Better Than a Stick in the Eye

Studio album by SNFU

Released

December 1988

Recorded

June–July 1988

Genre

Punk rock

Length

31:11

Label

Cargo Records

Producer

SNFU, Cecil English

SNFU chronology

If You Swear, You'll Catch No Fish
(1986)

Better Than a Stick in the Eye
(1988)

The Last of the Big Time Suspenders
(1991)

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AllMusic

Better Than a Stick in the Eye is the third album by Canadian punk rock band SNFU. The album was released in 1988 by Cargo Records. It marked a return to a direct and unadorned sound following its comparatively experimental predecessor, If You Swear, You'll Catch No Fish. It would also be the group's last studio album for five years, as they disbanded months after the record's release before again reforming in 1991.

SNFU released their first two albums on the American hardcore punk imprint BYO Records. They first worked with Cargo Records, a Canadian label recently established by their longtime acquaintance Randy Boyd, when Cargo helped distribute their 1986 self-released EP She's Not on the Menu. Impressed with the sales of the EP, Cargo signed SNFU to a two-record deal in 1988. For SNFU, this was a move to a larger label with greater distribution.

The group had wanted to work with producer Cecil English – whose recent work with NoMeansNo they particularly admired – since meeting him on tour in March 1987. They chose English's Profile Studios in Vancouver to record their third album, and began work in June 1988. They tracked the album live with minimal overdubs and few studio effects. Aside from an assault on guitarist Brent Belke while skateboarding en route to the recording studio, the sessions were uneventful and productive.

The album was the band's first full-length release with their new rhythm section, bassist Curtis Creager and drummer Ted Simm. Much of the material on the album had been written with former bassist Dave Bacon. The album's lead track, "Time To Buy a Futon", was co-written by Bacon and released in a previous version on Thrasher Skate Rock 5: Born to Skate, a compilation issued by Thrasher magazine. Three outtakes from the sessions were included on the 1991 compilation album The Last of the Big Time Suspenders.

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