Tuesday, February 19, 2008

FOUR FROM WHAT ABOUT ME RECORDS

Well, it's been a month since the last post but here I am. The 700 mile trek up to Oregon was a major pain in the ass due to snowy highways but we made it. Time to start looking for a job.



WHAT ABOUT ME RECORDS is a new label started by “Johnny Cash” from New Braunfels, Texas. He sent me his first batch of four CD-Rs. I don't want to sound like an ass but ordinarily I wouldn’t spend any time writing reviews for such amateurish, thrown together releases. I like this kid though. He's enthusiastic, friendly, and these are his very first DIY releases. He seems genuinely excited about what he is doing. Each of these CDs are limited to 10-20 copies and can be acquired at http://myspace.com/whataboutmerex.


ELDERLY PORNOGRAPHY - “Jacking Off An Amputated Nigger Midget (clean version)” CD-R (What About Me Records)

What the Fuck? This CD is seriously less than two minutes long. Every track is almost the exact same thing. This is the “clean version” (ha ha) so what we’re left with are very short blasts of bleeped out cuss words over static-lite pseudo harsh noise with cheesy samples and two seconds of negative space between each track. I hate it so much I almost love it.


XROTTEN NOISEX- “Grindcore is Fucking Dead” CD-R (What About Me Records)

Alright, this is a little more put together. “Grindcore is Fucking Dead” is 50 tracks of ametuerish shitgrind/harsh noise/power electronis. This shit is beyond silly. The vocalist is either a little girl or one of my little brothers weirdo friends. I can’t tell if this is bad in a good way or just plain bad. Part’s of it are actually quite enjoyable but the tracks are all so short there’s no time to develop anything that attention grabbing. The song titles reek of Anal Cunt too so if that’s your thing...


THE WHEN McGRUFF WAS KING/50 WAYS TO KILL ME/BREAKDANCING RONALD REGAN - 3 way split CD-R (What About Me Records)

First up, McGRUFF. After listening to 20 minutes of retarded joke music, I was expecting more of the same. So I was a little surprised to find that THE WHEN McGRUFF WAS KING play actual songs. Actually it’s still retarded joke music, it’s just a little more charming this time around. TWMcGWK kind of reminds me of early PAVEMENT if they were completely wasted(er?) and brain damaged (not in a good way). However, I’d be surprised if these kids had ever even heard of PAVEMENT. In reality, they probably just raided their parents liquor cabinet and then tried to play rock & roll while running a tape recorder. The end of their second song does get a little ‘experimental’. It’s kind of like a less fucked, more adolescent version of THE DEAD C.

What do you get when you cross ATOM AND HIS PACKAGE with a total lack of talent? 50 WAYS TO KILL ME, that’s what! Jay Haley makes cheesy pop songs by programming beats/synths/whatnot and then sings over them. It’s out of tune and off time and I love it. It falls into the category of music that’s so bad it’s good. The added goregrind influence that sneaks in occasionally is a total boner... er... bonus as well. “You know what to do, kill me with Voodoo.” Genius.

BREAKDANCING RONALD REGAN is the solo project of label dude, Johnny Cash. “A History of Southern Tribalism” is his first track. It starts with a repeating loop of 'old thyme' southern sounding piano quickly followed by cut up distortion, strange percussion samples, and and ominous bass line that slowly creeps in and out. The track goes on for almost 9 minutes without really going anywhere but it still manages to create a creepy atmosphere. The second track is sort of built the same way as the first. A chiming loop starts things off and is slowly built upon by elastic crunch and boomy distortion.


WHITE TIGER A:. A:. - "Tiger 7" (What About Me Records)

WHITE TIGER A:.A:. from Australia drop a single 56 minute track of free improv and cosmic psychedelic ambience, heavy on the reverb and delay. I’m not sure what instumentation is used but I think I hear some drums and buried no-wave guitar in there somewhere. Possibly some violin(?) and synth or a wind instrument as well. I love the goofy shouting towards the end. It runs on a little long but this is still without a doubt the most fully realized of the four WHAT ABOUT ME releases. I’d say this recording definitely deserves to be packaged a little more professionally and NOT limited to only 10 copies but that’s just me.

-FRED