If you already own the first three albums, I suppose you could live without this. But why should you? Don't you want your own versions of "Nuclear Boy," "Malicious Boogie" and paranoid classic "Psycche"? Wouldn't you like to hear a studio version of "Wardance" without that monster-robot effect on the vocals? Or "The Fall Of Because" with an awesome delay/echo on the chorus vocal? Or an early version of "Complications" before Geordie ... read more

This is the ultimate Killdozer experience. Low, slow, heavy, crystal clear but distorteder than a waste dump, and POWERFUL. Crank it up loud enough and it might just constitute a religious experience - much like taking a poop in a church bathroom. In fact, the first Killdozer track I ever heard is on here; it's called "Man Vs. Nature" and it still floors me every time.
By the way, art lovers, the prestigious buck portrait on the cover is indicative of what you'll find inside. Unlike ... read more

Holy mother of you does this one deliver the goods. Instead of an all-out guitar noise assault, it simmers and sways and swings with some thumpin' fine bass lines before the fresh clean attack of the excruciatingly tight and jagged guitar notes come in and tear up the busybody. The songs are great, but the real star here has got to be Mr. Steven Albini. He has produced this record so that it sounds like the band is actually in the middle of your living room. No sound is hidden and not a note is ... read more

I need to address something off-topic, because it's kind of eating at me a little bit. A woman on the Neal Morse message board named "ProgMama" writes, "IMHO, this guys biggest problem is that he seems to think he's some gonzo genius. I think he's closer to crackpot than maverick. When the writing style obscures the message, it's time to edit." And she's talking about ME! Granted, most of the people on the Neal Morse message board hate my guts because I called them a bunch ... read more

Six years ago, former Cows vocalist Shannon Selberg founded NYC noise-rock-weird band Heroine Sheiks along with creepy-looking ex-Swans guitarist Norm Westberg, a grease monkey drummer, a Metallica guy bassist, and a Bob Seger-esque denim-clad man who danced back and forth while making weird noises on a keyboard. This line-up (more or less) put out two incredibly great, quirky albums (RAPE On The Installment Plan and Siamese Pipe) and then somehow completely fell apart. Every single original ... read more

One of the greatest rock records ever made. Jimi was rockin' like a wild freak on this one, right there during the peak of the hippy sissy dippyass Sgt. Pepper's "let's replace the guitars with a string section" era. Yes!!! And he was a black guy!!! And he rocked the daylights out of all the white guys!!!! I mean, sure, he had a white rhythm section, but Jimi - well, he was a darn Chinese guy!!! That's right - black!!! Now then, the race issue addressed, let's move on to the ... read more

Grungy, filthy, angry, muddy, tight, sludgy and heavy as a blimp filled with cement! Helmet's debut LP was an astonishing addition to AmRep's stable of "noise" bands (also featuring Cows, Tar, Helios Creed, Thrown Ups and many many more), filled to the blimp (filled with cement) with aggressive detuned low-end chord/space/chord/space riffs, gruff shouted "guy who smokes for a living" vocals and a flavorful topping of slippery, queasy nearly out-of-tune Branca-esque guitar ... read more

I'm drunk.

All piano and high singing voice. 34 minutes, 11 songs. Dark, eerie, sad songs! Very evocative! Good songs! Sometimes drums, occasionally acoustic guitar. Stark! Creepy! Melancholy! Spooky echo on her voice a lot. Really good simple melodies that sound greate!

The word "Pisspump" 75 times in a row.

I hated that last album daerly; that's why I'm so surprised that I love this album so much. Remember Tori Amos back before dung poured out of her mouth at record-breaking ... read more

Clowns are a many-splendored thing. Indeed, when one thinks of a clown, one thinks of laughter, balloons and make-up. That's all I have to say on the clown issue.

