Swans Public Castration Is a Good Idea - 1986

I've heard Swans described as sounding like a Brontosaurus fucking a cement truck. I, personally, have described them as sounding like a bunch of cave men threatening to rape someone. No matter what kind of metaphors you want to apply to the band, everyone can agree that it is heavy, crushing, violent, and angry.

Swans frequently get lumped in with no wave bands but really don't belong there. Swans makes Mars sound like 30 Seconds To Mars. Okay, maybe Filth sounds a little no wave but by the next album, Cop, Swans had spiraled so far down that it can no longer be labeled as no wave. Maybe I would call it simply "no" music.

By 1986 Jarbo was in the band but her influence wasn't really there, yet. I love her creepy background vocals, but there is no denying that the band mellows out once she joins (compare Cop to Holy Money or Children Of God). I'm not commenting on whether or not she is responsible for the change of Swans' sound, rather stating that the change happened shortly after she joined the band. That's what makes this live album such an anomaly. With Holy Money Swans were loosening up a bit, but none of that is present on this record. Children Of God must have been quite a shock after witnessing this album live. Instruments??!! Melodies?!?! A woman singing?!?! I wonder if Gira and Co. figured they couldn't go any further with this sound after this album.

I really love how this is a metal album without sounding at all like heavy metal music. I have no idea why metal didn't progress more toward this. Why metal is huge and glossy is a mystery to me. No other band can move this much air with such few instruments.

I generally think live albums are sub-par. They usually sound horrible and just end up being the artists greatest hits played faster. I do, however, think there are a few stand outs. I'd say this album, (the) Melvins' Colussus Of Destiny, Throbbing Gristle's Heathen Earth, The Blue Meanies' A Sonic Documentation Of Exhibition And Banter, Mayhem's Live In Leipzig and Sam Cooke's Live At The Harlem Square Club are pretty much the only live albums I think are better or equal to the artist's studio work.

Download and play this as loudly as you can stand it.....

Note: There is a silent gap at the end of Fool. This is on both copies of the CD that I have heard. Also, this CD sounds like it's just recorded from a vinyl copy. Again, both copies of this CD that I have heard sound this way. This is the version on Thirsty Ear that came out in 1999.

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Track listing:

from CD:
1. Money Is Flesh
2. Fool
3. A Screw
4. Anything For You
5. Coward
6. A Hanging
7. Stupid Child
8. Another You

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No TrendTeen Love [EP] - 1983

"I WAS BORN READY, MUTHAFUCKA!!!!!"

Here is more from DC's No Trend. Did you like the last one I posted? If so, you'll like this. If not you'll think it's really annoying punk rock music. Even for punk rock music.

Man these guys really hate everything, huh? Good. That's where punk rock music should come from, right? It's very easy to see why these guys were ostracized from every scene. Just read this account from the NY Press website.

"We’d play ‘Mindless Little Insects’ and I’d walk around with a mirror and put it in people’s faces. We came out with a big drop cloth that had wet paint running down it at Danceteria. For some reason, I had my body wrapped in aluminum foil and covered with shaving cream. We had the strobe light going and I was just this giant, reflective white blob running around behind this clouded plastic with dripping paint. Of course, as I crashed into that, the whole thing came down on all these people in their best little new-wave outfits."

NOW THAT'S PUNK! All those Dischord Records band got nuthin' on No Trend.

Thanks to Brainpang for hookin' me up with this one.....

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Track listing:

Side A:
1. Mass Sterilization Caused By Venereal Disease
2. Cancer
3. Die

Side B:
1. Teen Love
2. (untitled)

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Download Teen Love from DivShare (64.82 MB)

No TrendToo Many Humans... - 1984

So I really don't know much about these guys. My good friend, Brainpang, gave me this and another No Trend album to digitize for him. Pretty much anything he's ever handed to me has been awesome so, of course, this is too.

This is what Flipper would sound like if they were involved in the DC punk scene. Awesome, right? The only difference is that Flipper comes off as trying to be annoying while No Trend is just tough. Flipper was having a good time; these guys are pissed off. But i guess there was a lot to be angry about in DC in the early 80s.

