Underground fame, a.k.a. L.S.U. (December 22, 1962 – March 12, 2024), independently released on his own label Blonde Vinyl Records in 1992. Due to problems with Blonde Vinyl’s distributor going under, this album was fairly hard to find for quite a while. It is one of the heavier and darker of Knott’s solo albums, showcasing a strong 90’s heavy alternative influence. According to All Music Guide, Screaming Brittle Siren is “a work of genius.”
On ‘Screaming Brittle Siren’, Michael Knott steps beyond his role as bandleader of L.S.U. and Lifesavers to make a purely personal statement. That both of these projects appear to arise from the angst of inner turmoil, suggests that Knott, like other artists of his ilk, creates his deepest and most fully realized musical statements from the struggle of existence and the disappointments that come when ideals run head on into reality.
“I’ve got blood on my hands, I’ve got hate in my heart,” wails Knott in heart-rending emotional confession, after songs like «Miles From Shame», «Crash and Burn», «Apocalypse Lips» and «Brittle Body» have painted a picture of the temptations of the age. «Hang Me High», and «Draw the Line» are the beginnings of a cry for deliverance from self-destructive patterns. «I am No Christ», is perhaps the most honest statement of the battle between flesh and spirit in the life of the believer, in this case in a Christian artist and minister, that I’ve ever heard on record.
«What You Know Now», hung on a familiar guitar hook, invites us to look beyond the «Liar», who’s a profiteering “God vendor” to the truth of God’s mercy, rather than be distracted by the outward disillusionment. And, «Shine a Light» concludes that we broken humans must still share what we know of Christ, the thing we have that gives us any meaning at all. “I’m no Captain”, suggests Knott, “just a reflection of the sea.”
To match these ragged, raging laments, Knott has created music as tense and angular as his words. Jagged guitars, brittle strings, and aching vocals make ‘Screaming Brittle Siren’ a physical expression of its very title. In the path of David Bowie and Brian Ferry’s post-punk followers – Bauhaus, Echo & the Bunnymen and Psychedelic Furs – Knott has carved out his own niche and proven his talent again in strictly musical terms, while seeking to speak with complete candor of his own weakness before the cross of Christ. In such weakness, scripture teaches us, there is strength. [Brian Q. Newcomb, CCM, June 1992]
That Michael Knott would need to make a solo record seemed, at first, a bit of a curiosity. The prevailing perception was that L.S.U. was essentially a one-man show, and that there was little need for Knott to work outside of that moniker. Screaming Brittle Siren proved all of these hypotheses absurd. Released the same week as the L.S.U. masterpiece The Grape Prophet, Screaming Brittle Siren funneled that record’s anger and agony inward. Biting, razor sharp guitar riffs cut across mournful cello and violin, and the combination of the two distinct textures made for a record that was both unnerving and deeply sad. Knott utilized nautical imagery to bemoan the depraved condition of his soul, and the parallel never once seemed forced or unnatural. He coupled his bitter verse with music that smoldered with sinister energy. A bouncing, snapping bassline drives the hyperactive «Apocalypse Lips» and jittery «What You Know Now», and Knotts angry, sneering guitar howls Nirvana-like phrasings in «Miles From Shame» and «Barnacle». The record boasts three numbers widely considered to be among the strongest in Knott’s canon. The first is the mausoleum-grim «Crash and Burn», which opens with Knott howling “Knocking down everything I tried to build/ buying up everything I tried to sell” over a creeping, sinister bassline. Similar in spirit is «Liar»: the song is constructed around a furious three-chord progression that stutters and stops and starts without warning. Midway through, the song collapses, and Knott begins the numbing, monklike chant “I’m filling my heart with rocks and sand.” The mantra is cut short by a bloodcurdling shriek, and the song proper resumes with a new force and terrible fury. But Siren’s magnum opus is «I Am No Christ». As Melisa Hasin’s cello hums and moans, Knott, in chilling lower register, sings “Cross me once and I’ll forgive you/ cross me twice and it gets hard/ cross me three times, just remember/ I am no Christ.” It is the starkest confession of his career, coming at the center of a record that is sick with regret. And here it becomes obvious why Michael Knott needed to make a solo record. Where L.S.U. records, to this point, had been mostly focused on the bleakness of life in general, Screaming Brittle Siren is a ruthless examination of Knott’s own soul. The end of the record finds him pleading “Someone shine a light/ shine a light so I can see” as Debbie Devore wails soulfully in the background. It is to Knott’s credit that he can deliver a record so stunning and unflinching, and still emerge desperate for hope and salvation. Screaming Brittle Siren is a work of genius. [J. Edward Keyes, AMG]
Chris Estey’s Esoteric List of Top 5 Christian Grunge Era Releases
SoCal’s Knott was the daddy of Christian Alternative, and like his descendent Mikee felt an achingly personal need to keep the scene alive with his various expressions of great power pop punk, new wave, Goth, post-punk, and experimental bubblegum rawk. Misunderstood, raised Catholic but getting Born Again in the culture war cauldron of Jesus Freak year zero Calvary Chapel, Knott started in the Lifesavors and fed the 80s a handful of gripping Christian rock crossover albums unafraid to be crepuscular and confessional. He started the Blonde Vinyl label, and when I was in my early days of recovery and wandering through a Bible bookstore (long story), I happened upon his own L.S.U.’s This is The Healing and his friends’ bands Breakfast with Amy’s Dad and Black & White World’s debut (among others), music made by some Christians that went deep on war, greed, hypocrisy, and the Velvet Underground. Screaming Brittle Siren was in Knott’s next round of releases for his indie label, and it is still arguably the best album by a Christian in the grunge era, incarnating the spirits of Blue Oyster Cult, Neil Diamond, Tim Rose, Marianne Faithful, Leonard Cohen, and above all else, G.K. Chesterton (whether Knott had read him or not). I interviewed Michael several times, for HM Magazine and elsewhere, but my final chat was a horrific conversation the weekend his father passed away, and he seemed to regret trying to fuck with the church at all. I have the feeling Joan of Arc might have said the same thing to a witness, shortly before shifting out of this world. And I think he will be remembered with as much burn-branding as she has in our heretic yet committed hearts. [Chris Estey, April 2024]
CD tracklist:
01. Miles From Shame – 4:18
02. Crash and Burn – 2:43
03. Apocalypse Lips – 3:20
04. Brittle Body – 5:06
05. Blood On My Hands – 3:49
06. Liar – 3:52
07. Hang Me High – 3:18
08. Draw the Line – 1:21
09. Gold Silver Soup and Silk – 0:52
10. I Am No Christ – 5:22
11. What You Know Now – 4:39
12. Barnacle – 2:38
13. Shine a Light (+ Bonus G.S.S.S.) – 13:00
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Blonde Vinyl Records. Remastered and re-issued as a Limited Edition Screaming Brittle Siren in 2024, released both as 12-inch vinyl double LP (with 200 copies pressed on Black vinyl and 100 pressed on Red vinyl) housed in a gatefold sleeve with an autographed insert (featuring three bonus tracks on Side D of the Double Vinyl taken from the legendary Cornerstone 93 Concert; “Apocalypse Lips,” “Hang Me High,” and “Ocean Blue”) and as an autographed digipak CD. Available at Bandcamp: https://blondevinyl.bandcamp.com/album/screaming-brittle-siren-remastered
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