Year: 1997Label: Alternative Tentacles
Style: Industrial
Location: The 99 Cent Store
Medium: CD
Condition: New
Dollar diamond or dud: Dud
Info: I've often said that the only time that it really pays to know about music is when you're hunting around the bargain bins, but, sadly, that same knowledge can burn you when it comes boiling over. Case in point, I turned over the hideously titled Spider Sex and Car Wrecks in the 99 Cent Store and saw these two tidbits that ultimately swayed me to part with my pocket change:
Produced by Martin Atkins.
Alternative Tentacles Records Ltd.
The breakdown: You probably know Martin Atkins even if you think you don't. He's done time in Killing Joke and Swans and maned the skins for PIL.
Alternative Tentacles, on the other hand, has been putting out trailblazing shit in most punk-related genres for years now. It's Jello Biafra's label. Within their ranks, at one time or another, has resided bands like Amebix, the Butthole Surfers, Comets on Fire, the Melvins, Neurosis, Nomeansno, and on and on and on.
So, to me at least, this seemed like a can't miss purchase. Mistake. Evil Mothers is pretty by-the-numbers industrial dreck, right down to the tribal drumming, silly atmospherics, and the cringe-inducing songwriting choices. The whole album kind of sounds like a band trying to play a Download album...slowly. I honestly don't like a lot of industrial, so this could very well be another man's treasure, but, really, I would've expected better and, well, anything after examining the clues that the back cover provided; like an all-girl band in the Jesus Lizard mold, a Pigface clone,...something...anything... Ugh.
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