Love Battery's 'Straight Freak Ticket' Turns 30

Love Battery is an American rock band formed in 1989 in Seattle, Washington. Emerging during the grunge era, they blended psychedelic rock with alternative sounds. The band was founded by Ron Nine (vocals), Kevin Whitworth (guitar), Tommy Simpson (bass), and Dan Peters (drums), though lineup changes followed. Their debut album, Between the Eyes, was released in 1991, followed by Dayglo, which gained critical acclaim. Despite commercial challenges, they continued producing music with albums like Far Gone and Straight Freak Ticket. Love Battery remains a cult favorite, known for their experimental approach and contributions to Seattle’s vibrant rock scene.

With all the guitar effects and layers, “Fuzz Factory” lives up to its name, battling for the listeners’ attentions like a single should.  Chording, frantic strums, and a wah-wah like effect throttle the speakers yet don’t interfere with its strong vocal melody.  Keeping vague about a relationship, both parties feel the other challenge each other with their thoughts of revolution enough to feel like sparks are shooting out of them.  Ron Nine brings his slacker voice and Whitworth his melancholic softer guitar in for dramatic scenes in the verses to bring visuals to the pain he’s soaking in after a sour relationship.  For the chorus, he’s more literal when taking down the tyrant, “If it wasn’t me, it’d be somebody else,” he sings as the victim of a woman ready to take down anyone who wants a piece of her.  Whitworth’s solo is tinged with piercing regret but never gets aggressive and enraged, and his buzzing ringing guitar work thickens the stew. 

Harmonica plays a primary role in the lead single “Harold’s Pink Room”, leading off the tune and screeching lightly under the upbeat rhythm and cool dude Nine vocal.  “Light as a feather, held together by glue and string/held together with anything on your mind,” sings the subservient vocalist, ready to do anything a love tells him to do.  The music video features the band in a tiny pink room, just tall enough to stand up in as they rock out together.

Nine takes a shoegaze indie approach to his vocal as he tries to figure out his date over several tempo changes on “Brazil”.  He respects her and enjoys her company as they share strawberry Twizzlers, lie on the beach watching out for sunburn, and comparing her to a carnival as in she knows lots about various walks of life.  Yet, as the second chorus says, “She’s right, I’m left, she’s right,” in the morning she’s gone, leaving him a letter.  He’s left alone, “in the morning, goldfish dead in a bowl.”  It’s a catchy tune and continues a streak of strong melodies. 

“Nehru Jacket” starts slow and reflective as he sings a vague narrative of his ill feelings about hanging out with someone he dislikes.  “Me and Albert’s brother take a subway to Times Square, he’s a killer in confidence, racked with his Nehru jacket.”  That’s a jacket with a Nehru collar, a short circular collar with no flaps.  It’s the mid-tempo title track of their E.P.  

“Perfect Light” is a tough fast rocker that creates a visual scene of someone flipping television channels and giving the listeners bits and pieces of what his brain is identifying on screen.  Race cars, flowers, blank tapes, it’s all part of a confusing tune that attacks with Simpson and Peters’ beefed up rhythm and Kevin’s furious guitar.  The poppy “Red Onion” lets us in on a mystery that lives in the world’s seam, but Love Battery never let us know what that is unless they’re implying discovering the appreciation for a world that has mysteries is, as the infectious chorus rings out, “is your favorite thing.” 

Another really catchy chorus stands out in the midtempo “Sunny Jim”, as Love Battery take on the world again.  “Into the world, what will we be, into your time?” he address Sunny Jim, who Nine describes as the one ‘with the sin to set you free’.   What he represents is unclear. “Now it seems so sad, look at all we had,” Nine whines feeling the cuts of another worn out relationship.  But others have disappointed this protagonist as well and he curses the world in response.  “These are the days of finding home on the sidewalk, lost in the daze of the straight freak show,” he sings, feeling the world is a cacophonous mess.   Memorable lines include “paper covers rock” and “out of tune and out of print” could suggest critical media.   

“Nothing makes sense to me,” Ron sings like a teenage youth totally baffled by the world and how people’s logic works.  More close harmonies line the song and often, Nine’s vocals are double-tracked.  It’s another mid-tempo guitar-bass-drums song, the way most tunes are presented on the album.  The slightly country-tinged alt. rock of “Waylaid” continues Nine’s frustrations with the world, “But the world wasn’t kinder then, now the world isn’t anything” as he rekindles his relationship with a woman.  She wants the luxury life and he’s doing his best by getting a ‘walk on part’ as an actor, viewing the relationship as a second chance at pleasure.  On the surface, it’s more optimistic than much of the record. 

“Cavalry’s the man with the bullet through the heart, and the walk on part take a heavy load off me,” Ron sings, feeling fortunate about his acting career while quoting “The Wound Dresser”, a Walt Whitman piece. “The neck of the cavalry-man with the bullet through and through examine.  Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye, yet life struggles hard,” Whitman wrote, as he’s telling the tale of an injured soldier waiting for treatment after a war injury.

Love Battery may have not had much chart success with 'Straight Freak Ticket' but they continued solidifying the style of rock that would see continued success. Combining grunge with more nuanced pop/rock tools, the band was a major part of post-grunge's growth.