Whatever happened to Robert Deathrage?

I gotta admit, there is little out that offends me. Save for people killing kids and shit like that I am pretty much a drunk cynical curmudgeon when it comes to general human misery.  Still, there is something about the Meat Shits that actually irritates (dare I say "bothers"?) me twenty-five years after excitedly discovering them on Ax/ction Records' epic Apocalyptic Convulsions 10" comp LP. At the time it was their image more than the "music". Sick-ass song titles plastered on DIY 7" paper sleeves slathered together with shitty xeroxes of all the 1-900 ads you'd find in the back pages of Hustler. In a pinch you could almost jerk off to a Meat Shits record (for some reason the C-grade blowjob queen on the back of Make Me Cum was weirdly attractive but I digress...) Regardless, the schtick got old real fast; enticing song titles like "Golden Shower Girls" and "Gallons Of Cum" were just simple blasts of nonsense after an overly long VHS-ripped porno sample. So when lead man Robert Deathrage got his act together, reinvented the band and destroyed the scene with 1993's watershed Ecstasy Of Death, I figured he was doing what Anal Cunt was then aspiring to - leaving the 2-second noise blasts to the Germans and creating a legitimate noise/grind hybrid while not totally dismissing the noisy past. Without a doubt it worked on Ecstasy. Still, that CD red-flagged Rob's strangely over-aggressive (obsessive?) campaign against AIDS and gays. What followed over the years were such gems as Homosexual Slaughter and Sniper At The Fag Parade - completely derivative of the trend-setting Ecstasy but sadly lacking the innocence of the debut full-length and sounding just... hateful. I dunno, while I'm to this day still a fan of some really ultra-mysoginistic, homophobic, xenophobic, anti-Semitic musicians like GG, AxCx, Cunt Sludge, and their ilk; none of these bands were so intensely committed to being anti-something as the Meat Shits were towards gays (and women as well which is a totally inconsistent diatribe but this ain't no PhD thesis debate...) and without a fucking lick of redeeming self-serving humor about it. So where am I going with this rambling post? To me it is amazing that the strange life of Robert Deathrage and the various internet theories about his floating through the California metal scenes with a wrath of fucking everyone over behind him aren't up for more discussion. Shit, the guy has photos of himself with his newborn godchild for Christ's sake on his oddly still-working myspace page. Yet evidently he disappeared from the scene because he had cancer? At the same time Seth Putnam went into a coma? Who knows if we will ever hear again from the little brown noise metal outfit straight outta Modesto, CA but it is interesting that these days I'd rather listen to the kinda annoying shit noise blasts I heard back in the day then the "real" hatecore/grindcore band they/he eventually became. I'll take the former... à la their 1990 quasi-epic Genital Infection...

Reach Out And Fuck Someone

Am I Shit?

Well here's one for all the old-schoolers everywhere. Straight out of Modesto, CA comes everyone's favorite proto-pornogrind band, the Meat Shits. The early 90's was a productive time for the band, releasing a half-dozen DIY cassette demos followed by a bunch of ep's and 7-inch splits. 1993's Make Me Cum falls in between their earlier noisecore sound and the more refined "movie sample+blast of grind" they would perfect with Ecstasy Of Death. Terribly lo-fi in production but a solid preview of the genius(?) to come. Enjoy.

Make Me Cum

Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!

WARNING!

While listening to this record, do not

attempt to operate heavy machinery,

use firearms, eat glass, drink Mop N

Glo, tell Ian MacKaye that you think

Poison Idea is "hella funny", consume

brandied fruitcake, taunt a yak, become

obsessed with Buddy Ebsen, get any

sort of tattoo depicting livestock, or get

some idiotic idea about putting together

a 7-inch compilation with 41 bands!

If you are tempted to pursue any of the

aforementioned activities, please

consider an alternative, such as

sending money to this cute guy so he

can put on some clothes (or take them

off if the price is right).

41 Bands! 64 Songs!

Catastrophe

I wrote about the Meat Shits' contribution to this incredible compilation last year and finally decided to get off my lazy ass and upload the whole shebang. A prize of my LP collection, five of my favorite bands during what I feel were the high points of their careers. Mincecore, blur, pornogrind and noisecore. Essential.

C(o)untless Songs!

 
Currently watching: Rest Stop
Currently listening to: Redman Whut? Thee Album

All Togethah Now

Solid compilation CD released in 2000 by the mighty Fudgeworthy Records out of Woburn, MA; the brainchild of Charlie Infection whom you may know as the other half of the seminal Ax/ction Records and drummer for Bay State mainstays Psycho, Bulge, Gonkulator and Cancerous Growth. Admitting to the loss of all his master tapes in the liner notes, nearly everything on the comp is ripped directly from vinyl so don't expect any hi-tech digital remastering here. Scratches, cracks and pops abound which only add to the charm - there is some rare ass shit showcased here and is without a doubt some of the best transfers you'll find of this material. Included are a few batches of Anal Cunt songs, GG Allin's "Legalize Murder" from his Freaks, Faggots days, Bulge's "Fartmaster," some obscure Meat Shits tunes, fast Boston hardcore, black metal, grindcore, noise, etc. etc. ad nauseum. A bunch of great music from a great label. Enjoy.