If you want more info check out this page over at NY Press. There is quite a bit more over there than I could ever say about this band.

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Track listing:

Side A:
1. Family Style
2. Blow Dry
3. Kiss Ass To Your Peer Group
4. Fashion Tips For The 80's
5. Do As You're Told

Side B:
1. Too Many Humans
2. For The Fun Of It All
3. Mindless Little insects
4. Happiness Is...

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NegativaNegativa [EP] - 2006

So it looks like this is out of print now.

I'm not sure at all why this isn't a Gorguts album but it isn't. It's Luc and Steeve's new band but it really just sounds like a continuation of where they left off. There is some ambient stretches and some parts that are almost rock n roll, but really nothing that would have been out of place on a new Gorguts record. Even more confusing is the fact that they are now touring as Gorguts. I just don't get it. There wasn't really any danger of alienating their audience, they already did that in 2001 with their amazing Obscura album).

No matter what, it's a pretty cool little EP. If you liked the last two Gorguts albums you like this enough. Honestly, Obscura and From Wisdom To Hate are better, but this is still worth purchasing if you can find it.

Download and Enjoy!

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Track listing:

from CD:
1. Chaos In Motion
2. Taedium Vitae
3. Rebellion

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Download Negativa from DivShare (45.70 MB)

Bill CosbyDisco Bill - 1977

There is a reason this was The Coz's last "singing" album (until the '90s, anyway). I'm pretty sure this one is supposed to be funny, but I could be wrong.

Aside from long-time-Cosby-collaborator Stu Gardner and Wah Wah Watson, there really aren't any names of note on this. Even the writing credits are all Cosby-Gardner, except "One, Two, Three", which might be a Holland-Dozier-Holland song or might be a Len Barry song. None of that matters because Bill really does a very loose cover and ends up making the song all his own.

Yeah, this is a novelty record, but I really find myself listening to it quite often. It makes me laugh and makes me wanna groove. Tell me "Section #9" isn't a little bit funky. "Boogie On Your Face", "What Ya Think 'Bout Lickin' My Chicken" and the Barry White style talk down of "A Simple Love Affair" all make me laugh out loud.

If anyone out there is getting rid of (or selling) a copy of Badfoot Brown & the Bunions Bradford Funeral Marching Band LP please let me know. I should like to purchase it, maybe?

Let's Boogie.

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Track listing:

Side A:
1. A Simple Love Affair
2. What Ya Think 'Bout Lickin' My Chicken
3. Rudy
4. Boogie on Your Face
5. Happy Birthday Momma

Side B:
1. That's How I Met Your Mother
2. One, Two, Three
3. Section #9
4. A Nasty Birthday
5. What's in a Slang

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Bill CosbyHooray For The Salvation Army Band! - 1968

I really don't know what to say about this record. It's so strange, but not. Bill recruited a super funky band, The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, to play songs by some amazing writers (Lennon/McCartney, Dozier/Holland, Jagger/Richards, Hayes/Porter, Toussaint and and maybe some Hendrix) and does some silly kind of ad-libs over 'em. What's not to like? The whole thing.

I'm torn about if this is a joke or not. It might be Bill doing what Eddie Murphy said to Rick James; something to the effect of, "You can just do whatever you want over a funky beat and the kids will buy it". Just listen to his version of the classic "Funky Broadway", which he changes to "Funk North Philladelphia". It also might be the 'Coz really trying to be Funky. I keep going back and forth.

However this is meant to be taken, it is essential listening for anyone interested in anything funky, strange or celebrity.

Thanks to Frank for hooking me up with this one.

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Track listing:

Side A:
1. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. Sunny
3. Reach Out (I'll Be There)
4. (I'm A) Road Runner
5. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
6. Get Out of My Life, Woman

Side B:
1. Hooray for the Salvation Army Band
2. Funky North Philadelphia
3. Hold On, I'm a Comin'
4. Ursalena
5. Time Brings About a Change
6. Stop, Look & Listen

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BlowflyBlowfly's Disco Party - 1978

Oh, Blowfly....

