GRUNTRUCK
"Gruntruck grinds
with mammoth riffs
and knee breaking
rhythms."-SPIN
PU
S
H
Pushing its way out of stores now.
1962 Roadrunner Records, Inc.
ROADRUNNER
NOTES from the underground
The difference between The Gits and a
million shitty bar bands puking Nutra
Sweet pop love songs is The Gits don't
have to whore themselves out through
their music because they have real jobs.
With a banshee named Mia Zapata
scrawling her snarling voice across a can
vas of torment, The Gits' debut Frenching
The Bully hums with true to the bone punk
honed on the stages of various dives
across the country. "We've got to keep
working," says loud pounding bassist Matt
Dresdner. Most bands I've seen that
don't have to work start getting a little
tame." Articulate drummer Steve Moriarty
says that like taxes and death, working is
inevitable, "I couldn't ever envision the
Gits living off the Gits. It's hard enough to
find shitty jobs. If sonic perfection lies
on the brink of chaos, then Mercury Rev
approaches bliss as it frolics on the edge
of turmoil. It's different every time with the
Rev. Every show is another magic carpet
ride on a psychedelic tapestry. "Instead of
jazz fusion it's jizz fission, instead of
garage rock it's barrage rock," says vocal-
ist David Baker. "We don't practice. We
fight a lot, so if we practice we'd probably
kil each other. We just put ourselves in sit-
uations where we play. Like our fifth gig.
we played in front of 20,000 people and
we still hadn't practiced. We just let it go."
Yerself is Steam dances madly on treach-
erous waters. "There's a lot of beauty in
Powering through the ages, RKL spins a tangled web of
intricate hardcore changes and blistering balls-out bass lines.
the music, but at the same time, beauty the RICKTER
can be pretty dangerous," says Baker.
"Very Sleepy Rivers' is about calm, beau-
tiful rivers with fog on them, but this is
where people drown". In the fifties, con-
cerned parents wondered what cartoons
starring Road Runner. Wiley Coyote,
Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd would do
to their kids. In the nineties, you can hear
the result for yourself in Ween. Two play-
ers, Gene Ween and Dean Ween, invent
the kind of melodies that cartoon charac-
ters might listen to at home. "We just don't
want to make some crappy alternative
record that sounds like shitty ass college
radio fucking bullshit," says Dean, who
plays guitar live. In the studio, everybody
plays everything. "We're not timid at all."
says Dean. "We try to have as much fun
as possible. When we're not having fun
anymore then we won't be Ween any-
more... Fast, fuzzy, gutsy riffs punctuate
Dizbuster and their blazing new 7" single.
The double barrel of Alan Clark on drums
and Mark McCormick on bass shows just
how tight a rhthym section can get after
working together on bands like Fearless
Leader, Motherfucker 666 and Lazy
Cowgirls. Beyond punk. Dizbuster con-
centrates on structure, chord changes and
progressions, says Clark. "We're not really
serious about what our songs are about,"
he says. "Carnal Action Coil' is about
scary dreams and monsters flying through
your windows, and on 'Lonely Child,' we
always liked it because the name never
sounded right. Finally, the virtual history
of punk is splattered across one surly can-
vas for everyone to gob at. DIY from
Rhino is a nine-CD box-set that includes
the Sex Pistols' 'Anarchy in The UK
demo. The Damned, Stranglers. Jam,
Vibrators, Generation X, Wire, 999.
Buzzcocks, Stiff Little Fingers. Sham
69, Eddie And The Hot Rods. The
Rezillos, The Undertones. Squeeze.
Ramones, Richard Hell & The Voidoids.
Dead Boys, Germs, Dils, Weirdos. X.
Alley Cats and The Plugz, to name a
few. Then all of a sudden, on CD numbers
seven and eight, this punk smorgasboard
of well-aged delicacies turns rancid with a
smattering of American power pop and
other wimpy nations. Thankfully, it's back
on track by number nine, featuring Boston
burlers legends The Lyres, The Outlets.
Del Fuegos and La Peste... Despite the
gnarly sound that became synonymnous
with the name Big Black, guitar kerranger
Steve Albini admits that in the flesh, the
band wasn't that buff. "We're wimps," he
says. The now defunct Chicago quartet
didn't consider it necessary to prove any
thing with their music. "We were all com-
plete human beings so we didn't feel like
scale:
Dead World, Collusion, CD Committable death industrialism
bonding Godflesh and Fudge Tunnel with a gaundles of sam
ples renouncing any hope of survival. Hypocrisy, Pen-
tania, CD. A power struggle for the throne of Scandinavian
death metal. They grind a mean axe Coffin Break.
Thirteen. CD. Standard melodic joy has taken their souls, but
how about Sabbath's "Hole in the Sky Faith Healers,
Lido, CD. My favorite Brit psych/noise outfit with beautiful
vocals Mortician, Mortal Massacre, 7 Low-i death that
goes beyond must-have status... Dismember, Pieces, CD.
The follow-up that inbreeds the same skull-splitting ferocity by
these swedish slayers Dime Bag CD. Thrashy he madness
that tells me this is where it's at. Put that in your pipe...
Tumbleweed, Weefseed, CD, Australia's Mudhoney, so they
say. 50% of it rocks. Pobon Idea Jeff Dahl. CD. Tribute to
Stiv Bators now on disc with bonus trax.. Green Magnet
School Six Finger Satellite, double 7. Another dandy Sub
Pop package featuring current innovators of experimental
Boston rock. Fastbacks, Zucher, CD. 13 years, same core
line-up. Kurt (Young Fresh Fellows) Kim and Lulu ring a zany
new Lp with that Ramones Buzzcocks flair. Young Fresh
Fellows Dc Sharpie CD). The leaders of popsicle mek sus
tain their level of cool tempo changes and quirky lyrics..
Fudge, Ferocious Rhythm, CD. Filling the void between heav
en and hell, thus harvesting a bountiful supply of populous
crops with a razor edge... Codeine. Barely Real, CD. The
second full-length pain reliever continues the quiet storm of
grunge Melvins, Illegal Title, Ep. Another fine shugfest A
ballistic strikes with a killer Alice Cooper cover Mule, To
Love Somebody, 7. Down to the ground blues driven deriva
tives. Check out Tennessee Hustler" 7" too Band of
Susans, Now, CD. Better even than when Page Hamilton
(now in Helmet lended a hand
-Rick Roser
we needed to justify our existence by hav-
ing Big Jim tits or fully-cut butt cheeks,"
says Albini. "We weren't some gross rock
cartoon that acts like barbarians and look
like martian freaks in order to have some
legitimacy as a rock band." Well, Big Black
is gone but their legacy remains. Every
album they ever put out from Racer X to
Songs About Fucking is available on
Touch and Go. But don't expect anymore
rock and roll hoochie coo from Albini. After
BB and Rapeman, he's happy working as
a recording engineer for bands like Super-
chunk, Jesus Lizard. Mule. Helmet.
Fugazi, Wedding Present. Pixies. Tar.
and staying home. "I've already said my
peace, and I kind of figure that I should.
quit well I'm ahead," he says. "I feel like
it's really important at this stage that
somebody somewhere say, "I don't have
to be a star, I don't have to be popular and
successful for what I did to be valid.' It
seems like the only reason people do this
stuff anymore is to be successful, and that
mode of thinking disgusts me. I personal-
ly think that sitting around with my cat or
playing three-cushion billards is every bit
as satisfying as walking out onstage and
seeing some teenage slut with too much
makeup that I'm going to take backstage
and pork."
-Brian Brannon