Pussy Galore - Groovy Hate Fuck (1986)

You think you can handle the lo-fi, motherfucker? Uhm, huh. Both genders have their... uh. Hipster angst more provocative than, hmmm. Is that a chord? You look like a Jew? Is more than, the, amateur, provoc-

URRGHHHHHH HNNNNNGGGGGGGGG ALRIGHT

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here

Pussy Galore - Right Now! (1987)

Similar to Harry Pussy and it's not just 'cause both their names mention pussy which is arguably the reason both bands exist- hipper than thou deconstructionist rock for (uh) hipsters and sexually frustrated losers. But where Harry Pussy began to understand their noise and use it to express something genuine, Pussy Galore collapse in a heap of postmodern rock n roll mockery and excess. To channel the Stones' drug-ness and blues-ness but have your tongue in cheek in order to mock the Stones' drug-ness and blues-ness regardless of your own drug problems and blues riffs

Dumb but thrilling. Fuck You, Man is him screaming Fuck you, man! White Noise is white trash!

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sample

Royal Trux - Cats and Dogs (1993)

Where our favourite junkie couple almost sounded like the rock bands they were either mocking or imitating. Whereas Dinosaur Jr could kinda channel Neil Young when they needed to, Royal Trux would write half a Stones riff then maybe accidentally fall into Trout Mask Replica worship or something more minimal. Maybe it's the amateurism that stops them at that point and has me thinking about Half Japanese and other lo-fi weirdos, but Cats and Dogs very nearly rocks hard. Their duets sound like they're about to lose it, and the songs themselves very nearly collapse before they stop or go on a Thurston Moore-like tangent in which cases the band rock weirdly and they do it exceptionally well. The sneers are there and so is the sleaze, it's avant-garde junkie blues punk at its best

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buy

Royal Trux - Twin Infinitives (1990)

1. Solid Gold Tooth/Ice Cream/Jet Pet/RTX-USA/Kool Down Wheels (16:19)

2. Chances Are the Comets in Our Future/Yin Jim Versus the Vomit Creature (16:46)

3. (Edge of the) Ape Oven (15:03)

4. Florida Avenue Theme/Lick MyBoots/Glitterburst/Funky Son/Ratcreeps (20:31)

Twin Infinitives is a very polarizing album. You'll either think its incredible or awful. Moreso than a lot of albums of its kind, people who are open to experimental music can hate it just as much as those who aren't

So you've got

1) pretentious avant-garde bullshit played by junkies
2) the second step in the deconstruction of rock n roll
3) Trout Mask Replica for generation x
4) unlistenable shit

which is the usual difference of opinions you get- it's either pretentious and unlistenable or intentionally unlistenable for the sake of some greater project- i.e. deconstructing music, and so it is not dissimilar to undisputed all time great album x

but then you get

5) I love Trout Mask Replica but this is unlistenable (not pretentious, just bad)
6) this is more and less than you expect: it's neither consciously deconstructing the way you listen to music, nor is it bad by any means. It just is.

Seeing how long and famously difficult it is (if these tracks were split into individual tracks I probably wouldn't have found it so taxing), I was actually nervous about listening to it for the first time at work! I thought I was undertaking a big project for some reason. The first time I listened to someone like Merzbow I got used to the noise within a few minutes and then found the experience refreshing and exciting. Twin Infinitives is not like that though. It occasionally does something relatable or recognisable and then departs on some other bizarre avant-noise-rock tangent. The fact that the tracks are grouped together in this way makes each one feel more dependent on the next, so even though you occasionally go hey, I like that!, you know it's only a temporary thing and so the whole listening process is very uneasy.

Romantic in the most gen x way, it sounds like the couple didn't leave their room for a few weeks, recording music for only themselves. I find this makes listening to the album more enjoyable than the Royal Trux are two geniuses self-consciously deconstructing the way we listen to music theory. At the same time though, Neil Michael Hagerty played for Pussy Galore who are nowhere near as strange as this, so there must be some sort of ideology or it'd just sound like bluesy noise rock. He's obviously capable of more than the excellent amateurism that I want to give him credit for. Still, I'm more happy believing that Cats and Dogs is a deconstructionist album because it emulates so much more of the sounds that it deconstructs. It's so close to being conventional but constantly undercuts itself and collapses in a noisy heap. Twin Infinitives is the noisy heaps from Cats and Dogs taken to the extreme and there's really nothing like it. So I can't tell whether it's an intellectual project for rock critics to celebrate and loathe, or a romantically amateurish mess like lo-fi don't give a fuck about music theory guys Half Japanese, just more avant-garde than Jonathan Richman. It would be corny to end this with maybe it just is... Give it time, it's not unlistenable. If you want to think it's a consciously difficult project for intellectual means, then that's cool, think that. If you want to think it's unpretentious lo-fi goodness by way of fuck I don't know there's really nothing else like it- The Dead C?, then think that! It's a disgusting mess and I love it.

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