This is another one of those really filthy records that I won't recommend to everyone. If you already know about Blowfly you won't be disappointed when you download this. If you don't know anything about him, it's probably for a reason. Like Hunter S. Thompson said about acid, Blowfly finds you when he thinks you're ready.

If you like nasty funk and disco songs about all sorts of depraved sex acts, then you are ready.

Blowfly's real name is Clarence Reid but was given his well known moniker by his grandmother who over heard him singing a parody song at a young age. She exclaimed 'You nastier than a blowfly!' and the tag stuck.

There isn't too much to say about Blowfly that hasn't already been said. He started out writing songs for various artists, including Sam and Dave, but really hit his stride in 1971 when he and some studio musicians recorded an album of sex-themed parody songs. Since no record label would go anywhere near it, he started his own label. Since then he has had a song on the Billboard 200 chart, has been sampled by countless artists and has influenced an entire generation of young rappers.

At the age of 65 he is currently signed to Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label and continues to put out records and play live shows all over the country.

Enjoy!

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Track listing:

Side A:
1. Panty Lines
2. Prick Ryder
3. Nobody's Butt But Yours, Baby
4. It's Not Easy Trying To Dance

Side B:
1. What Am I Supposed To Do
2. Show Me A Man Who Don't
3. Who Did I Eat Last Night?
4. Can I Come In your Mouth

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Vitus Von Degen Via Dante Alighieri - 2009

Posting an album like this is somewhat of an unprecedented move round these parts. This was never released on vinyl and is probably only a couple of months old.

Let me explain. I have been cutting back on my spending in order to pay off some debts (how mature of me). I figured with all the music blogs I subscribe to and with the addition of The Free Music Archive, I didn't really need to be buying records at the rate I was. I'm sure a lot of you know about the Free Music Archive and their blog. I'm not posting about the Archive so if you don't know anything about it read up on your own.

No; The purpose of this post, other than prevent me from putting on Otis Redding records and crying into a glass of gin, is to let you know about Vitus Von Degen's Via Dante Alighieri album. There. Now you know about him. Or her. Or them. I don't know. Really. I've just told you all I know about this record. As I mentioned above I've been getting my music off the internet lately and part of that involves browsing the FMA. Thankfully I stumbled across this gem a few days ago. The FMA's site describes it as "the soundtrack of an imaginery[sp] Italian Giallo from the early 80s. A tribute to Goblin and John Carpenter music." but honestly, I hear way more than that in it. There are traces of Vangelis, Burzum, Stockhausen, Angelo Badalamenti and even Afrika Bambaataa in here. It sounds like this record has been soaking in a vat of everything related to horror, Italy, electronica, drugs and fast cars for about 25 years.

Anyone interested in Old-school Synths should hear this record. This isn't your Giorgio Moroder main-stream synth sound (although i do love that). It's the Wendy/Walter Carlos, Bob Moog; hell, even Joe Meek evolution of sound. Whoever made this is in love with sound. Sweat dripping over little tiny knobs and pulsing fader lights on an old prophet keyboard. It sounds like what The Phantom Of The Paradise should have been.

A lot of this John Carpenter knock-off stuff lacks soul. I really think that's what set's this record apart. I can feel a person crafting these inhuman sounds; much like the feeling I get listening to Kraftwerk. Digital, but still alive.

Stop reading and click the fucking link. or go to Ego Twister Records site and try to find a link to buy this from them. While you are at it I suggest listening to the new Secret Chiefs 3 album Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini.

I promise I'll fix the drunk typos in the morning. Or not...

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Track listing:

from CD:
1. The Diesel People
2. Pulse
3. The Firenze Incident
4. Black Gloves
5. Liquid Drugs
6. Oath OF Blood
7. Countach
8. The Two-Headed Saint
9. Hidden Behind The Giorgione Painting
10. Pieta

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Download Via Dante Alighieri from Free Mucus Archive (872.5 MB)

Via Dante Alighieri by Vitus Von Degen is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

Vitus Von Degen / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Patton Oswalt/The Melvins Chunklet Split 7" - 2006

Today I'm offering up a quick little split 7" from Patton Oswalt and The Melvins.

