Puke Grub

The inimitable Bad Livers at Old Settlers (TX), 1994. L-R: Mark Rubin, Ralph White & Danny Barnes.
Photo: Heather Northam

This pic was taken not too long after the Livers recorded "Puke Grub" for Horses In The Mines, the proxy for “I Just Wanna See His Face” on my Alt.Exile. Danny Barnes plucks banjo as Mark Rubin blows tuba and both instruments are front and center. But, Barnes' CB radio vocal is panned hard left and it sounds like a second horn -- maybe a second tuba track? -- is panned center-right. Meanwhile, Ralph White saws on fiddle way in the back of the arrangement, and all these instruments taken together give the song an eerie sense of depth. Like "Face," “Puke Grub” doesn’t end so much as dissolve, fading out with a couple of quirky audio clips.