WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.100 Alright, so usually when we start one of these 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:05.820 deep dives, I really like to ease you in gently. 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:09.179 You know, kind of set the scene for the listener. 00:00:09.380 --> 00:00:11.160 Right, drop a little context about the era, the 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:13.500 vibe. Yeah, exactly. We might talk about the 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:16.480 state of pop music in 1996 or what the weather 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:20.460 was like. But today? Today I think we just had 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:22.219 to rip the band -aid off. We really do. There's 00:00:22.219 --> 00:00:24.440 no easing into this one. No, we have to start 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:26.480 with the actual name of the album we're digging 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:29.239 into. Because... Honestly, in all my time looking 00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:31.199 at music history and scrolling through archives, 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:34.219 I don't think I've ever seen a title quite like 00:00:34.219 --> 00:00:37.140 this. It is a mouthful and a very deliberate 00:00:37.140 --> 00:00:39.399 statement of intent before you even press play. 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:42.460 Statement is a very polite way to put it. So 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:45.439 we are looking at the August 6th, 1996 release 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:47.659 by the Noise Collective to Live and Shave in 00:00:47.659 --> 00:00:50.899 L .A. And the title of this album is and I should 00:00:50.899 --> 00:00:53.000 probably apologize in advance to anyone listening 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.219 with kids in the car right now. The title is 00:00:55.219 --> 00:00:57.960 Helen Butt versus Masana Pussy Bad Smell. That 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:01.299 is the one. And honestly, I think just saying 00:01:01.299 --> 00:01:04.650 that title out loud. gives you about 90 % of 00:01:04.650 --> 00:01:06.450 the context you need for what we're about to 00:01:06.450 --> 00:01:08.590 discuss today. It feels like a challenge, like 00:01:08.590 --> 00:01:11.689 just buying the CD in 96, picking it up off the 00:01:11.689 --> 00:01:13.489 record store shelf. It feels like a confrontation. 00:01:14.189 --> 00:01:16.109 You're already participating in the performance 00:01:16.109 --> 00:01:18.750 art just by holding the thing. Exactly. And that 00:01:18.750 --> 00:01:21.650 is the entire point. Everything about this source 00:01:21.650 --> 00:01:24.209 material, from that title to the liner notes 00:01:24.209 --> 00:01:27.310 to the sound itself, screams that this is not 00:01:27.310 --> 00:01:29.310 background music. Right. You don't put this on 00:01:29.310 --> 00:01:31.670 while you're hosting a dinner party. This is 00:01:31.670 --> 00:01:35.329 a noise album with a capital N. And we need to 00:01:35.329 --> 00:01:37.109 be clear about what that means right up front. 00:01:37.209 --> 00:01:38.790 Because when some people hear the word noise, 00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:41.810 they think, oh, like loud rock music, like heavy 00:01:41.810 --> 00:01:45.150 metal or Slayer. Or Nirvana, yeah. Yeah. But 00:01:45.150 --> 00:01:47.719 no. We are talking about a specific experimental 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:50.900 genre that is deliberately challenging the very 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:53.439 definition of what music is. It's not about melody. 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:56.980 Not at all. It's about texture. It's about dissonance 00:01:56.980 --> 00:02:01.019 and volume. If you go into this deep dive expecting 00:02:01.019 --> 00:02:03.519 us to talk about a verse chorus, verse structure, 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:07.099 or a catchy hook to hum along to on your commute, 00:02:07.260 --> 00:02:09.979 you are going to be profoundly confused. Probably 00:02:09.979 --> 00:02:12.939 angry, too. Maybe even angry, yeah. So our mission 00:02:12.939 --> 00:02:15.860 today is to really unpack this beast of an album. 