When we speak about hope and passion, what we do quite a lot, there is also a lot of place for extremes, right? Why? Because hope and passion are extremes, hope keeps you moving in the darkest moments and passions makes you do things that might look completely strange to others. A band which is driven by nothing else than these things is THE LOCUST. The San Diego, USA, based musical group is known for their unique mix of grindcore, speed, aggression, complexity and new wave weirdness. Also the word “Blackjazz” comes to my mind when I listen to these guys’ tunes. Sometime back in the mid-1990s they started as a powerviolence band with strong tendency to synth-based passages. A band about that Pitchfork.com says “You hear it in every not they play: THE LOCUST simply love what they do. With Plague Soundscapes, THE LOCUST shot broken bones and wound up epitomizing ‘breakneck’. Have you been injured by accident?” – yes I’ve been. My mind is bleeding. My ears are hurting and I’m laying on the floor with eyes rolled. Maybe it’s because of the music, maybe because of the summer. Maybe because of the combination. On thing is for sure with their latest release, Molecular Genetics From The Gold Standard Labs (via Anti), THE LOCUST hit me hard. And this is what I want these days: 44 (!!!) tracks of hard-to-find and out-of-print material from the early years of this legendary band.
The band’s membership has proved a veritable “Who’s Who” of the punk royalty. Joseph Karam (synths / vocals) also plays with ONE DAY AS A LION, Justin Peason was in SOME GIRLS, ALL LEATHER and played on the recent RETOX album with Gabe Serbian. Former participants have included TRISTEZA / THE ALBUM LEAF / GOGOGO AIRHEART / CRIMSON CURSE’s Jimmy LaValle, to TARANTULA HAWK’s Dave Warshaw and Dylan Scharf, and CATTLE DECAPITATION’s David Astor. In the process they have created a singular body of work, and an important piece of that appears no on Molecular Genetics From The Gold Standard Labs, collecting of the first time all of the band’s pre-Epitaph recordings.
No matter if you are a fan of THE LOCUST like me or if you never heard about them: check out these tunes and try to resist. And even if you don’t this is exceptional, this is amazing, this is passion that can be heard. Let this be the day of THE LOCUST today!
Be warned: the videos are both NSFW!
Tracklist:
01. How to Become a Virgin
02. Who Wants a Dose of the Clap?
03. Twenty-Three Lubed-Up Schizophrenics With Delusions of Grandeur
04. Priest With the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Get Out of My Bed
05. The Half-Eaten Sausage Would Like to See You in His Office
06. Perils of Believing in Round Squares
07. Flash’s Theme
08. Gluing Carpet to Your Genitals Does Not Make You a Cantaloupe
09. Turning Your Merchandise Into a Ripped Wall of Mini-Abs
10. Bring Your 6.5 Italian
11. Alas, Here Come the Hypochondriacs to Wait With You in the Lobby
12. Siphoning Projectiles During Selective Amnesia
13. Flight of the Wounded Locust
14. Get Off the Cross, the Wood Is Needed
15. Wet Nurse Syndrome Hand-Me-Down Display Case
16. This Is Radio Surgery
17. Spitting in the Faces of Fools as a Source of Nutrition
18. Sever the Toes
19. Well I’ll Be a Monkey’s Uncle
20. Moth-Eaten Deer Head
21. Brand New Set of Teeth
22. How to Build a Pessimistic Lie Detector
23. Nice Tranquil Thumb in Mouth
24. Dog Without a Collar (Run over Red Rover)
25. Normal Run of the Muck (Compensation for Conversation)
26. Stucco Obelisks Labeled as Trees
27. Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
28. An Extra Piece of Dead Meat
29. Twenty-Three Full-Time Cowboys
30. Backbones of Jack Asses
31. Fixed Companionship, Ghost Town Irrationality
32. Skin Graft at Seventy-Five Miles Per Hour
33. High-Maintenance Libido, Bring the Whole Family
34. Halfway to a Worthless Ideal Arrangement (An Interlude to a Discontinued Sarcastic Harmony… Yea Whatever)
35. Kill Roger Hedgecock
36. Hairspray Suppository
37. Cattle Mutilation
38. Prepare to Qualify
39. Pain Reliever
40. Off by a Long Shot
41. #99
42. Head Hits Concrete
43. Ass Gravity
44. Keep Off the Tracks
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THE LOCUST
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grindcore / mathcore / noise
from San Diego, California, USA
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