Posts Tagged ‘Poison Idea’
Poison Idea: The Fatal Erection Years, 1983-1986
From last month’s Record Collector.
As convenient as it is to find an era of Poison Idea’s work compiled on one disc, even the most ardent fan of the band would surely prefer to hear each component of The Fatal Erection Years separately; forty-five blasts of vehement hardcore that stretches to over an hour is an exhausting endeavour.
With thirteen songs in as many minutes, The Pick Your King EP (originally released on 7”) is an exhilarating if entirely rudimentary rush of controlled aggression with Pig Champion’s surprisingly tight riffs backing Jerry A’s bellowed vocal attack. The Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes EP repeats the same trick with a beefier production and slightly more substantial songs (the longest of which, Time To Go, just about passes the two-minute mark). Four tracks taken from compilations find the band’s power streamlined into something which more closely resembled the sound of their later years. The collection is completed by a bootleg-quality recording of an anarchic show in Portland.
The package is bolstered by some blunt, witty liner notes courtesy of Jerry A. As he concludes: “I think these songs you have here are all cool. I hope you like them too. But really, I don’t care if you don’t.”
Poison Idea – Darby Crash Rides Again: The Early Years
From a recent issue of Record Collector.
By 1990, Poison Idea had much mastered their streamlined metallic punk with the album Feel The Darkness. Now seemingly best remembered through Pantera’s cover of The Badge, this release compiles demos and live tracks from 1981-1983.
Like most punk demos of the era, 1981’s Boner’s Kitchen material is a raw blast of murky instrumentation and semi-decipherable vocals, which combined with the band’s paucity of ideas (short, loud, fast!) offers little beyond historical curiosity. They’d soon progress, however, as evidenced in two parallel versions of Give It Up – the
1982 Darby Crash demo version showing that their fury was being channelled into something far more cohesive.
Elsewhere there are live tracks ranging from the ferocious Typical to the sloppy (I Hate) Reggae and out takes from the Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes EP. Two versions of Motörhead’s signature track rattle by but fail to match the version they’d later record for the covers album Pajama Party.
Ultimately The Early Years is one for pretentious assholes only – those eager to discover Poison Idea at their best should hold for the Feel The Darkness and Kings of Punk reissues that Southern Lord will be releasing later in the year
