(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Throughout the 1990s, Prisonshake were for years the wildest rockers in Cleveland. In an era when new wave had left a trail of intellectuals, Doug Enkler (vocals), who had released the punk-rock album Evolution Of The Stickman (Relativity, 1986) with the Offbeats, and Robert Griffin (guitar), who had released the fiercely experimental album Disease Is Relative (Trans Dada, 1984) with Spike In Vain, represented a return to the raw, manic roots of rock and roll.
Their story is primarily one of countless singles (memorable among them Deanna, Fairfield Avenue Serenade, Bedtime Beats You Senseless, Shopgirl, Act Like Nothing's Wrong, From Down Here, Carnival Game, Two Sisters), songs that combine the neurotic melodicism of Neil Young and the Replacements with the perverse verve of the Stooges and the Rolling Stones.
Their early singles were collected on the EP Singles 87-89 (Scat, 1989), and the album A Girl Named Yes (Rubber Box, 1990) was absorbed into the monumental I'm Really Fucked Now (Scat, 1990), comprising a CD, an LP, an EP, and a cassette, totaling about three hours. While the LP butchered the singles, the CD presents a band both boisterous and sentimental (By The Side Of The Road), closer to the Replacements than the Stooges.
This is also the style of Stuck In St Louis, the long harangue from the EP Della Street (Scat, 1991).
Having lost the rhythm section, The Roaring Third (Scat, 1993) positioned them among the quintessential "bar bands" (Carthage Burns, 2 Sisters).
In 1995, the duo moved to St. Louis (Missouri).
Jimmyjimmyjimjim (Carcrash, 1995) and Fuck Your Self Esteem (1997)
were their last singles.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
The double-disc Dirty Moons (2008) marked the return of Prisonshake,
collecting the best of what they had recorded during the years of silence.
