Fish Karma

Fish Karma (real name Terry Owen, born 1959) is an American Punk Rock/Comedy Rock/Folk Rock musician from Tucson, Arizona, United States.Fish Karma’s musical career began in the early 1980s, when he chanced upon a Beatles “E-Z” chord book while lounging around a friend’s house in Tucson. Inspired by his ability to form a C chord after only ten minutes of practice, Fish, smitten by the muse of music (despite an astonishing lack of musical aptitude, such as the capacity to sing in tune or play a simple four-four beat), began saving money from his job waiting tables at a Chinese restaurant. Eventually, he was able to purchase a blue acoustic guitar from Dave’s Musician’s Shop for $35.00. After weeks of diligent practice, Fish- to the amazement of his friends- was almost able to play entire sections of “Love Me Do” without stopping or consulting the finger diagrams. Eventually, he was able to memorize nearly seven chords, including the extremely poignant A minor, which is quite handy for sad songs. Fish began to incorporate music into his nascent comedy act, which he performed weekly-while dressed in elf shoes and a burlap dress covered with twine and bottle caps-at an unlikely mall bar called The Tequila Mockingbird. One song in particular, a regional blues parody, serendipitously caught the attention of legendary Tucson musician Al Perry (Psyclones/Hecklers/Cattle/Fraidy Cats), then working as a Mockingbird bartender. Despite Perry’s severe aesthetic revulsion, an unlikely alliance soon formed between these two former Phoenicians. Fish’s first release on Al’s Addled Records label, To Hell with Love, I’m Going Bowling, recorded on a four-track machine in the midst of an unspeakably hot summer, was often played in University-area Tucson bars at closing time to drive out recalcitrant alcoholics. The cassette included the crowd favorite “What Are The Little White Things You Find in Cans of Pork and Beans?”, as well as three versions of “Kill the Commie Bastards,” a love song about a cow, and Fish’s only hit song to date, “Swap Meet Women,” which received airplay on local radio. (OK, it was really only one station. And played late at night. On a show that featured local music.) A few years later, Fish was living in California, for some reason (the story gets rather murky here; Fish claims to remember little of his debauched two-year sojourn in Los Angeles, apart from beer, Sherman Helmsley, and the vile kim chee at Okie Dogs), and at some point, it was decided that another tape would be recorded. The subsequent Addled release, Disco Entropy, essentially a live recording with no rehearsals, was a drunken onslaught of focused loathing and bitterness. It also included the first incarnations of “Rocking and Rolling with Little Baby Jesus,” “God is a Groovy Guy,” and “Die Like a Dog.” (And yes, another version of “White Things.”) In 1991, Fish recorded his first actual CD, originally slated for release on Alternative Tentacles but eventually put out by Triple XXX Records. Produced by Mojo Nixon, the CD, entitled Teddy in the Sky with Magnets (the title a tribute to Tucson icon Ted DeGrazia), contained even newer versions of wizened chestnuts like “Swap Meet Women,” as well as sensitive love songs like “Love Barn” and “She is the Mammal.” 1992 saw the release of Sunnyslope, another Mojo Nixon production, which featured a mini-suite of songs about the horrors of growing up in Arizona, as well as a lament for Dick York and a cover of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” And another version of “White Things.” In 1998, Fish, in collaboration with fellow elementary school teacher Andy Young, recorded The Dangerous Playground, a CD of original children’s songs that was released on Rich Hopkins’ San Jacinto label. 2001 saw the release of Lunch with the Devil on Deep Shag Records, a collection of (mostly) unreleased four-track and live-in-the-studio recordings, which was overseen and produced by Al Perry. Although the collection did include the original “White Things,” it did not, perversely, include the song “Lunch with the Devil.” In late 2004, Fish, relocated to San Antonio after having left the field of teaching, borrowed a friend’s guitar and sang a spate of newly-written songs into a cassette recorder, which he then mailed to Jello Biafra. Receiving approval, Fish flew to Tucson in the summer of 2005 and recorded the songs with Gordon Groves, his erstwhile songwriting partner in the short-lived Tucson heavy metal/rockabilly band, The Tribulators. Entitled The Theory of Intelligent Design, Fish’s debut CD on Alternative Tentacles (with a guest appearance by Al on three songs) features absolutely no versions of either “White Things” or “Swap Meet Women, although there IS a song entitled “The Swap Meet Women Merchandising Opportunity.”

To Hell With Love, I'm Going Bowling (1984)

01 - Swap Meet Women

02 - Cow Of My Dreams

03 - W.A.T.L.W.T.Y.F.I.C.O.P.A.B.?

04 - Pieces Of My Poodle

05 - An Artist's Lament

06 - God Is A Groovy Guy

07 - Kill The Commie Bastards, 1

08 - Kill The Commie Bastards (Teen Anthem)

09 - Woke Up Dis Mornin'

10 - Chicken Lips

11 - Burnt Sienna

12 - Backwards Masking

13 - Kill The Commie Bastards (High Tech)

14 - Welcome To The Future

15 - Swap Meet Women (Reprise)

16 - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

Disco Entropy (1987)

01 - Die Like A Dog

02 - Sensitive Song

03 - Look At The Fat Boy Run

04 - Eighties Kind Of Guy

05 - Three Years Of My Life

06 - Cicada

07 - Orange County Sweetheart

08 - It's Your Grave (Can You Dig It?)

09 - Instant Party

10 - Fun In The Sun

11 - Mogollon Love

12 - CSBD?

