Carburetor Dung – “Still Pissed Off After All These Years” CD-R & Free Download – A Review

Joe’s old friend and connoisseur of Japanese underground, Peter Hoflich reviews our collection of old tunes!

taken from his site: http://hoflich.com

Rockin’ Malaysia

While I was in Kuala Lumpur, I met up with my friend Joe Kidd for beers. I met Joe many years ago, through the zine thing I did at the turn of the century, and we meet up when we get the opportunity. Joe is the guitarist for Carburetor Dung, a longstanding DIY punk band and one of the godfathers of the scene. They’ve got a great website, and the band has made a compilation “Still Pissed Off After All These Years” free to download (oddly enough, a band called the Kodgers have put a CD with the same name). Yes, the band is named after the famous Lester Bangs book, although I didn’t clue in to this right away. Talking to Joe, I realised that I hadn’t even listened to the album, even though I downloaded it many months ago, so I made a mental note to check it out as soon as I got back to Singapore (and I did). Some fanboy I am…

While I was in KL, I visited Joe’s record shop Ricecooker and picked up two CDs, one by folkers the Pips, and the compilation “Radio Demokratika” to support political awareness about Malaysia’s constitution. Here are some reviews:

CARBURETOR DUNG
Still Pissed Off After All These Years CD-R & Download
(self-release)

A great compilation from the band that they put together in 2010 for their tour of the Philippines, carrying them from 1992 to 2007 (but the songs appear on the album in reverse chronological order.

The first two are for an unreleased album called “Ingin Ku Rejam Raksasa Kejam”, which means “I Wanna Destroy the Heartless Leviathan.” There is one song from the “Radio Malaya” compilation of 2006, one song from “The Dude Puked On My Lap” compilation of 2005, five songs from the 1999 mini-album “The Allure of Manure”, three songs from the 1998 soundtrack for “Dari Jemapoh Ke Manchestee“, and six songs from the 1993 album “Songs For Friends.”

The band has a very heavy frantic screaming sound that, in my minds makes them more similar to Corrosion of Conformity than anyone else I’m familiar with. They play around with their sound – “Mari Mtyanyi Menjilit” has some funky sax in it, and “Johnny” has some spoken lyrics before all of the screaming begins. Songs from “The Allure of Manure” are a bit more singalong, in particular “Our Voice”, “The Line” and “Payday.” Buzzing. “Wide Awake” has a chilling intro, then gets hot, while “Do Nothing” is a pretty anthemic tune.

“Happy” sounds a bit thin, but “Oppression”, with its metallic opening, is good fun and buzzes along. “Boo Hoo Clapping Song” is a scratchy, squeak anthem that is probably the band’s best-loved song, given the number of YouTube videos of it that are available. “Don’t Know” has at the same time a surf rock riff as well as the unrelenting drive of a Suicidal Tendencies song. I like this track. “Carburetor Dance” is similarly heavy, but the vocals are also a bit thin.

“Song For A Friend” is short, hyper and snotty, a great little punk number full of hope and spirit. “Liar” is melodic and snotty, and is a long, loud complaint about a liar. “I’ve had enough of you, my friend.” “Labour of Hate” is an acoustic song; acoustic songs don’t seem to be Carburetor Dung’s forte, but it’s nice of them to include one here. It has a slow electric solo, and in some ways sounds like a Spitz song, kinda… sorta… “Farewell” is a rambling rocker with a noodly, bleating guitar ramble.

end.

Joe Kidd

OLD BASTARD!

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1 Response

  1. joe says:

    yess

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