Scratch Acid played a huge part in the noisy
underground movement of the 1980s; they took
punk to the dirtiest, dingiest mudhole they could find and sullied it from top to bottom until it looked and sounded like some hell-bound bogeyman. It's not too far-fetched to think of
Scratch Acid as the American equivalent of
the Birthday Party, the Texans donning the mantle that was dropped when
the BP disbanded.
The Greatest Gift contains everything the band ever recorded, including a few lo-fidelity instrumentals.
Scratch Acid never received the notice it deserved, but the musicians could pound out brilliantly frenzied and highly original
post-punk/
noise rock that sometimes rivals the material released by singer
David Yow and bassist
David Sims' future (and much more well known) project,
the Jesus Lizard. The first eight songs were originally released in 1984 as an eponymous EP; from the opening crashing bars of
"Cannibal" to the terrifying lyrics heard on
"Lay Screaming" (a song which reads like something culled from a medieval book about torture), this band obviously never had any desire to control itself. Only one slight reprieve can be found in the relatively tender
"Owner's Lament," a song replete with weeping strings. Songs nine through 20 first saw the light of a sickly day as
Just Keep Eating,
Scratch Acid's one and only full-length that found the band expanding its musical palette: insane
noise rock numbers (
"Eyeball," "Holes"), jaunty, faux
lounge grooves (
"Amicus"), goofy
Zeppelin-esque riffs (
"Cheese Plug"), and a spot-on cover of the
Webber-
Rice rocker
"Damned for All Time," complete with exclamatory horns. The remainder of the disc comprises the songs from their definitive statement, the 1987
Berserker EP. A little more money went into this recording; as the sound quality is better than on
Just Keep Eating, it was definitely worth it.
"Mary Had a Little Drug Problem" and
"Flying Houses" are whirlwinds of pounding drums, foreboding basslines, and scathing, blinding guitar phrases. The band never played so well or wrote better songs. Highly recommended to any
Jesus Lizard fan and
noise rock/
hardcore punk aficionado. ~ Will Lerner