Side A is Patton Oswalt's 'The Two Dumbest Cunts In The World' which pretty much consists of him berating a chick who is talking on her cell phone during one of his shows. A lot of it is him trying to figure out why she would pay to come to a comedy show then proceed to talk to someone else through out it. "Fuck you, liver!" Priceless!

The other side has two locked grooves of The Melvins' aural assault in the form of a Sonics cover, 'Boss Hoss'. It's a good little punk rock number that is given the Melvins usual shit-soaked noise treatment. Drop the needle and randomly get one groove or the other. One of the grooves is the songs in it's regular version, 'Boss Hoss'; The other is the song backwards, 'Ssoh ssob'.

Download and Enjoy!

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Track listing:

Side A (Patton Oswalt):
1. The Two Dumbest Cunts In The World

Side B (Melvins):
1. Boss Hoss
2. Ssoh ssob

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Download Patton Oswalt/Melvins Split 7" from DivShare (18.7 MB)

Z-Rock Hawaii Z-Rock Hawaii - 1996

What happens when two kids from Pennsylvania, who are obsessed with dick jokes, drugs, studio manipulation and Prince team up with a seminal Japanese noise/punk/no-wave act? Z-Rock Hawaii is what happens. There are no other words to explain it.

Ween, the boys from PA in this equation, had gained a following by creating slightly bent pop songs; taking what could easily be a straight forward song and filtering it through a haze of drugs and 4-track studio tricks, like on their breakthrough album Chocolate and Cheese. The Boredoms (the Japs here), on the other hand had been known for creating literally destructive freaked-out no-wave nihilistic, minimalist music; like on their breakthrough album Chocolate Synthesizer. Where the two groups met is a mystery to me.

Where they meet up on this album, though, is actually not too far from what someone familiar with both their careers might expect. It really does sound like Ween and The Boredoms together. 'I Get A Little Taste Of You' could have shown up on either of Ween's 12 Golden Country Greats or White Pepper albums, if it didn't contain a vocal freak-out by Boredoms front-man Yamantaka Eye.

Maybe it's because I'm more familiar with Ween's discography than The Boredoms' discography, but I feel that Ween is the dominant force on this record. Don't get me wrong, though. The Boredoms are in full force here. Songs such as 'Love Like Cement' and 'Tuchus' (other than Gener's distinctly Ween-sounding spoken vocals) are definitively Boredoms, but it seems that the bulk of the songs remind me more of something Ween would do The Boredoms.

Ween creates music that is usually little homages to other songs, artists or genres. Sometimes they are obscure and sometimes they are overt. This record is no exception. Listening to this album invokes other piece of pop culture. 'Bad To The Bone' is a pretty much straight forward cover of the George Thorogood And The Destroyers song with Eye's trademark screaming and Deaner's tough-guy bar-band vocals. 'In The Garden' sounds like a Middle-Eastern lounge-jazz version of an Andrew 'Dice' Clay routine, while 'Love Like Cement' invokes thoughts of some kind of Butthole Surfers song. This record is all over the place.

Perhaps the most interesting song on this record full of them is 'God In My Bed'. It sounds like Ennio Morricone on LSD, which ends up sounding like it could be one of the Funkadelic spoken word pieces like 'Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow'; 'Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts'; or 'March To The Witch's Castle'. While I am on the subject of George Clinton, I should point out that 'Sunset Over Osaka' hovers through some beautiful airspace just above Funkadelic's 'Maggot Brain'; while 'I Get A Little Taste Of You' sounds something like 'Jimmy's Got A Little Bit of Bitch In Him'. God Damn I love me some Funkadelic!

Download and Enjoy!

