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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