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:18.240 We've got sources on the table describing it 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:20.960 as musical mayhem on one hand and then a predictable 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:23.240 gimmick on the other. It's incredibly polarized. 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:25.800 It is. We want to understand what happens when 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:27.979 you take heavy metal tape loops and suck them 00:02:27.979 --> 00:02:30.319 into what one critic calls a black hole of a 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:32.939 mixing board. It makes for a fascinating case 00:02:32.939 --> 00:02:35.979 study because it forces us to ask you, the listener, 00:02:36.139 --> 00:02:38.800 where is the line between a masterpiece of the 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:41.580 avant -garde and just a total mess? Is there 00:02:41.580 --> 00:02:43.699 a method to the madness? Exactly. Well, let's 00:02:43.699 --> 00:02:45.620 start with the sound itself, because before we 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:47.639 get to the critics fighting over whether it's 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:49.979 genius or trash, we need to try and actually 00:02:49.979 --> 00:02:52.259 describe what this thing sounds like to the human 00:02:52.259 --> 00:02:54.750 ear. Which is not easy. No, but we have this 00:02:54.750 --> 00:02:57.710 incredibly vivid description from critic Jeff 00:02:57.710 --> 00:03:00.990 Bogato of the Washington City paper. Bogato is 00:03:00.990 --> 00:03:03.750 great here. He moves past that initial shock 00:03:03.750 --> 00:03:06.469 value and actually analyzes the ingredients. 00:03:06.750 --> 00:03:08.990 He identifies their toolkit. Right, the actual 00:03:08.990 --> 00:03:11.469 instruments. Yeah, which includes Moog synthesizers, 00:03:11.530 --> 00:03:14.969 bass, guitar, and this is the crucial part, extensive 00:03:14.969 --> 00:03:18.099 tape manipulation. I want to pause on that term, 00:03:18.199 --> 00:03:20.699 tape manipulation, because for the listener who 00:03:20.699 --> 00:03:22.620 lives in the digital age, who might be used to 00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:25.419 just drag and drop in GarageBand or Pro Tools, 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:28.719 we aren't talking about copy pasting a digital 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:31.419 file here. Oh, no, not at all. This is the mid 00:03:31.419 --> 00:03:33.960 -90s, but the technique they're using is very 00:03:33.960 --> 00:03:37.199 old school, very tactile. Physical? Highly physical. 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:39.740 Tape manipulation means actually cutting magnetic 00:03:39.740 --> 00:03:42.439 tape with a razor blade. You splice it back together 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:44.699 with sticky tape to create loops that repeat 00:03:44.699 --> 00:03:47.780 physically over the tape head. or you're slowing 00:03:47.780 --> 00:03:49.939 the reels down with your thumb. So it's a destructive 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:52.680 process. It's totally destructive. You are physically 00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:55.500 manhandling the sound. And Bogato points out 00:03:55.500 --> 00:03:57.780 a specific source for these manipulated sounds. 00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:00.360 He knows that heavy metal records are particularly 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:03.580 in evidence. Right. But they aren't just playing 00:04:03.580 --> 00:04:05.460 a metal record in the background while they do 00:04:05.460 --> 00:04:08.400 other stuff. Bogato specifically says they are 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:10.900 being sucked into the black hole of Tom Smith's 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:12.990 mixing board. I absolutely love that metaphor, 00:04:13.110 --> 00:04:16.170 the black hole. It implies this massive gravity. 