Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Adrenalin OD: Humungousfungusamongus LP

Buy Our Records, 1986

I took some shit liking this band back in the '80s and this record didn't help but I got what they were doing with that awfully crappy cover photo and the lame title (Humungousfungusamongus was something my Mom used to say when she wanted us to bathe, bleh). I think they were just saying they weren't going to succumb to the metalcore trend of the time (in the extensive liner notes, they cite the fact that they didn't sign with Combat Records as a reason they are cool) and appearances were a pretty dumb way to judge a band - not exactly original but a bit different for that Pushead - Thrasher-influenced era.

This record sorta carries on in the same vein as Wacky Hijinks of... . The songs are all over the place (again) - from incomprehensible thrash ("Fuck the Neighbors") to semi-experimental - or at least different (percussion only "Pizza-N-Beer") to their "humor"/trash culture songs "Fishin'Musician", "Velvet Elvis," "Bugs" and even a few overt political cuts such as "Crowd Control". And finally the pop, melodic thrash which still wears pretty well. Oh, and did I forget their predeliction for TV themes (here they cover theme from Masterpiece Theater)?

Besides "Masterpiece", the best cuts here are the the poppy melodic ones - "Youth Blimp" and "Nice Song In The Key of D" and both are by guitarist and vocalist Paul Richard. I've previously blogged the "Nice Song" single (see below link if you care). Besides being a great little tune, "Youth Blimp" is a subtle dig at the escapist Scene Unity culture. Hey, if they had their Crystal Ships (wooooo), we can have our big grey blimp, no?
Black, white, red or yellow
All females and fellows
If we fly the dirigible
We'll stand indivisible

Hoo-yah! Beam me up and put my sleeping bag next to the skinhead girl...

Band:

Paul Richard - vocals/guitar
Jack Steeples - bass
Dave Scott - drums
Bruce Wingate - guitar

Singiesongs fer dancin about likka dang fool:

Consumerist Crap:
This was rereleased several years ago in a CD which included a bunch of other cuts. New copies still seem to be available. Check froogle for it.

Links:
Adrenalin O.D. are always fun when they get back together, and leave it to Dave Scott to come up with a handful of classic one-liners ("Hey Hilly Krystal, my mom loved you in City Slickers!") And they can still play as awesomely fast as back in the day, speeding their way through classic NJHC cuts like "Suburbia," "Bugs," "Old People Talk Loud," the "Masterpiece Theater" them, and "Nice Song In D." I've said this before and I'll say it again right now: There were two bands that inspired me to start Jersey Beat. One was the Bongos, and the other was AOD.
Credits:
I stole and cropped the picture from punkrecords.com (he or she's selling the LP - go buy it) - click the link to see the back cover and record label if that excites you

Saved Round:

I got this link from Punk Vault - hee hee (link is the blogroll, yeah, right there... no, up one, there click):

4 comments:

Eric XXL said...

It's funny how the slower, melodic songs stand out after all of this time. Maybe I should go back and listen to "Cruising With Elvis.." again. I hated it by comparison to the first two, but hell, times change.

And your blog is definitely worth a million bucks, no matter what Technorati tells you. Hug it out, bitch

Jim H said...

While writing this I cued up their cover of "Coffin Cruiser" from the Cruising With Elvis... era - pretty good.

Jim H said...

Oh and regards the suspect Technorati code - my other blog" was valued at something like $5000 - I think I have about two loyal readers there (hello Stockholm! hello Ille-de-France!) and the rest find it via a google search.

Chris Oliver said...

I used to have that album. This is one of those bands that wrote great lyrics, but not so sharp at putting them into melodies. "Youth Blimp" was hilarious. I think my favorite off that album was actually the sorta-metal song, "Bruce's Lament."