The Complete Guide to Insufficiency is the debut album by David Thomas Broughton, released in 2005. The entire album was recorded in a single continuous take at a church in Leeds - the church bells can be heard during the record. It was originally released by small indie label Birdwar in the UK before being licensed by Plug Research for US release. The title is a play on the name of John Seymour's book The Complete Guide to Self-Sufficiency.
"Daniel Dale Johnston (born January 22, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in Waller, Texas.
Johnston has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. One critic writes that Johnston's recordings range from "spotty to brilliant."
Hopkins had suffered from chronic depression since childhood and had been battling alcoholism for several years. However, in 1990, the Gin Blossoms were one of the hottest local bands in Tempe and the surrounding areas, and they signed a contract with A&M Records. He was also resistant to signing to a major label, feeling like its property, and reacted with stubbornness and more drinking. When the band recorded its debut album New Miserable Experience in February 1992, it was reported that Hopkins was unable to stand during his recording sessions. Faced with the prospect of firing Hopkins or being dropped by A&M, the band terminated Hopkins. Doused in aftershave and mouthwash to cover the effects of his days-long drinking binge, he was flown back to Arizona. He was replaced by Scott Johnson. As result, the band withheld $15,000 owed to Hopkins until he agreed to sign over half of his publishing royalties to his replacement, which he reluctantly agreed to do because of his dire financial situation. While New Miserable Experience did not make a strong debut, it went on to become a multi-platinum album.
As the Gin Blossoms experienced mounting success, performing songs he had written, Hopkins became increasingly despondent. Though he had always dreamed of having a gold record, when he received one for the song "Hey Jealousy", he hung it up for two weeks before taking it down and then destroying it. Nine days later, during an intake consultation in the detox unit of Phoenix's St. Luke's Hospital, Hopkins snuck out and bought a .38 caliber pistol. The next day December 4, 1993 Hopkins committed suicide. At his memorial service, Wilson recalls, a woman approached his former band members with a message from Hopkins upon his death: he was the one that had poured sugar in the gas tank of their tour van in 1992.
"Thank Christ for the Bomb was the first Groundhogs album to indicate that the group had a lifespan longer than the already-fading British blues boom suggested. It was also the first in the sequence of semi-conceptual masterpieces that the group cut following their decision to abandon the mellow blues of their earlier works and pursue the socially aware, prog-inflected bent that culminated with 1972's seminal Who Will Save the World? album. They were rewarded with their first ever Top Ten hit and purchasers were rewarded with an album that still packs a visceral punch in and around Tony McPhee's dark, doom-laden lyrics. With the exception of the truly magisterial title track, the nine tracks err on the side of brevity. Only one song, the semi-acoustic "Garden," strays over the five-minute mark, while four more barely touch three-and-one-half minutes. Yet the overall sense of the album is almost bulldozing, and it is surely no coincidence that, engineering alongside McPhee's self-production, Martin Birch came to the Groundhogs fresh from Deep Purple in Rock and wore that experience firmly on his sleeve. Volume and dynamics aside, there are few points of comparison between the two albums -- if the Groundhogs have any direct kin, it would have to be either the similarly three-piece Budgie or a better-organized Edgar Broughton Band. But, just as Deep Purple was advancing the cause of heavy rock by proving that you didn't need to be heavy all the time, so Thank Christ for the Bomb shifts between light and dark, introspection and outspokenness, loud and, well, louder. Even the acoustic guitars can make your ears bleed when they feel like it and, although the anti-war sentiments of "Thank Christ for the Bomb" seem an over-wordy echo of Purple's similarly themed "Child in Time," it is no less effective for it. Elements of Thank Christ for the Bomb do seem overdone today, not the least of which is the title track's opening recitation (a history of 20th century war, would you believe?). But it still has the ability to chill, thrill, and kill any doubts that such long-windiness might evoke, while the truths that were evident to McPhee in 1970 aren't too far from reality today."
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