00:04:16.290 --> 00:04:19.850 It suggests gravity, density, spaghettification 00:04:19.850 --> 00:04:22.889 of the audio. You take these recognizable elements 00:04:22.889 --> 00:04:25.129 like a heavy metal guitar riff or a drum fill 00:04:25.129 --> 00:04:27.430 and you feed them into this machine that just 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:30.089 warps and crushes them. Vigato describes the 00:04:30.089 --> 00:04:32.610 final result as being condensed into piles of 00:04:32.610 --> 00:04:36.449 slurred, guttural ranting, static, and broken 00:04:36.449 --> 00:04:39.389 rock. Broken rock. That phrase really stuck with 00:04:39.389 --> 00:04:41.550 me when I was reviewing the source notes. Broken 00:04:41.550 --> 00:04:44.009 rock. It implies that the rock music is still 00:04:44.009 --> 00:04:46.189 in there somewhere, but it's been smashed with 00:04:46.189 --> 00:04:48.730 a hammer and glued back together wrong. And that 00:04:48.730 --> 00:04:50.810 aligns perfectly with a description from another 00:04:50.810 --> 00:04:52.790 source we looked at, Aiding and Abetting. They 00:04:52.790 --> 00:04:54.629 characterized the album as a nice collection 00:04:54.629 --> 00:04:58.089 of random musical violence. Random musical violence. 00:04:59.129 --> 00:05:01.529 Which sounds aggressive, but aiding and abetting 00:05:01.529 --> 00:05:04.029 actually meant it as a compliment. They absolutely 00:05:04.029 --> 00:05:07.509 did. In this genre, violence is a texture. It's 00:05:07.509 --> 00:05:10.410 a deliberate aesthetic choice. It's not accidental. 00:05:10.649 --> 00:05:13.089 It's crafted. Right. But to understand how that 00:05:13.089 --> 00:05:14.870 violence is crafted, we really had to look at 00:05:14.870 --> 00:05:18.170 the personnel. Who is actually making this noise? 00:05:18.269 --> 00:05:20.970 It's primarily a trio. Let's meet the band, yeah. 00:05:21.110 --> 00:05:23.649 Because these aren't just faceless entities creating 00:05:23.649 --> 00:05:26.189 static. They're specific people working in a 00:05:26.189 --> 00:05:28.589 specific place. First up, you have Tom Smith. 00:05:29.220 --> 00:05:31.779 He is really the architect here. The liner notes 00:05:31.779 --> 00:05:34.279 credit him with lead vocals, tape, electronics, 00:05:34.579 --> 00:05:36.879 engineering, recording, and mixing. So he's the 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:39.199 guy operating the black hole. He is the singularity, 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:41.160 yes. He's the one cutting the tape and writing 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:43.100 the faders. Yeah. Then you have Frank Filestra, 00:05:43.220 --> 00:05:45.259 who is credited on the album under the spectacular 00:05:45.259 --> 00:05:48.180 pseudonym Rat Bastard. Which is amazing. He's 00:05:48.180 --> 00:05:50.600 playing bass guitar. Yeah. And finally, Ben Wolcott 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:53.149 on electronics. Rap Bastard is such a perfect 00:05:53.149 --> 00:05:56.029 stage name for a project like this. It fits that 00:05:56.029 --> 00:06:00.129 dirty, abrasive vibe perfectly. I mean, you don't 00:06:00.129 --> 00:06:01.670 name yourself Rap Bastard if you're trying to 00:06:01.670 --> 00:06:04.329 make smooth jazz. No, you certainly do not. So 00:06:04.329 --> 00:06:07.269 you have this trio creating this massive wall 00:06:07.269 --> 00:06:09.930 of sound. And interestingly, even though this 00:06:09.930 --> 00:06:13.290 album came out in August of 96, The sources tell 00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:15.490 us this wasn't fresh out of the oven. Right. 00:06:15.649 --> 00:06:17.829 This material had been marinating for quite a 00:06:17.829 --> 00:06:19.810 while. The recording sessions actually took place 00:06:19.810 --> 00:06:23.610 much earlier, spanning from 1993 to 1994, and 00:06:23.610 --> 00:06:25.990 they recorded at Sync Studios in Miami, Florida. 00:06:26.550 --> 00:06:29.310 Miami in the early 90s. That is such an interesting 00:06:29.310 --> 00:06:32.240 setting to me. Oh, why is that? Well, usually 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:34.060 when you think of this kind of gritty industrial 00:06:34.060 --> 00:06:37.300 noise, you picture Berlin or the Lower East Side 00:06:37.300 --> 00:06:39.180 of New York, maybe Detroit. You don't think of 00:06:39.180 --> 00:06:42.420 Miami. Miami is sunshine, beaches, the club scene. 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:45.240 It really adds a layer of sweltering heat to 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:47.279 the mental image, doesn't it? Totally. Just imagine 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:49.600 these three guys in a dark, soundproof studio 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:53.220 in Miami. The sun is blazing outside, and they're 00:06:53.220 --> 00:06:56.600 inside feeding metal records into a mixer, screaming 00:06:56.600 --> 00:06:59.079 into a microphone, sweating over these tape loops. 