GOURMET SCUM // LANDLORD - "Scum Lord" - Split Tape - 2008

   LANDLORD starts off this tape with their ragged style of classic rock as viewed through a punk lens. Maybe you'll view it differently, but I really think they sound like a classic rock band and I'm into it. I don't really have any good stories about LANDLORD, but I can tell you that I've watched them play many, many flawless shows (and a few bad, stoned ones) and they once gave me a ride from Tennessee to Indiana wherein we dumpstered a pretty good pizza. All of the songs on their side of the tape are instant classics. You can find more stuff by them on Houseplant Records, Dead Broke and a label I won't mention because they continue to further the careers of irrelevant, misogynist, money-grubbing fuckheads.

   On the flip side, GOURMET SCUM tells your brain to fuck right the fuck off. Seriously, I don't know what they're doing on this recording because it sounds so fucked up. They play their noisy ass sludge, blown out through tape hiss and an impenetrable cloud of weed smoke. They're possibly the only band in the world who plays stoner sludge through the cheapest amps possible while singing almost exclusively about Degrassi Junior High. You can find more about them and more fucked up recordings right here.

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This tape is long out of print and was released on Magnetic South, a fine record label and recording studio out of Bloomington, IN. They specialize in some really great analog music and wild freak out jams by such amazing groups as PUPPY VS DYSLEXIA, APACHE DROPOUT, THEE TSUNAMIS and (my personal favorite) PSYCHIC BAOS.

GOURMET SCUM - 3x Cassingle - Tape - 2008

    In Indiana, I worked in a screenprinting shop with my friend Benny. In addition to spending 40 hours a week making each other crack up over ridiculous shit, we also rounded out the rhythm section of our band, PEDRO SAYS HI with our friends, Zak and Leah. Sometimes, I would get a ride home from work in Benny's car and we would blast THE BODY out of his shitty factory speakers while sitting with the windows down in traffic. During one of these drives, he told me that he had started a new band that was more inspired by THE BODY, skating, Dinosaurs Attack cards and just being fucking loud and noisy. It was called GOURMET SCUM, named after his favorite fictitious band.
  I went to see them in a basement soon after that. They started off their set by taking big hits off of a joint and then passing it into the audience.I noticed that they had also placed a huge bottle of whiskey on the floor in front of them, free for anyone to take drinks from. For the next 20-30 minutes, they destroyed the eardrums of the audience with downtuned sludge and space-guitar weirdness. While most of the band held the songs down, their second guitarist, Ryan, would just be in his own world, creating noise and going off on a tangent. It didn't always work, but it was more interesting than any other band that played that night. By the end of the show, I was sold. I didn't only like this band, I wanted to be IN the band. I brought it up to Benny and by the next week, I was their 3rd guitarist.
    For the next few months, we hauled our fucked up, old amps to basements and skateparks to play to unenthusiastic punks. I didn't even care if people liked us because the band was so much fun to hang out with. Just as quickly as I joined them, I also quickly left them to move out west because the Midwest was killing me slowly. They moved on and even went on tour a couple of times. A few months after moving, I was walking out of a PIERCED ARROWS show in SF and Ryan was standing there with a hug and this small handful of tapes. I woke up a few days ago and this is all I wanted to listen to, so I thought maybe someone else would like to hear it as well.
 

   I'm pretty sure the line-up on this tape is as follows: Benny on vocals and guitar. Brent on bass. Ryan on guitar. JRD on drums. The covers were screened onto taped up beer boxes. It was probably recorded by JRD in his basement. The band also put out a split tape with LANDLORD on Magnetic South, which is way out of print.

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The three guitar line-up played (horribly) on radio station WFHB's local live radio show,where we were required to play one original and a cover. The cover we chose was "Hashslinger" by 90's Bloomington sound-geniuses JACKWACKER. You can hear those songs here, along with the live songs by QUADRILLION BABES.

VISITOR - "III" - Tape - 2012

   LOOK, IT'S MUSIC!! I know I have been pummeling you all with top ten lists, but as I stated before, I like lists a lot and there's still a few more to come (if people get them to me in time). For now, let's get back to the music. Longtime readers may remember that I posted an earlier VISITOR tape way back in 2011 that had little-to-no info. Other readers may think "I already knew about that band and didn't need your paltry download, fool." Either way, here is another mysterious tape by this down-tuned Minneapolis doom outfit, which was released by Lighten Up Sounds in late 2012. Two drummers and one guitarist play two 15 minute songs that build up from ambient sounds into massive, swelling riffs. No vocals. Perfect for working on stuff in your room, staring into the abyss from a cliff, getting sucked into a vortex, dying a slow death or, uh, getting stoned, I guess.
   Graham plays the guitar, also plays in BLOODWALL and he will cut a mono lathe of your band (or four LP drone project) over at 2208 Records. Jefferson plays the drums and also does stuff with 3 MOONS and THE SPACECHRISTS. Andie plays the other drums. He also spends time in MOTHER OF FIRE, which is a band that I like a whole lot. I would go so far to say that I am obsessed with them at the moment. Enjoy this one.

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   If you would like to get the actual source recordings rather than my beautiful tape-hissy download, you can head over to Lighten Up's Bandcamp page. The tape quickly went out of print so don't try to order it.

  Also, just to let you know, Mediafire is a slowly sinking ship. I would say that if you ever thought about downloading anything on this site, now is the time to do it before all of the links disappear. I moved over to Zippyshare, which is currently confusing and frustrating. I might change to a different file sharing service again. Or maybe I'll just stop doing this altogether.