Been on an Excel and The Accused bender for about a week now. The Return, More Fun, and Martha are such incredible, classic records. I never tire of them. Hymns was the next MLP, mostly made up of covers. Not sure how they went from Martha to this, with its weird and wannabe big production. I have a tough time getting through Grinning. The double-bass drums clutter up the sound and annoy me. Straight Razor is slightly better, but still not good. I think they must've been listening to Led Zeppelin's Coda and Beastie Boys; just an oddball period album. Splatter Rock is the best thing since Martha and pretty surprising after drudging through all the funk and hip-hop muck for at least four years. I don't often listen to the Rejectors split, but I was even in the mood for their standard punk. I don't understand why bands and labels do things like The Archive Tapes 1981-1986. They have anywhere from 2-5 tracks from the same recordings, but they split them up and randomly scatter them across a collection. It's a mess of a listen. You want a reason for files over plastic? Here's a good example. Reassemble them by date.
The Joke's on You has such monstrous, smooth production. It matches up perfectly with the sailing, furious guitar style. Powerful, really catchy songs. It has some period elements that can make you look away for a moment, but still, this thing smokes for me. I'm OK with those decisions. I hadn't heard the two demos that followed it until a couple days ago. They were only available on the Rotten Records 2001 CD reissue. It's too bad they couldn't have done another album like The Joke's, but they'd already moved into some pretty bad territory by 1991. I really don't understand the direction, other than like so many other great bands of the time, possibly trying to get some loot and fifteen minutes on Headbanger's Ball. You can hear why Infectious Grooves was their next stop. There are a couple few collections of live recordings, and this band was a machine. The drumming was noteworthy, and that guy could pull it off live.
Back to listening to early Steinklang 2nd and 3rd tier power-electronics and trying to find more like Militia.