00:06:59.579 --> 00:07:02.110 It's visceral. It paints a very intense picture. 00:07:02.209 --> 00:07:05.750 It's not cold, mechanical noise. It's hot, sweaty, 00:07:05.990 --> 00:07:09.149 organic noise. And that intensity is exactly 00:07:09.149 --> 00:07:11.610 what polarized the critics. This is where I want 00:07:11.610 --> 00:07:13.149 to dig in, because when you release something 00:07:13.149 --> 00:07:16.430 this abrasive, people are going to have incredibly 00:07:16.430 --> 00:07:18.569 strong reactions. There was absolutely no middle 00:07:18.569 --> 00:07:21.350 ground with this release. It's the classic dichotomy 00:07:21.350 --> 00:07:25.129 of experimental art. One person's trash is literally 00:07:25.129 --> 00:07:28.069 another person's treasure. On the positive side, 00:07:28.170 --> 00:07:30.110 like we mentioned, we have the folks at Aiding 00:07:30.110 --> 00:07:31.790 and Abetting. Right. They didn't just call it 00:07:31.790 --> 00:07:34.189 musical violence. They noted that To Live and 00:07:34.189 --> 00:07:37.050 Shave in L .A. already had a fine reputation 00:07:37.050 --> 00:07:39.970 for this sort of musical mayhem and that this 00:07:39.970 --> 00:07:42.410 album does not disappoint. So if you're a fan 00:07:42.410 --> 00:07:44.810 of mayhem, this is the good stuff. They are delivering 00:07:44.810 --> 00:07:47.050 on the brand promise. Exactly. The fans knew 00:07:47.050 --> 00:07:48.949 what they were getting into and they were satisfied. 00:07:49.170 --> 00:07:51.790 And Jeff Bogato at the Washington City Paper, 00:07:51.870 --> 00:07:54.629 the black hole guy. Yeah. He also seemed to really 00:07:54.629 --> 00:07:57.829 engage with it. Got it. He appreciated that broken 00:07:57.829 --> 00:08:00.689 rock aesthetic. He saw the craft in the destruction. 00:08:01.029 --> 00:08:03.029 He understood that breaking the rock was the 00:08:03.029 --> 00:08:05.709 entire point of the exercise. However, not everyone 00:08:05.709 --> 00:08:07.790 was willing to go along for that ride. Definitely 00:08:07.790 --> 00:08:10.329 not. If we look at the review from AllMusic, 00:08:10.689 --> 00:08:14.149 the tone shifts drastically. They gave the album 00:08:14.149 --> 00:08:17.730 only two out of five stars. Ouch. Two stars. 00:08:18.050 --> 00:08:21.350 That is a solid stay -away warning for any listener. 00:08:21.589 --> 00:08:23.949 What was their specific beef with the album? 00:08:24.540 --> 00:08:26.740 Well, where Bogato heard Broken Rock and these 00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:29.639 interesting textures, All Music heard a disturbing 00:08:29.639 --> 00:08:32.360 cacophony melted on in several short pieces. 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:35.820 A disturbing cacophony. Yeah. But the most cutting 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:38.259 criticism, and I think this is the one we really 00:08:38.259 --> 00:08:40.820 need to unpack, was that they called it a predictable 00:08:40.820 --> 00:08:44.399 gimmick that wears thin early. Predictable gimmick? 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:46.980 That's harsh. I mean, calling noise music cacophony 00:08:46.980 --> 00:08:48.720 feels a bit like stating the obvious, that's 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:50.860 the genre. It's like complaining that water is 00:08:50.860 --> 00:08:52.980 wet. Right. But calling it a predictable gimmick 00:08:52.980 --> 00:08:56.080 implies that it's insincere. Or lazy, almost. 00:08:56.500 --> 00:08:59.279 It raises a massive philosophical question about 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:01.580 the genre itself. What makes something a gimmick? 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:04.860 The critic at AllMusic seems to feel that once 00:09:04.860 --> 00:09:07.509 you get the joke... Once you figure out the technique 00:09:07.509 --> 00:09:10.389 of the tape loops and the statics, there's nothing 00:09:10.389 --> 00:09:12.429 else there to hold your interest. The novelty 00:09:12.429 --> 00:09:15.169 just wore off for them. But I have to play dull's 00:09:15.169 --> 00:09:17.830 advocate here. For the fans of the genre, isn't 00:09:17.830 --> 00:09:20.450 that wearing thin almost the point? It's about 00:09:20.450 --> 00:09:23.090 endurance. It's about sitting in that static 00:09:23.090 --> 00:09:25.309 and forcing yourself to find the texture inside 00:09:25.309 --> 00:09:29.269 the chaos. Precisely. The disturbing cacophony 00:09:29.269 --> 00:09:32.879 is the feature. Not the bug. It is entirely subjective. 