| ITEM - Original 1992 Blood Duster 'Menstrual Soup' Demo [Warning: May Offend] |
[Aug. 21st, 2008|08:42 am] |
TITLE: BLOOD DUSTER 'MENSTRUAL SOUP' DEMO, 1992
MEDIA: Original Demo Tape
DESCRIPTION:
This object has a history, and perhaps it is scary...
Touted on e-BAY as “the rarest death metal tape on the planet”, this is the debut from the self-proclaimed “most insane band in the world”- Blood Duster. The demo was released in February 1992, in a limited run of 1,000 - and was never released in this format again. (Bizarre Leprous Productions released a limited edition picture disc of the demo in 2005, but for the serious metal connoisseur that’s by far the flaccid option.)
The band line-up at this time was Jason P.C. (bass and vocals), Brick (drums and vocals), and Troy (guitar and vocals) – although the latter did not play on the demo. Guitars on the demo by Anthony, and vocals on the song ‘Swine’ by Leigh Cornish.
The demo is a self-released opus, under the banner of Bleeding Perinium Music. (Perineum is misspelled.)
The story going around the pro-active underground – which consisted then of bands, tape traders, DIY photocopied-and-stapled zine publishers, tiny DIY labels, community radio DJs, and venue bookers, many of whom occupied all categories at once - was that the band sold out 1,000 demos. While it is certain an undefined number of CDs were given away – probably liberally – the consequent ruckus of distaste, revelry in hate-mail, and word of mouth promo by an essentially repeatable dirty joke - this impressed the US label Wild Rags Records enough to proffer a deal, which launched the Blood Duster known and loved, or known and hated, or known and loved and hated today.
In the context of a pre-internet metal scene, this was a breakneck-speed rise to prominence. Consider for a moment the isolation of Australia, and the uncluttered canvas.
In the USA just a matter of months earlier, the band GUT launched a brand of grindcore they called PORN-GORE-GRIND that emphasized sexual depravity and obsession with body fluids. In the USA a plethora of imitators were quickly purveying various takes on this (today, around the world, a plethora of imitators are STILL purveying takes on this), but with the yardstick of notorious suicide-threatening no-shame vocalist G.G.Allen above them, and the echo of 1980s sickcore still ringing in their ears - they overlap and obscure each other like dirty limericks on a toilet door. Blood Duster were paddling to catch the exact same sloppy wave, but because they were alone in local water - everyone saw it, and none can take this (dubious?) honour from them.
The genre Blood Duster coined for themselves was ‘psychodeathmenstrualgrindporn’ - overwrought, and perhaps covering too many bases to be trusted, but doesn't it sound familiar?
The genre name that actually stuck to both bands was pornogrind or porngrind.
1. porngrind
Grindcore characterized by sexual themes, vocals that range from pitchshifted growls to absurdly high-pitched screams, and groove-based riffing. Due to pornogrind's often misogynistic and homophobic imagery, many fans of political grindcore detest the subgenre.
Urban Dictionay.
The demo was recorded at SAE in St Kilda by Scott Harper, a student in one of the accredited courses - probably the Certificate IV. The Menstrual Soup demo was likely an academic assignment for Harper, perhaps his first major studio session – it was recorded and mixed in 17 hours.
Harper was heavily involved in running the punk/metal/alternative store Missing Link Records, when it was located in Flinders Lane. Both Blood Duster’s Jason P.C and Christbait’s Jason V. worked across the laneway from Harper, at Pipe Imports (the retail outlet of label and distributor Modern Invasion Music & T-Shirts). Harper would go on to found Dr Jims Records, a label that released recordings by both Blood Duster and Christbait, as well as the 1993 EP Sounds Of Ordinary Madness (a reference to Charles Bukowski’s Songs Of Ordinary Madness), which is the finest sounding snapshot of early 90s Melbourne metal and crust in existence.
The demo art is photocopied collage, in colour, double-sided with a fold out for lyrics and ‘the official thanks and no thanks list’. The actual art is uncredited, and was probably roughly appropriated. For extra nerd value -- I believe all art layout and printing was done at the Copycentre in Flinders Lane, on the west side of Elizabeth Street, about two blocks from Pipe Imports. The cover art is in excellent condition, with no noticeable wear or marks.
The musical offerings are Knee Deep (In Menstrual Blood), Ted [about serial killer Ted Bundy], Dr. Artery, Dirty Platter….. After The Feast, and Swine In Shit (Dredlocks And All). And while I could review the music, how every note blatts out, and describe the quality of the recording – musicality is not what Blood Duster are about (and they’d probably agree).
We are told ‘The song ‘Swine’ is abut a cock called Jason Vassallo’ – defunct annotation given the songs entire lyrics are ‘Jason Vassallo is a swine in shit!” This song leads directly to the Blood Duster / Christbait friendly rivalry, with Christbait’s Yeast EP spoofed by Blood Duster’s Yeest EP. The song Dr. Artery spoofs the genres unintelligible vocal delivery with ‘Make up your own lyrics!’ proffered instead of lyrics. Two other songs are standard serial killer fare, a cliché for grind bands – and nothing so far stands out from the metal montage.
Two things made the demo a guaranteed conversation piece in the underage scene, and a top choice for home-cooked compilation trade tapes – the lyrics of the song Knee Deep In Menstrual Blood, which blasted unarticulated adolescent male horror and fascination with menstruation out in a repulsed tirade, where inappropriate humour is held up as avant-gardeism - and the Intro track, which supplanted the standard metal horror intro with gasping and squealing audio lifted from climaxing girl-on-girl porn. It’s interesting to note that the most engaging aspects of the demo – the porn intro, and the 'Knee Deep' lyrics, were not actually originated by Blood Duster. The writing credit on 'Knee Deep' is given to ‘Spaz’ – an affectionate derogative for Christbait guitarist Jason Miszewski. This advent of Blood Duster as marketing package for available sensational elements, sits so cunningly between unoriginality and postmodernism, perhaps it is a thesis topic to chafe learned balls?
This tape was purchased straight out of Callum Wilson’s army bag in Pipe Imports, so that the store didn’t get a commission from the sale. At this time Wilson played bass in Blood Duster, during Jason P.C.’s short-lived move to guitar, which culminated in Wilson being fired – and now you know more than Wikipedia could tell you.
I know you're clucking your tongue and muttering, "Well that was interesting and alarmingly detailed - I don’t believe you’ve given up coffee - and perhaps I feel a sense of achievement for reading this far... Now that I know more than Wikipedia knows about this demo, why would I buy this, when I can download a shitty bit-torrent for free? Tra-la-la!"
The answer, aside from intellectual ptoperty which you should all respect, is ANAL TAMPON. More than a mere object d'art, this has thousands of practical applications which I leave to your very capable imaginations...
Be more of a CUNT than all the other CUNTs rebelling together in their CUNT t-shirts.
Accept no ANAL TAMPON substitutes.
DONATED BY: Talie Helene
MINIMUM BID: $100.00 (AU)
BUY IT NOW PRICE: $250.00 (AU)
WILL POST TO (Australia/worldwide/other): Wherever you need a plug.
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Unless Buy It Now price is reached, auction on this item will close at 9pm AEST, 28 August 2008.
[Description © Talie Helene 2008. All Rights Reserved.] |
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