Thursday, September 24, 2009

SPAZZ/ROMANTIC GORILLA - SPLIT (1995)


OK, I'll admit it. I'm kind of a chump.
Sergeant D's post over at Metal Inquisition yesterday got me all misty-eyed remembering the good ol' days of 90's powerviolence/grindcore, to the point that I had to go digging through the Illogical Contraption Phonograph Archives for a little stroll down memory lane.
Anyone else remember what a great idea the whole "powerviolence" thing seemed like back in high school? If you were a confused punker/metalhead, it was the perfect blend of speed, brutality, shitheadism, and skate culture, without pretense or gloss. It really seemed like the best thing ever. Unfortunately, waves of shitty PWV bands ruined the whole thing pretty quick, but not before a couple true gems surfaced -- Such as today's album, the Spazz vs. Romantic Gorilla split.
You already know Spazz. They are fast, they are silly, they have rad samples, and one of their singers always sounds like he's taking a really hard dump. Romantic Gorilla was basically Spazz filtered through the twisted minds of a couple Japanese grindheads, regurgitated with all the speed and weirdness but fronted by a lady. BONUS: Deliciously Engrish song titles like "I Love Wrestler" and "I'm On Diet" (my personal favorite). 9 songs from each band, each in the 0:30 to 2:00 range.
This shit withstands the test of time.

Download HERE

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Charles Bronson was the dirt on the coffin, and stuff like Capitalist Casualties was the terminal cancer for this stuff. Has the MITB documentary come out yet? I've only seen the trailer.

The Goodkind said...

Ohhhh, thanks, I had this split long ago, I think it was stolen by a roommate at some point. Glad to hear it again.

D.Matt said...

The MI post totally took me down memory lane as well. DC was definetly part of the 'No Fun Club' back in the later 90s, but we still got down and had as much fun as we could/were allowed to/was deemed appropriate/was PC and all inclusive enough...

Shelby Cobras said...

Anon: I hadn't even heard about an MITB doc, but sounds cool. I will have to research that. I always dug Bronson live, but PWV albums regularly suffered from a terminal lack of decent production.

Seth: Your welcome. Share the love.

D. Matt: Luckily, Northern California was the polar opposite of a No Fun Club (a "Fun Club", I guess?). Even at the uber-PC Gilman (no booze upon penalty of death), all the kids/bands would be getting fucked up in the parking lot between sets. High school was fun at times.