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:35.340 If you are willing to engage with the texture 00:09:35.340 --> 00:09:37.519 of the sound on a micro level, it just sounds 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:39.720 like noise. But if you do engage. If you are 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:43.019 engaged, it's a complex landscape of slurred, 00:09:43.019 --> 00:09:45.379 guttural ranting and layered electronics. Well, 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:46.940 speaking of endurance, we have to talk about 00:09:46.940 --> 00:09:49.340 the sheer scale of this thing. Because if AllMusic 00:09:49.340 --> 00:09:51.740 thought it wore thin early, they must have had 00:09:51.740 --> 00:09:53.960 a really rough afternoon reviewing this. This 00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:56.279 is not a short EP. It is a monolith. The total 00:09:56.279 --> 00:09:59.179 runtime is 70 minutes and 47 seconds. Over an 00:09:59.179 --> 00:10:03.019 hour. Over an hour of broken rock, screaming, 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:06.720 and static. That is a huge ask for any listener. 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:09.279 It demands total attention. And it's not just 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:12.019 one long continuous droning track either. It 00:10:12.019 --> 00:10:14.159 is chopped up aggressively. Right. I'm looking 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:17.200 at the track list here. There are 37 individual 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:20.320 tracks. 37. So the average track length is incredibly 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:23.500 short. Some of them are just rapid bursts of 00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:25.720 sound. And looking at this track list, the titles 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:28.460 alone are a wild trip. We can't do a deep dive 00:10:28.460 --> 00:10:30.399 on this album without reading some of these out. 00:10:30.500 --> 00:10:32.860 They seem to be a huge part of the overall art 00:10:32.860 --> 00:10:36.000 piece. The titles are essential. They frame how 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:38.100 you the listener are supposed to interpret the 00:10:38.100 --> 00:10:40.620 abstract sounds. They range from the completely 00:10:40.620 --> 00:10:44.389 surreal to the aggressively provocative. They're 00:10:44.389 --> 00:10:46.490 designed to keep you off balance. Aggressively 00:10:46.490 --> 00:10:48.710 provocative is putting it mildly. As a reminder, 00:10:48.830 --> 00:10:51.029 we are just reporting these neutrally as factual 00:10:51.029 --> 00:10:53.090 components of the art. I'm looking at track four 00:10:53.090 --> 00:10:55.990 here, The Ass God. A classic of the genre. Simple, 00:10:56.110 --> 00:10:59.129 direct, offensive. And then track 11. This one 00:10:59.129 --> 00:11:02.070 has a strange rhythm to it. Crypt rocket, tomb 00:11:02.070 --> 00:11:05.070 rocket, turd rocket. It's almost poetic in a 00:11:05.070 --> 00:11:07.289 very scatological way. It sounds like a nursery 00:11:07.289 --> 00:11:09.870 rhyme from hell. Then there's track six, Shit 00:11:09.870 --> 00:11:12.750 If They Hit. And track 19, which I'm just going 00:11:12.750 --> 00:11:14.830 to read as it appears on the page. Censorship 00:11:14.830 --> 00:11:18.149 be damned. Want to bust up a virgin ass. It's 00:11:18.149 --> 00:11:20.649 highly confrontational. It mirrors the sonic 00:11:20.649 --> 00:11:23.190 violence perfectly. These titles aren't meant 00:11:23.190 --> 00:11:25.470 to make you feel comfortable or safe. They are 00:11:25.470 --> 00:11:27.870 designed to shock you, to disgust you, or just 00:11:27.870 --> 00:11:31.169 completely confuse you. Right. It forces a reaction. 