This album, on the other hand, is a great album. Not as perfect as my "10 out of 10" grade might lead you to think, but I've always been quite the fan of the 'mark-up' and if any album deserves a 'mark-up,' it's this one. Sure, a few songs seem like wasted opportunities (particularly "Old Relatives" and "Get ... read more

There are two types of Neil Hamburger performances: (a) the kind where he headlines a small club, the crowd is full of adoring fans, and he lobs fake jibes at fake hecklers for fake laughs, and (b) the kind where he opens for a popular alternative recording act, the crowd is full of people who don't understand or enjoy his act, and he fires real anger at real assholes for real memories. Recorded on a brutal tour opening for America's "Tenacious D," Hot February Night represents the ... read more

Webster's Dictionary defines 'genius' as 'a person of extraordinary intellect and talent.' And I know you're saying to yourself, "Hay what does a little black kid know about words," but stop being a racist and listen for a second. I personally have always tried to restrict the designation of 'genius' to those whose innovative discoveries and inventions have changed the world (ex. penicillin, electric power, Zany Zappers, the Internet), but it turns out I've been WRONG! Apparently it's ... read more

A man is more than the sum of his parts. His parts are important though, and should always be examined like a fish under a microscope. A big fish-appropriate microscope. Why am I the way I am? What was it about my youth that caused my OCD? Well, nothing apparently because my fucking dad has it too, and his fucking father had it too. I certainly appreciate that he didn't pass me a baldness gene, but I could do without worrying all the time and wearing my shirts in a certain order. Having said ... read more

Awfully slow and mellow, like Unrest gone even more dentist office than they were by the time they broke up anyway. But lovely. Jackie Gleason would have been fond of these tunes if he had not so sadly passed away a few years back. Perhaps Frank Sinatra even might have dug these crazy tunes had he not said his final goodbyes to our Earth on that fateful day in '9(fill in later). So it's all just lovely electric guitars. No strings or brass or nothin'; just hauntingly gorgeous guy and gal vox ... read more

This may be my favorite rap/hip-hop album of all time. As I mentioned above, it's like "horror rap" or "splatter rap" or something - the vocalists go beyond mere "gangsta rap" as they get right up against the mic and scream at you about such important urban topics as murdering people, cremating the bodies and evaporating the ashes. You can hear their social consciences ringing the alarm as they list about twenty different ways you can commit suicide ("confront ... read more

You know how those Incredibly Strange Records books rave about boring horseshit like Rusty "Baste Your Boobies" Warren and A Crazy Mallet Album just because they have funny covers and "they sure don't make 'em like that any more!"? Well, in forty years, when we're all a little bit older and taller, I hope some young hipster of the new age runs across this CD in an antique shop, has his curiosity aroused by the advertising blurb on the back ("YOUR TICKET TO DEATH THROUGH ... read more

The Wooly Bullies are back with a big frashy all-enveloping wash of distorted trebly reverbed guitars! Although the mix isn't quite as squashed as the previous two albums, War On Everybody features the same bizarre production sound, with that indefinable electric/metallic sheen, raw playing, religious/violent samples, and vocals so heavily effected it's nearly impossible to make out more than one line at a time. More importantly, there's not a single bad song on the album! It's that same solid ... read more

Named for famed women's soccer star Mia Hamm, this 73-minute CD compilation features GI (Gastro-Intestinal) in its entirety, plus another FOURTEEN awesome songs. If you only have GI, you don't have the whole story. You NEED the first single "Forming," you NEED the collection of slower but excellent hard runk pock tunes they recorded after their album became a hit, you NEED to leave me alone so I can get this damned sake out of my system.

One of my favorite albums of all time. It's just like the stuff on the last album, just without ANY downtime. Every song on here is high speed and high catchy. Once I put it on, I can't take it off until about halfway through the final song ("Bellend Bop" is catchy as hell, but it's also way too damn long at like five minutes). It's everything the Ramones excelled at, just sped up faster and without Joey Ramone's vocal lessons. Some of the songs even feature weirdass drum/guitar ... read more

Some critics label this a simple "repeat," as it were, of the musical ideas expressed on the first two EPs, but I have to wholeheartedly disagree. It may be stylistically similar, but almost all of these tunes take the signature sound to a more creative level; in other words, there are no "Waiting Room" rip-offs on here. Instead, they fiddle with novel guitar sounds (the eerie cyclical feedback whine of the title track, the string scraping melody of "Styrofoam," ... read more

Apparently there are certain people in our world that don't like novelty music. In the 1950s I would have labeled these people 'communists,' but today I'd go with 'registered sex offenders.' For some reason, these registered sex offenders think that all music should be 'serious,' and that 'joke songs' are worthless once the joke has been heard one time. My response to this line of thinking is as follows: combining the two separate forms of entertainment known as "music" and ... read more