feedtime (View Discography)

Release Info

Thanks be to Sub Pop. The label has assembled a box set of four 1980s albums recorded for Australia's Aberrant label by the Sydney, Australia trio feedtime in their definitive lineup: Rick (guitar, almost always played with a slide), Al (bass), and Tom (drums) -- no last names. Using the word "original" would be inaccurate; there were two unrecorded incarnations before this. Feedtime's sound was at once primitive and contemporary (of its time); it was influenced by everything from Australian hard rock bands Rose Tattoo and X (Melbourne), punk rock, American Delta blues, Cajun music, and a whole lot of other stuff -- if you want to a more complete range check their Cooper-S album from 1988 (included here) which is made up exclusively of covers. But feedtime never sounded like anyone but themselves: raw, repetitive, loud, and proud. Their debut self-titled album came raging out of Sydney at full-tilt to no notice in its homeland. The band's lyrics were minimal, the music was intense and rhythmic as hell; you could dance to it, but you couldn't hum it. There are sourced covers here, too -- almost fully credited. On "Mandead/Searching the Desert," they don't cop to using the riff to "Gloria" by Van Morrison (but one else ever does, either), but they do to Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller. Their cover of Mississippi Fred McDowell's "What's the Matter with Papa's Little Angel Child" rips and roars like nothing you've ever heard. Shovel, issued in 1987 is the band's best-known -- and arguably finest -- recording. It's more firmly rooted to traceable sources, but it punishes and delights in equal measure. It will leave you forever wondering where you were mentally before you heard it. One listen to the title track, "Rock & Roll," and the all but unrecognizable cover of "Nobody's Fault But Mine" -- which should erase Led Zeppelin's version permanently from memory -- are fueled by an incessant, overdriven bass throb and syncopated snare skitter; the heart of a sonic black hole that envelops everything around it. The slide guitar wails and winds around the entire glorious mess. Album-closer "Plymouth Car Is a Limousine" has to be heard to be believed. Cooper-S is a blast of a covers record, the group paying their own chugging tributes to all that they love. The band's final album with this lineup, Suction, issued in 1989, was mastered by Butch Vig. Its vocals are much more clear, the bass standing out a little further, but it's still a notorious rock & roll racket -- even when they play "straight" gospel-blues. Rick left on the eve of an American tour and this lineup was no more. It doesn't matter. The four records in The Aberrant Years are augmented by bonus tracks; the box contains a booklet with photos and an historical liner essay. Individually and together, these records are as potent, squalling, and beautiful as when they were issued. ~ Thom Jurek

Tracks

1. Haha
2. Fastbuck
3. All Down
4. Mandead/Searching the Desert
5. Doesn't Time Fly
6. Dead Crazy
7. Don't Like
8. F#
9. Clowns
10. Gee
11. Southside Johnny
12. I Wonder What's the Matter with Papa's Little Angel
13. I Wanna Ride
14. Small Talk
15. Don't Tell Me

1. Shovel
2. Rock N Roll
3. Mother
4. More Than Love
5. George
6. Nobody's Fault But Mine
7. Fractured
8. Love Me
9. Baby Baby
10. Nice
11. Shoeshine Shuffle
12. Gun 'Em Down
13. Dog
14. Curtains
15. Safari
16. Rumble
17. Plymouth Car Is a Limousine

1. Fun Fun Fun
2. If You Can't
3. Last Time
4. Hear Me Calling
5. H.D.
6. I Don't Wanna Go Out
7. Lightning's Girl
8. Sad, Lonely and Blue
9. Pure Religion
10. Play with Fire
11. Loudmouth
12. We've Gotta Get Out of This Place
13. Paint It Black
14. Street Fighting Man
15. Ann
16. Take the Buick
17. Buffalo Bob
18. Small Talk
19. Don't Tell Me
20. Ann (Au Go Go Mix/Remix)

1. Motorbike Girl
2. Possum
3. Drag Your Dog
4. Ever Again
5. Highway
6. Confused Blues
7. I'll Be Rested
8. Pumping a Line
9. Meter
10. Social Suction
11. Trouble
12. Valve Frank
13. Arse