13 - Jumpy, The Rhythm Chimp

14 - I Like The Christian Life

Teddy In The Sky With Magnets (1991)

01 - Swap Meet Woman

02 - An Artist's Lament

03 - God Is A Groovy Guy

04 - She Is The Mammal

05 - The Campfire Song

06 - Love Barn

07 - I Had A Dream

08 - Baby, Let's Be Methodist Tonight

09 - New Age

10 - God Save The N.R.A.

11 - Analogies

12 - Die Like A Dog

Sunnyslope (1992)

01 - Rockin' And Rollin' With Little Baby Jesus

02 - Girl, You Gotta Love Your Man

03 - (She Likes To Make Love To) Led Zeppelin/Telephone Performance Piece

04 - The Waste Land

05 - Sunnyslope

06 - Lunch With The Devil

07 - My Parents Are Having A Party

08 - Big Daddy

09 - Dick York

10 - Cow Of My Dreams

11 - White Things

12 - Truth Or Consequences

13 - The Customer Is Always Right

14 - Gas, Grass Or A**

Lunch With The Devil (2001)

01 - Poodlecide

02 - Down To The Valley

03 - Thighs Of Tammy Faye

04 - Should I Shop Or Should I Die?

05 - God Is A Groovy Guy

06 - Mogollon Love

07 - Grenada

08 - Dio Rocks!

09 - Die Like A Dog

10 - Mr. Johnson

11 - Cow Of My Dreams

12 - An Artist's Lament

13 - Chicken Lips

14 - Woke Up Dis Mornin'

15 - Have A Nice Day

16 - White Things

17 - Almost Turn My Turkey (Bonus)

The Theory Of Intelligent Design (2006)

01 - Fifty Caliber Christ

02 - Pigs

03 - Raunched!

04 - Blessed Times

05 - Cuckhold's Horns

06 - Nausea #2

07 - Moving To New Jersey

08 - Tore Up From The Floor Up

09 - I Like The Christian Life

10 - Dio Rocks

11 - White And Delightsome

12 - The Swap Meet Women Merchandising Opportunity

13 - I Begged God To Kill Me

14 - Posterchild

15 - I Ain't Man Enough To Take Your Girl

Halloween In America (2010)

01 - Time To Say Goodbye

02 - Clowns Again

03 - Halloween In America

04 - Pink-Eyed Dog

05 - Rapture Girl

06 - When Grover Cleveland Walked The Land

07 - Right On!

08 - Bohemian Grove Rhapsody

09 - My Parents Are Having A Party

10 - Another Belabored Smile

11 - Ballad Of The Beneficial Nemetodes

12 - Love Song Of The Enhanced Interrogation Providers

13 - All Roads Lead To Tucson

Lethal Fairy Tales (2015)

01 - Lethal Fairy Tales

02 - American

03 - Ock U Pyd

04 - Swimming To The Homeland

05 - Heavy Metal Jowls

06 - Future Of Textiles

07 - Ferma Camp

08 - A Toast

09 - Play This Song

10 - Shabbos Goy

The Dangerous Playground (2016)

01 - Good Advice

02 - Bubblegum

03 - Stupid Clothes

04 - Underwear

05 - The Dangerous Playground

06 - I Like You

07 - Twinkle

08 - Halloween

09 - Peanut Butter Blues

10 - Time Out

11 - Greensleeves

12 - The Day The Good Kid Went Bad

13 - Give Me Books!

14 - A Counting Song

Fish Karma And The Tribulators (Demos) (2016)

01 - Raunched!

02 - Petrolia

03 - Dio Rocks!

04 - Train Kept A Rollin'

05 - God Of Thunder

06 - I Begged God To Kill Me

07 - Stupefied

08 - Tore Up From The Floor Up

09 - Cuckold's Horns

10 - Obligatory Hate Song

11 - My Parents Are Having A Party

Schwa (2017)

01 - Zer0-Sum Game

02 - Mrs. Fortescue

03 - Observations Of A Distracted Primate

04 - Off The Rails

05 - Lust

06 - The Northwest Passage

07 - Random Walk

08 - Party In My Basement

09 - To Cry You A Song

10 - The Letter K

11 - Hellhound On My Leg

12 - Sonoran Snowball

13 - The Waves

Time To Say Goodbye (2018)

01 - Antisocial Media

02 - The Length Of A Cigarette

03 - Time To Say Goodbye

04 - The Bowling Green Massacre

05 - Regress Toward The Mean

06 - Hotdish

07 - Das Was Ich Night Habe

08 - Sugar, Sugar

09 - Sunflower Romper

10 - How Will The World Get Along Without Me

11 - Walking Tour

12 - What's That Stupid Thing Doing In Here

13 - The Only One

14 - They Loved Each Other (But She Still Liked Him Anyway)

15 - Mandatory Hate Song

16 - Crepuscular The Clown

17 - The Jellyfish, Advancing

18 - Stupid Thing (Reprisal)

The Moving Finger (2020)

01 - Overture

02 - Eno Karaoke

03 - It Had 2BU

04 - Yakety Kaktus

05 - Umlauts And Omelettes

06 - Ave Maria

07 - Procession Of The Petnitents

08 - Plastic Rivers

09 - My Happy Life

10 - Dayeunu

11 - Interlewd

12 - Sick Of Your Utopia

13 - Wren

14 - And Now A Word Form Our Sponsor

15 - Apotheosis Of The Shareholders

16 - De-Volvi

17 - Judas Goat

18 - Tombstone Rag

19 - Babies In Cages

20 - Another Word From Our Sponsor

21 - Survival Mode

22 - Please Form An Orderly Line

pass: freepunk77