Normally I review 3-4 seven-inch records for this series, but in this case, because this double-7″ contains a side each from four Skin Graft bands, I’ve decided to focus my attention exclusively on SIDES 11-14.
This hot little comic/2X7-inch combo is part of a compendium from Skin Graft I’ll have to be dropping in on in the not-so-distant future. Until then, I’ve got SIDES 11-14: Two slabs of vinyl, one purple swirl, one brown swirl, and a comic book about a war no one will ever understand (right?).
Did I mention each song is an AC/DC cover? Oh yeah, baby. Oh yeah … (yeah?) … It goes without saying of course that nye of this will sound at all like the original product.
Pre – “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”
Pre confirm this notion with a wigged-out cover of “Dirty Deeds” that’s about as classy as torn nylon stockings. WHICH IS AWESOME! They must have recorded this with the vocalist jammed into a closet, her head jammed inside a shoebox, her voice jammed within an even tinier shoebox.
This sock-hoppin’ band once again shows its punkier, X-Ray Spex side, sacrificing little of the heaviness of their older material. Keep the production muddy and the budget cruddy!
Mule – “Have a Drink On Me”
Did Slint and US Maple ever, you know, fuck? I think they must have …
Mule’s take on “Have a Drink On Me” is snarling and sarcastic as a sneering spit. It’s laid-back and clean, like a long sit (with Lambchop) on a sunny porch, yet sorta fierce underneath it all like a war veteran.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to find out Mule contains members of bands I like. Just a hunch. If not, congratulations are in order …
Yowie – “Dunderdruck”
Yowie have the punch to break up any party (save, perhaps, for the one going on in my pants), and they do just that with their spot-off take on “Thunderstruck.” This song’s best trait is that it has nothing to do with AC/DC and everything to do with kicking ass.
I remember their last full length on Skin Graft well; they haven’t changed a bit since then (around 2004/05), have they? Halen, Van fret tapping, string-butchering/bending bassery, charging drums that crush your head under their hoofs … it’s all still there. One of my favorites, Yowie are …
Colossamite – “Anti-Christ Devil Child”
I’m no riff scientist, but this is “Rock ‘n’ Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” at first. Then a loping whooooosh of noise encrusted with music emerges. Someone’s talking into a ham radio. In German.
Scratch that; several people are talking into a ham radio, all German. The song is twisting on though, as if this weird collage of voices isn’t echoing into the night. Snares are cracking left and right, high and tight like the guns you fire at races. Or at people’s faces.
Right before the seven-inch ends, you hear just a flutter of the intro to “For Those About to Rock.” Then again, maybe you don’t.