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Track listing:

from CD:
1. Chuggin'
2. Bad To The Bone
3. In The Garden
4. Love Like Cement
5. Tuchus
6. Piledriver
7. I Get A Little Taste Of You
8. God In My Bed
9. The Meadow
10. Sunset Over Osaka
11. Hexagon [Bonus Track]

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Download Z-Rock Hawaii from DivShare (80.05 MB)

Gorguts Obscura-1998

First things first. This record was described to me as the Trout Mask Replica of Death Metal. If that doesn't grab you don't even bother with this record. It's hard. All around; the riffs and vocals are hard and the album as a whole is hard to listen to. Really, like 2 bottles of cough syrup hard. It took a while for me to really like this record. When I first heard it I had a feeling I would grow to love it, but I had no idea where, when or how.

So here the skinny. Gorguts put out their debut record, Considered Dead, on Roadrunner in 1991, right as labels are scooping up any death/black metal bands they can get their hands on thanks to the buzz generated by Norway's Black Circle bands and it's surrounding controversy. I've never heard this record and am not really planning on going out of my way to because I already know what 91/92 North American Death Metal sounds like (see Deicide's Deicide and Legion albums). The next outing from Gorguts, Erosion Of Sanity '93, seems offers a little more substance, but is still, if you ask me, tethered by the restraints of a genre. One that was on it's way out of style, at least according to Roadrunner records who dropped them in 1993, causing the band to pretty much break up.

Then in 1998, out of nowhere, vocalist Luc Lemay recruited guitarist Steeve (yes, with two 'e's) Hurdle, bassist Steve (with one 'e') Cloutier and drummer Patrick Robert and reformed Gorguts, making himself the only returning member. The album that Lemay, Hurdle and Cloutier wrote (pretty much) together, Obscura, would redefine the Metal genre by removing all expectations of what metal should sound like, both in writing and production.

This is one of those weird records that definitely is part of a genre but refuses to play by it's rules. The dissonant cacophony contained within these 60 minutes and 25 seconds can feel sort of repetitive and monotonous on first listen, but once you get a grasp on what is going on here you can really start to enjoy the almost free-jazz complexity in how this record is put together. Just listen to the guitar at the halfway point in 'Sweet Silence' and try tell me that isn't jazz, some H.R. Giger version of jazz. It's rare in the metal genre to find a record that is heavy, yet smart and kind of silly at the same time (see the Melvins for more examples); there is no way the vocals in 'Carnal State' are to be delivered straight faced. This is a record that needs to be swallowed and digested for a long time. I recommend letting it sit in your belly until it comes bursting out of your chest.

It's now 10 years after it's release and this record still sounds like it was recorded 5 years from now.

It appears that Olympic Recordings, who released this CD originally, was threatened with litigation by the United State Olympic Comittee (USOC) and therefore closed their doors completely, effectively making e-bay or MP3s the only chance to grab this record.

Download and Enjoy!

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Track listing:

from CD:
1. Obscura
2. Earthly Love
3. The Carnal State
4. Nostalgia
5. The Art Of Sombre Ecstasy
6. Clouded
7. Subtle Body
8. Rapturous Grief
9. La Vie Est Prélude...
10. Illuminatus
11. Faceless Ones
12. Sweet Silence

Link remove by request of some douche in a suit

Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel Hole-1984

I received an e-mail from Mr. JG Thirwell himself the other day politely asking me to take down the link to download this album. I have replaced the links with one that leads to Some Bizarre's site. They remastered and released this album in 2006. Please go purchase it from them. I know I will be. That being said, my original write up is below. Also, you can listen to a great Thirlwell interview on WFMU's Strength Through Failure here.

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I originally didn't want to post this record due to J.G. Thirlwell's plea in the linear notes of his new releases to 'please respect the artists by not uploading this music to P2P services and blogs.', but after digging through his website (foetus.org) and seeing that this is one of his releases not available for download from him, I decided to put it up. Another factor was the amount of excitement I got from finding his Wiseblood work posted on Rocket Remnant's blog. As soon as Mr. Thirlwell offers this record it will be pulled down and replaced with a link to purchase it from him. In the meantime get ready for an adventure...

Today I am offering J.G. Thirlwell's 3rd LP, Hole. As with (almost) all of his releases, It's not distributed as a Thirlwell record. This one is credited to 'Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel', but this whole project, releases like 'You've Got Foetus On your Breath', 'The Foetus Symphony Orchestra' and 'Foetus Under Glass', have come to be referred to as simply 'Foetus'. Thirlwell, himself, starts naming them just 'Foetus' with 1995's Gash. Getting the names straight is the easy part, describing the beautiful, playful, violent, chaotic mess that is recorded here is not so simple.

