200 POUND UNDERGROUND

CAN YOU SMELL WHAT THE BUCK IS COOKIN'???Finally, a fucking new release worth giving a shit about. On September16th, Lindsey drops a new jam named 'Gift of Screws' and I couldn't be more excited. Fuck all your pre-meditated faves in faggy Donovan hats and bow down to the OG one-man band weirdo. Expect live appearences, talk show things and all such bizz. Can't wait to see the man on the tube and what have you. Should be a great time just to be alive.

On a completely unrelated note, how come no one told me about this Garage D'or label re-releasing all the Reflex tape comps on CD? It says here on the Kill from the Heart site that these things have been out since 1997? Where was I? More importanly, WHERE WERE YOU? In the words of Sir Ian MacKaye 'Thanks alot, friends...'

I was always curious about these tape compilations Bob Mould did up on his label in the early 80's and now (better late than never) I can check 'em out. A mish-mash of dumbo thrashers, art punkins and various uncatagorizable unknowns rub ashy Midwestern elbows on both the discs, 'Barefoot and Pregnant' and 'Kitten'. I can't say these discs have given me any answers to any of life's questions, but I can say they've made me grin here and there...which is something.

The 'Barefoot and Pregnant' one starts off with some tracks from the pre-Soul Asylum Loud Fast Rules. They are neither loud nor fast, and they certainly do not rule. I mean, Jesus...this shit makes 'Runaway Train' (George Wendt mix) sound like Straight Ahead. The super underappreciated duo of Rifle Sport and Man Sized Action turn in some great live tracks of their off - kilter Midwestern meets Manchester style while this Lou Santacroce fellow sticks out like Harry Chapin at a Suburban Mutilation gig. Mecht Mensch got some decent live cuts and then there's the unknown-to-me Red Meat who might be my favorite out of both the discs here. Let's just say if you could teleport them to 2008, there'd be a pretty vicious slap fight among the new weird punkers on whose new weird punk label was gonna release their single in an edition of 300.

The 'Kitten' one seems to have abit more Hardcore damage than 'Barefoot..' with lots of one-off generic types taking up most of the space, although Tom Hazelmyers teenage thrash act Todlachen sound totally hot, dumb, fast and fumbly (all my favorite things!) Supposedly they recorded a 7" for Reflex back in '82 that never saw the light of day. What the hell? Unleash those tapes Mould or I'll play 'Man on the Silver Mountain' at you 'til your butt and ears bleed. I remember those Ground Zero and Willful Neglect records being pretty cruddy when I was kid, but their tracks on here aren't so bad. They are not as great as the Todlachen ones, but they have that same crumbly generic thrash feel and sound pretty inspiring blaring out right now. Inspiring enough to track down their records again? Hell no! For now, they sound dumb, young and scarred of girls and that's AOK for this time of the morn. Red Meat make another showing on here and stick to their disturbed throb thang and sound pretty fucked in the process. The Huskers tracks on this one are choice and unheard. 'Drug Party' is just silly and 'It's Not Fair' ends with a long feedack drone that would make you think Surface of the Earth landed somewhere on your deck. For the Todlachen tracks alone, you should own this.

http://www.garagedor.com/old.html

Until then, all I gotta say is 'Sticky toffee pudding'.