Salon de la Guerre - Citizen Wet Smack

​Salon de la Guerre

Citizen Wet Smack
self-released; 2024

​​By ​Dino DiMuro

Citizen Wet Smack is the 35th album by the incredibly prolific Eric R. Rasmussen, recording as Salon De La Guerre. I reviewed the Salon’s 33rd album Even Toy Dogs Get The Blues, which to me played like an edgy, experimental power trio over which a prose writer freely pontificates (it was really good!). I’m very curious to see what he’s come up with this time.

Rasmussen explains that he often hops genres, having worked in country, classical, jazz, electronic and avant-garde music. However, he always returns to punk, alternative, and garage rock as his main thrust. Underlining his vocal delivery as a prose writer, he really has written several novels and works as a journalist.

This new album was recorded late at Rasmussen’s home studio 2023 to early 2024 and is described as “driving punk and alternative-driven guitar, performed on both Fender Stratocaster and musical software, with bits of the No Wave genre of the early ’80s.” The song topics include fools, white-collar criminals, scam artists, cyber-punk kids, bad dads, and bad philosopher dads.

“The Least-Loved Child Works the Hardest” seems to start literally in the middle of the first note. It’s a fast, thumping rock construction over which Rasmussen sings his rambling prose poems. The mix is interesting in that the backing “band” track moves to the back behind the vocals, leaving them plenty of room but not exactly meshing with them. On the plus side, you can clearly hear the lyrics, which was not always the case with the last album of his I reviewed. The repeating guitar riff reminds me of the main hook in the classic single “Friday On My Mind.”

“Scooter Impossible” (these are all great titles) blasts in maybe three times faster than the previous track. Again it’s mostly a couple of loud and very insistent guitar riffs and hyperactive drums framing Rasmussen’s spoken-sung lyrics. There’s a sudden Devo-like guitar moment in the middle which sadly drops out almost immediately. Playing “Fred Jr.” this morning, I was reminded of the early Who both from the aggressively punky guitar and the Townshend-like vocal. “Once Evil, Now Retired” features some of my favorite guitar riffs thus far, a bit further to the outside than even punk.

“Love Subscriber” expands the vocabulary of this album a bit with the addition of keyboards and some especially angular guitar work. I’m getting a whiff of alternative heroes Beat Happening and Daniel Johnston. “The Philosopher and His Grandson” is based on one of the most complex guitar melodies thus far, and it’s amazing to me how Rasmussen plays these riffs without missing a note or a beat. The arrangement seems to be slowly rising throughout, even when it seems it can’t go any higher.

“Spoof Addict” is a rollicking track where Rasmussen’s voice recalls Mike Stipe with a structure like early Husker Du crossed with Captain Beefheart. “Adam and Eve Achieve Peak Solipsism” reminds me that Rasmussen’s gritty melodicism often recalls Sebadoh and Lou Barlow. Meanwhile, “The Insurance Claim Sealed with a Kiss” has the insistence of a classic Strokes track. The album concludes with a kind of curtain call for “Fred Jr.” called “Fred Jr. Jr.” which is possibly an outtake featuring the backing track only. You can really hear a connection to early R.E.M. in the naked, jangly guitars.

​Though I love what Salon de la Guerre is putting out, I do wish Rasmussen might try mixing his backing tracks more intimately with his vocals. With that caveat, I highly recommend this album to lovers of jagged alternative, punk, and all points in between!

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