If It Ain't Fudgeworthy... It Ain't Shit

 
Currently watching: The Rite
Currently listening to: KoЯn The Path Of Totality

Old School Meat(shits)

One of the finest compilations to come out in the 90's was Italy's SOA Records' The Master Of Noise LP. What could a grind/blur enthusiast not love about an album featuring Anal Cunt, Agathocles AND the Meat Shits! Plus a thousand "songs" from noise gods 7MON and End Of Silence on side B to boot! Most of the material is easily findable these days, SOA re-released most of it on their Old Days Nostalgia 3CD retrospective; individually A.C. did their thing on Old Stuff, Part 2, Agathocles has re-used their material on five or so releases (and counting) and 7MON put theirs out on a comp as well. As far as I can tell, only the Meat Shits aptly-titled "18 songs dealing with sex & shit" escaped re-release in any non-vinyl form. A hilarious 10-minute live set from some house party showcasing the drunked 'Shits in all their noisy, nonsensical pre-Ecstasy Of Death sleaze. The between-song banter is priceless. I ripped it from my original vinyl and cleaned up the scratches somewhat - unfortunately it's in 128kbps but I think it sounds fine. Considering.

Just download the whole album already...

 
Currently watching: Unforgiven

Currently listening to: Macabre Sinister Slaughter

And If That Ain't Enough...

No sooner had I published the previous post that I discovered another Anal Cunt rarity in the haven't-listened-to-in-a-while department, a rip of a couple cassettes furnished to me by Ohio noizegeek Steveggs back in the mid-90's. Himself the founder of a couple noize bands including Minch and Nut Screamer, the reason we got in touch escapes me, though I'll best-guess that it was related to horror video trading. Regardless, through whatever correspondence/business we had, the topic of A.C. arose and in the mail the cassettes came. The recordings feature A.C.'s 1991 tour with Incantation from Rhode Island down through Texas - some of the shows made it onto A.C.'s Live E.P. but these here are raw, unedited versions. Recorded by Incantation's buddy/roadie(?) Roy Fox, the sound quality varies across the six shows but all in all it's not too bad. There are also some pretty cool rehearsals (to which the band obviously objects to being taped) as well as a couple interviews with Seth. Lastly, a hilarious interview (i.e. someone recording people talking in a van) with A.C. and the Meat Shits' Robert Deathrage. Awesomely offensive stuff, you can barely hear Seth and the guys laughing along because it's really Robert running the show. Recorded right after his seminal Ecstasy Of Death was released, the guy doesn't leave any stone unturned. What a riot of vulgarity.

Hare Krishna

The Arguable Origin Of Pornogrind

When it comes down to it, is there a more influential album than the Meat Shits' gorecore classic Ecstasy Of Death? Sure there is some competition (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Straight Outta Compton, Tommy, Nevermind, etc.) depending on your fave genre of music, but for grindcore, pornogrind, cybergrind and their noisome ilk, Ecstasy takes the rotten cake hands down. The Meat Shits were far ahead of their time back in the day with their slew of cassette and 7-inch releases throughout the early 90's. Lots of fun movie clips, sleazy X-rated album covers and hilarious, unending lists of song titles made the Modesto brown metal masters a rare bird. But, honestly, when it came down to it the music was really lacking. I know that's the joke in the whole thing but they were really terrible. Simple blast beats of noise recorded on a tape deck interspersed with annoying prank phone calls, porno samples and other assorted nonsense. Ecstasy Of Death changed all that. Founder/singer Robert Deathrage headed out on his own, hired a new bunch of musicians and recorded over the full year of 1993 the tightest goregrind album ever, easily holding up to today's purulent standards. Solid, well-recorded grindcore (with lyrics even!), real songs in between the more traditional sample+blast beat formula and even some freaky instrumental house music hatecore! What an accomplishment. For better or worse (arguably worse), music has never been the same since.

There Is No God

Dayz Of Wayback

No this isn't a post about N.W.A.'s most disappointing album ever - it's a throwback to the compilation that really got me into the world of 7-inches, Maximum Rock And Roll classifieds, well-concealed cash through the mail and weird looks from my girlfriend (is it wrong to get all excited when Regurgitate's demo cassette arrives via international delivery after 2 months of waiting???). Already somewhat into the Boston hardcore scene and a burgeoning fan of A.C. and Exit-13, I jumped on this release: 20 or so bands mashed a 10" and bonus 7". How cool is that??? Looking back, Apocalyptic Convulsions was my introduction to so many great bands, sounds and styles that to this day molded my musical tastes.... From mincecore to snotty hardcore, this had it all, it makes a good first post and I'm only too happy to share it witcha.

Blllleeeeaaaauuuurrrrgggghhhh!