00:11:31.429 --> 00:11:34.350 You simply cannot be passive when you read a 00:11:34.350 --> 00:11:36.450 track list like that. But then right next to 00:11:36.450 --> 00:11:38.809 all that vulgar stuff, you have titles that sound 00:11:38.809 --> 00:11:42.769 weirdly academic. Yeah. Or abstract, like track 00:11:42.769 --> 00:11:45.690 13 Mizrahi Speculum. Speculum obviously has medical 00:11:45.690 --> 00:11:48.029 connotations, which continues that body horror 00:11:48.029 --> 00:11:50.529 theme. Or track seven Spelvin the Righteous Bush. 00:11:50.710 --> 00:11:53.750 Or track 21 Rexroth Cozy Cool. It creates this 00:11:53.750 --> 00:11:56.970 disorienting mix of highbrow obscurity and lowbrow 00:11:56.970 --> 00:11:59.389 vulgarity. Yeah. And it's that juxtaposition 00:11:59.389 --> 00:12:01.610 that really defines the band. Are they avant 00:12:01.610 --> 00:12:03.830 -garde geniuses or are they just making a mess 00:12:03.830 --> 00:12:06.009 to make a mess? The titles keep that specific 00:12:06.009 --> 00:12:08.470 question alive. And we should note, according 00:12:08.470 --> 00:12:11.009 to the credits, almost all the lyrics here were 00:12:11.009 --> 00:12:13.570 written by Tom Smith. Yes. Smith handled the 00:12:13.570 --> 00:12:16.289 lyrics, while the music is credited to the entire 00:12:16.289 --> 00:12:20.269 trio, Philestra, Smith, and Wolcott. So the sonic 00:12:20.269 --> 00:12:22.809 landscape was a group effort, but the verbal 00:12:22.809 --> 00:12:25.669 ranting and these wild titles seemed to be largely 00:12:25.669 --> 00:12:28.549 Smith's overarching vision. Now, amidst all these 00:12:28.549 --> 00:12:30.750 original tracks, things like I Learned to Inject 00:12:30.750 --> 00:12:33.610 Morpheo or My Third Decade of Ultra Fuck, just 00:12:33.610 --> 00:12:35.289 to name a couple more, there is one track that 00:12:35.289 --> 00:12:37.210 stands out like a sore thumb because it's actually 00:12:37.210 --> 00:12:41.159 not an original composition. Yes, track 28. Television's 00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:43.379 over. Wait, this is a cover song. It is indeed. 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:46.200 It's a cover of a song by The Adverts, which 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:48.779 was a British punk band from the late 70s. The 00:12:48.779 --> 00:12:51.519 original track was written by T .B. Smith. That 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:54.080 is fascinating. So in the middle of 37 tracks 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:56.379 of experimental noise and brutal tape loops, 00:12:56.559 --> 00:12:59.250 they drop a punk cover. Why do that? If we connect 00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:00.809 this to the bigger picture, it makes perfect 00:13:00.809 --> 00:13:03.110 sense. Punk was always about breaking the rules, 00:13:03.190 --> 00:13:05.649 right? About raw energy and untrained expression. 00:13:06.269 --> 00:13:09.169 To live and shave in LA is taking that exact 00:13:09.169 --> 00:13:11.950 ethos and just pushing it to its absolute logical 00:13:11.950 --> 00:13:15.629 limit. So it's an homage. Covering the adverts 00:13:15.629 --> 00:13:19.370 acts as a sort of nod to their lineage. They 00:13:19.370 --> 00:13:22.110 are acknowledging their punk roots, even if they're... 00:13:22.299 --> 00:13:24.879 processing those roots through a black hole of 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:26.679 electronics. It's like a little anchor in the 00:13:26.679 --> 00:13:28.740 storm. For a listener, you might hear a faint 00:13:28.740 --> 00:13:30.759 chord change and think, oh, wait, I recognize 00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:33.600 a song structure here. And then presumably it 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.919 just gets eaten by the static again. Highly likely, 00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:38.860 yes. It's also almost four minutes long, which 00:13:38.860 --> 00:13:40.879 actually makes it one of the longer tracks on 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.279 the entire album. Many of these are quite short. 00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:46.379 First pop novices under a minute. tina russell 00:13:46.379 --> 00:13:49.299 free is barely over a minute it really is a barrage 00:13:49.299 --> 00:13:52.120 just short bursts of noise one right after another 00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:55.159 which again explains that cacophony melted on 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:57.519 in several short pieces comment from the all 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:00.039 music review it's relentless it deliberately 00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:02.059 doesn't let you settle into any kind of groove 00:14:02.059 --> 00:14:04.480 just when you think you finally understand the 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:06.960 noise the track changes and you're hit with a 00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:10.080 totally new texture So