Search - Scratch Acid :: Greatest Gift

Top-notch Texas post-punk grind-jazz-prog-noise-core

Paul J. Escamilla | NYC | 04/14/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ahh....Scratch Acid...the little band from Texas that could...could what?...could take the obvious influence of Nick Cave's Birthday Party and make it something their own...something that made me proud to be from Texas.



Lurching, rolling, stumbling caterwauling. Propulsive grinding and yowling. Anguished ennui left out to bake too long in the blistering Texas sun.



There is an awful beauty here. There is the sense that one has entered fully and irrevocably into the mind and soul of an LSD-shattered maniac. A rabid killer out on the roads of Amerikkka. A bowl of rancid guacamole. A blister oozing. A tidal wave of viscous, throbbing yeehaw.



David Yow channelled Nick Cave on the top. Underneath was the music, a technically savvy but unabashedly raw and vicious beast.



Twenty years later, Scratch Acid still makes me proud to be a Texan."

Real American Folk Music

Brian T. Hogan | Philadelphia | 08/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you know who Scratch Acid is, then you shouldn't need any encouragement to buy this - it's basically all of their music on one cd. If You DON'T know who they are, they were one of the first post-punk American bands (along with Flipper, Big Black, Minutemen etc.). It's a bunch of kids with nothing much to look forward to, and an uncanny gift for giving chaos a good beat that you can dance to, sometimes. There're a lot of bourgeois young people who think that playing an acoustic guitar and singing about Joni Mitchell's feelings is "authentic". I wouldn't know about that; I just know that no one asked these kids to make music, or offered them any money (at first), but they did it anyway."

Scratch Acid/Strychnine/Rabid Cat

Lynn J. Madison | USA | 04/23/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you are a fan of early Teenage Jesus and the Jerks or the Birthday Party you must own this one. There was a time when this was the ONLY platter I could stop playing the BDay Party for. Highly recommended. Some of you young uns who think punk is Green Day are in for a very obnoxious awakening. (Strychnine was the original name of the album, Rabid Cat was the label)"