bidhardcore.com

Hey everyone, it’s time for another guest posting, this time by Tony Rettman who you might know from WFMU radio, http://200lbu.blogspot.com/, or hanging around New Jersey record stores for the last 20 years (I’m guessing). Check out the radio show, lame bands like Mind Eraser get to play on it sometimes.

TR:

I’ve vented my spleen more than a few times over the revisionist ways of youngsters regarding the infamous Mutha label. How and why and where this label got the reputation it now has I cannot pinpoint. What I do know is most of their releases were laughed at, spat on and most possibly shat on when they were originally released in the eighties. There’s no denying the label is an intriguing chunk of underground history, but the amount of actual worthwhile material released on the imprint is miniscule at best. One slab they released that I will throw my weight behind is this Cyanamid seven inch from 1984. Cyanamid is one of those rare bands that just seem to sound stranger as time goes on. When I was a wee nip, their live sets were nothing more than a confusing mess. On record, they could sound like anything from Flipper on 16 rpm’s to abuncha wind up monkeys on outdated cough syrup. At the time of this six song seven inches’ release, I chalked it up as a novelty and that was that.
 
Upon further listening in the past few years, Cyanamid’s frenzied sound has reminded me alot of the slash-and-burn improvisational style of stuff like Rudolph Grey’s Blue Humans or late eighties Lower East Side noiseniks Demo-Moe. It is at this time I will stop typing and imagine the entire bid hardcore audience staring at their computer screens in utter confusion at those band names while the sound of crickets can be heard from outside their window. Hey…what can I say? I’m just trying to broaden some horizons…to turn some people onto some outlandish sounds…I’m also trying to get rid of some extra Blue Humans records I got laying around this place. Hi-Ya! Napalm Death send props out to Cyanamid on the inner sleeve on ‘Scum’* but I’ve always thought of Cyanamid as way more gnarled and loose than Harris and company. Nonetheless, you probably should get this to complete your Mutha collection and further your standings as a Hardcore nerdboy. I mean…even if you don’t dig it, at least you’ll have something to talk about with your pals at the next Punk Rock show before you go home to spend another wonderful night cold and alone with your records.

*note from cc: I was advised to fact check that they do indeed get a shoot out in Scum, however I was not able to because I originally owned it on tape (thankyou list was removed from the layout), the booklet to my CD appears to be missing, and the only vinyl I own is a test pressing (ahem, dated june ‘87). So while I’m not able to actually look this up, I can own up to having Scum on 3 formats, and of course that little ol’ test press.