we've got the sound, we've 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:12.740 got the track list, we've got the attitude. Let's 00:14:12.740 --> 00:14:14.639 talk about the physical object itself, because 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:16.960 someone had to actually manufacture and release 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:19.059 this thing. You don't just find this at a standard 00:14:19.059 --> 00:14:22.139 record shop. No, this is definitely not a mass 00:14:22.139 --> 00:14:24.879 market product. The album was released on CD 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:28.620 by a label called Full Contact Records. The catalog 00:14:28.620 --> 00:14:30.659 number for the serious collectors out there listening 00:14:30.659 --> 00:14:35.879 is 9868 -63235. Full contact records. Again, 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:38.860 the name fits the vibe so perfectly. It implies 00:14:38.860 --> 00:14:41.259 a physical altercation. You don't put this kind 00:14:41.259 --> 00:14:43.840 of audio out on Gentle Breeze Records. It absolutely 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:46.299 does. And looking at the credits for the physical 00:14:46.299 --> 00:14:48.779 release, it's clear there was a whole dedicated 00:14:48.779 --> 00:14:51.320 team behind the presentation. This wasn't just 00:14:51.320 --> 00:14:53.200 some bootleg cassette passed around a basement 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:56.320 show. Zolman Fishman is listed as the executive 00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:58.950 producer. And visuals are always huge for this 00:14:58.950 --> 00:15:00.570 kind of thing, right? The noise aesthetic usually 00:15:00.570 --> 00:15:02.950 extends heavily into the album art and the packaging 00:15:02.950 --> 00:15:05.210 itself. It does. We see photography credits for 00:15:05.210 --> 00:15:07.470 a whole team here, Priscilla Forthman, Sam Patton, 00:15:07.470 --> 00:15:09.970 and Angela Terrell. And we also have liner notes 00:15:09.970 --> 00:15:13.070 written by Greg Chapman. Liner notes seem incredibly 00:15:13.070 --> 00:15:15.889 crucial for a release like this. In experimental 00:15:15.889 --> 00:15:18.610 music, liner notes are often vital. They give 00:15:18.610 --> 00:15:21.639 the listener some kind of roadmap. or if not 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:24.039 a roadmap, at least a manifesto, something to 00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:26.799 read and ground yourself with while your ears 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:29.899 are just being assaulted. It contextualizes the 00:15:29.899 --> 00:15:32.399 chaos. It shows that despite the chaotic sound, 00:15:32.519 --> 00:15:35.240 this was a carefully packaged product. They wanted 00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:38.159 this to look and feel a very specific way. It's 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:41.049 a complete art object. Absolutely. So what does 00:15:41.049 --> 00:15:43.009 this all mean for us today? We've looked at the 00:15:43.009 --> 00:15:45.070 black hole production style, the random musical 00:15:45.070 --> 00:15:48.289 violence, the totally polarized reviews, and 00:15:48.289 --> 00:15:51.110 this absolute marathon of a track list. I think 00:15:51.110 --> 00:15:53.330 what's most fascinating here is that Helen Butte 00:15:53.330 --> 00:15:56.220 vs. Masana Busy Bad Smell essentially serves 00:15:56.220 --> 00:15:58.960 as a litmus test. A litmus test for what exactly? 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:00.720 For the listener's relationship with structure. 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:03.259 Jeff Begato in Aiding and Abetting looked at 00:16:03.259 --> 00:16:05.919 this and saw a fine reputation upheld. They saw 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:07.940 the broken rock and the heavy metal tape loops 00:16:07.940 --> 00:16:11.940 as a brilliant, creative deconstruction. They 00:16:11.940 --> 00:16:14.000 saw the skill required in the mixing board manipulation. 00:16:14.419 --> 00:16:16.879 They recognized the labor. And the folks at AllMusic 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:19.940 saw a headache. They saw a gimmick. They saw 00:16:19.940 --> 00:16:22.720 something disturbing and predictable. And in 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:25.440 a strange way, Both perspectives are completely 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:29.059 right. Noise music. is a gimmick if you're actively 00:16:29.059 --> 00:16:32.480 looking for a Trudeville song. But it's a masterpiece 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:34.980 if you're looking for an exploration of texture. 