PISSBATH - S/T Flexi 7"

Brand new EP from this gnarly noise-punk band from Nashville, released on a cool colored vinyl flexi on a Spanish label. Like their fellow noise-punks in Eel (with whom Pissbath shared a memorable split), these folks are pretty much straight up in the Confuse / Gai / Swankys vein. It seems like there was so much of this stuff around a few years ago that you could barely distinguish one band from another, but thankfully that's died down a bit and I feel like I can listen to this with fresh ears. At its best, this style combines the simplicity and directness of the best early punk and UK82 with a sensibility somewhat akin to outsider art... in other words, you can never quite be sure whether the people making this music are complete geniuses or total idiots. Pissbath definitely fall on that line... you can't help but appreciate that truly bizarre guitar tone and some of those riffs are total face-melters, but at the end of the day 99.9% of the earth's population will wonder why one would subject themselves to this, much less pay money for it. I must admit that I do have a healthy appetite for this style when it's done right, and Pissbath definitely do it right.