Scratch Acid
played a huge part in the noisy
underground
movement of the 1980s; they took
punk
to the dirtiest, dingiest mudhole they could find and sullied it from top to bottom until it looked and sounded like some hell-bound bogeyman. It's not too far-fetched to think of
as the American equivalent of
the Birthday Party
, the Texans donning the mantle that was dropped when
the BP
disbanded.
The Greatest Gift
contains everything the band ever recorded, including a few lo-fidelity instrumentals.
never received the notice it deserved, but the musicians could pound out brilliantly frenzied and highly original
post-punk
/
noise rock
that sometimes rivals the material released by singer
David Yow
and bassist
David Sims
' future (and much more well known) project,
the Jesus Lizard
. The first eight songs were originally released in 1984 as an eponymous EP; from the opening crashing bars of
"Cannibal"
to the terrifying lyrics heard on
"Lay Screaming"
(a song which reads like something culled from a medieval book about torture), this band obviously never had any desire to control itself. Only one slight reprieve can be found in the relatively tender
"Owner's Lament,"
a song replete with weeping strings. Songs nine through 20 first saw the light of a sickly day as
Just Keep Eating
,
's one and only full-length that found the band expanding its musical palette: insane
numbers (
"Eyeball,"
"Holes"
), jaunty, faux
lounge
grooves (
"Amicus"
), goofy
Zeppelin-esque
riffs (
"Cheese Plug"
), and a spot-on cover of the
Webber
-
Rice
rocker
"Damned for All Time,"
complete with exclamatory horns. The remainder of the disc comprises the songs from their definitive statement, the 1987
Berserker
EP. A little more money went into this recording; as the sound quality is better than on
, it was definitely worth it.
"Mary Had a Little Drug Problem"
and
"Flying Houses"
are whirlwinds of pounding drums, foreboding basslines, and scathing, blinding guitar phrases. The band never played so well or wrote better songs. Highly recommended to any
Jesus Lizard
fan and
hardcore punk
aficionado. ~ Will Lerner