00:16:35.240 --> 00:16:37.399 It reminds me of that old idea that art isn't 00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:40.080 necessarily supposed to be nice. It's supposed 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:42.940 to make you feel something. And whether that 00:16:42.940 --> 00:16:45.820 feeling is, wow, look at this complex sonic landscape 00:16:45.820 --> 00:16:48.879 or make it stop. This is pure cacophony. It's 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.799 certainly eliciting a very strong reaction. Exactly. 00:16:52.059 --> 00:16:54.600 To live and shave in L .A., didn't spend a year 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:56.919 in a hot studio in Miami to make background music. 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.039 for you they wanted to grab you by the collar 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:01.259 yeah the fact that the album is 70 minutes long 00:17:01.259 --> 00:17:04.339 with 37 tracks proves they are actively demanding 00:17:04.339 --> 00:17:06.799 your attention they demand you sit through the 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:09.940 slurred ranting and the static they are daring 00:17:09.940 --> 00:17:12.039 you to turn it off and honestly in a world of 00:17:12.039 --> 00:17:14.940 polished auto -tuned pop music there is something 00:17:14.940 --> 00:17:16.920 kind of refreshing about a band that just wants 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:19.140 to throw heavy metal records into a black hole 00:17:19.140 --> 00:17:22.079 and see what spits out the other side it preserves 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:27.519 a certain raw human chaos that is so often polished 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:31.160 out of modern music. It's messy, it's ugly, and 00:17:31.160 --> 00:17:34.000 it's completely unapologetic. So here's the final 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:35.720 thought I want to leave you with today as we 00:17:35.720 --> 00:17:38.420 wrap up this deep dive. We talked about how all 00:17:38.420 --> 00:17:40.700 music called this a predictable gimmick, but 00:17:40.700 --> 00:17:42.859 I want you to really think about that word predictable. 00:17:43.220 --> 00:17:45.779 Go on. When you look at a track list featuring 00:17:45.779 --> 00:17:49.019 Crypt Rocket and the Ascot, and you hear relentless 00:17:49.019 --> 00:17:52.460 take loops of Broken Rock, at what point does 00:17:52.460 --> 00:17:55.700 disturbing cacophony cross the line? When does 00:17:55.700 --> 00:17:58.660 the pure shock value actually just become boring? 00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:00.839 That is always the danger of the avant -garde. 00:18:00.900 --> 00:18:03.140 If you shock constantly, the shock just becomes 00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:05.900 the new routine. Exactly. But maybe that's the 00:18:05.900 --> 00:18:08.619 final layer of the experiment. Maybe the moment 00:18:08.619 --> 00:18:10.640 you decide to hit skip or the moment you finally 00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:12.819 rip the CD out of the player because you can't 00:18:12.819 --> 00:18:15.380 take it anymore, maybe your breaking point is 00:18:15.380 --> 00:18:17.579 the final instrument in their composition. You 00:18:17.579 --> 00:18:20.680 become part of the noise. Right. So are you willing 00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:23.420 to sit through 37 tracks to find out if track 00:18:23.420 --> 00:18:26.579 36 is different from track one? I guess the only 00:18:26.579 --> 00:18:28.980 way to truly know is to find a copy of Helen 00:18:28.980 --> 00:18:32.660 Butte vs. Masana Pussy Bad Smell, clear 70 minutes 00:18:32.660 --> 00:18:35.019 of your schedule, and dive right into the black 00:18:35.019 --> 00:18:37.599 hole yourself. Maybe keep the volume down a little 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:40.819 bit. Or don't. Or crank it up. Depends entirely 00:18:40.819 --> 00:18:43.039 on how much you like your neighbors. Thanks for 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:45.019 joining us on this deep dive. Catch you next 00:18:45.019 --> 00:18:45.259 time.