Foetus feels most at home in that space between genres, without seeming like he's hopping styles just to impress the listener (see Mike Patton). He seems to exist somewhere between The Birthday Party and Raymond Scott, which comes off as a sort of stripped-down, twisted Oingo Boingo; picture Danny Elfman standing naked in front of a fun-house mirror (gross). Where there are hints of juvenile punk-rock around the edges, there are also traces of complex orchestrations as well. We hit Surf, Industrial, Metal, Punk, Neoclassical, Big-Band, Gothic and Electro-Whatever on this warped odyssey through a 24 year old Thirlwell's brain, not bad for only his 3rd album.

It's hard to pin down what Thirwell's output sounds like so it's tough to decide if this is a good representation for the uninitiated. There are a few things present on this record that do exemplify Thirwell's Foetus output. For instance, his usage of the studio as it's own instrument, the artwork's red, black and white color scheme and themes of violence, misanthropy, murder, mutilation, incest, abuse, failure, masochism and machoism all served up with a side of his southern-gothic, black humor. The taboos that Foetus survives on are the ones that Danny Elfman and Trent Reznor have nightmares about.

So download and enjoy!

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Track listing:

Side A:
1. Clothes Hoist
2. Lust For Death
3. I'll Meet You In Poland, Baby
4. Hot Horse
5. Sick Man

Side B:
1. Street Of Shame
2. Satan Place
3. White Knuckles
4. Water Torture
5. Cold Day In Hell

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Purchase from 'Some Bizarre'

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band Bat Chain Puller

In the beginning of 1976 Captain Beefheart (aka Don VanVliet) started working on his 10th album after failing to gain the public's hard earned attention with his two previous 'commercial' records. He formulated a retreat back to the studio with the musicians who remained from his 1975 tour after long time collaborators Elliot 'Winged Eel Fingerling' Ingber and Bruce Fowler left. The remaining band, which consisted of John French (drums), John Thomas (keyboards), Moris Tepper (guitar) and Denny Walley (guitar) turned out a brilliant, yet still mostly unheard record titled Bat Chain Puller.

The record ultimately got lost in legal tie-ups between Frank Zappa, who paid for the sessions, and the Captain's Manager, Herb Cohen. 3 years later, Frank Zappa still owned the rights to the master tapes for these sessions, so Don put together a new band, re-recorded the album and finally released Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) on Warner Brothers Records in 1978.

The original record remained unreleased and unmixed until the late 1990's when The Zappa Family Trust (now the rightful owners of the master tapes) asked Denny Walley to finish the mix he had begun working on in 1975. Even after Denny was finished with his mix, The Zappa Family Trust, for some reason, still chose to withhold an official release for this influential pre-punk record.

The unreleased and released versions, surprisingly, have very few tracks in common with one another; only 5 out of 12. Most of the rest of the original album was re-recorded and released over his next (and last) two records, making a straight comparison of the two albums almost pointless. As a whole I think the song choices and recordings on the official release make for a stronger record. The original band played his songs, in my opinion, more like a group of studio musicians than the later 'trained' bands played them. This is literally because this is the first outing for the entire band, with the exception of long-time drummer John French. No matter which version I personally think is stronger, the fact that this record documenting an integral part of Don's transformation from the commercial pop of Bluejeans & Moonbeams back to the beautiful abrasiveness of Doc At The Radar Station is being withheld needs to be rectified. Enjoy and share!

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Track listing:

1. Bat Chain Puller
2. Seam Crooked Sam
3. Harry Irene
4. '81 Poop Hatch
5. Flavor Bud Living
6. Brick Bats
7. Floopy Boot Stomp
8. A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
9. Owed T'Alex
10.Odd Jobs
11.The 1010th Day Of The Human Totem Pole
12.Apes-Ma

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For more information please see www.beefheart.com, the most amazing
Beefheart site on the net.

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