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Release Date: October 31st 2024. Record Label: Smorgasbord Records. Format: Cassette/Download
The Worst Music For The Worst People - Track Listing:
Garbageman
New Kind Of Kick
Love Me
I Can’t Hardly Stand It
She Said
Goo Goo Muck
Save It
Human Fly
Drug Train
TV Set
Uranium Rock
Members
Aaron Edge - Everything.
Review
Doom/Sludge Metal collective The Lumbar Endeavor will release a new album called The Worst Music For The Worst People this upcoming Halloween. The album is a covers album solely focusing upon the legendary Psychobilly/Surf/Punk Rock band The Cramps. This isn’t the first time that The Lumbar Endeavor have released a covers album as they’ve previously paid tribute to legends such as AC/DC and SLEEP in recent years.
You can read how this album came about and what it means to Aaron Edge.
“It's the early 80s and I'm still young enough for my parents to force me to attend the family's church Youth Group. At the height of my teen angst, and just before I ran away for the first of many times, a strange figure in a trench coat showed up to one of said forced meetings.
His combat boots, chains and eye makeup intrigued me. At that time, the most punk thing blasting out of my Walkman was The Police. I just had to know what blasted out of this new shadowy figure's portable cassette player. A few cigarettes shared together on a picnic table later yielded the following: his name was Gavin and he was listening to The Cramps' "Bad Music for Bad People". Over the course of the next few days, he also turned me on to The Angry Samoans, Dead Kennedys, The Stiff Little Fingers and Crass. This was my new and exciting unpaved road, an unlit path I'd set out on, never to look back.
Well, I suppose I'm looking back now.
Thank you Gavin, wherever you are. This is all your damn fault. Here's The Lumbar Endeavor's version of that incredible handful of songs, the same bones, but with a different putrid skin." — Aaron Edge of The Lumbar Endeavor
The Lumbar Endeavor have taken the most well known and classic tracks The Cramps released throughout their illustrious career and have put their own creative spin on things. Some tracks stick originally close to the original whilst others go outside the box with the music being powered by Punk Rock, Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, Industrial Metal and experimental Psychedelic beats. If you’ve heard Aaron’s tribute albums to SLEEP and AC/DC then you know what to expect. My advice with this record is give it a listen and enjoy the wild ride that Aaron has delivered here.
This is Aaron’s own interpretation of these classic tracks and he pulls this off with great style and paying respect to The Cramps. The opening batch of songs of Garabageman, New Kind Of Kick and Love Me stay devilishly close to the original at times but Aaron’s frantic Industrial based growls and vocals add a sense of decaying vibe to the track. The instrumentals are mostly stripped back and match the sounds of the grimy originals. There’s a subtle Noise Rock flavour that Aaron employs for his versions of all the tracks and it should keep dedicated fans of The Cramps wholly intrigued to say the least.
I’m not the biggest fan of The Cramps and I only know a handful of tracks such as Garabageman, Love Me, GooGoo Muck, Human Fly and TV Set. So there were some classic tracks that were a new experience to me which I had to compare and make notes against especially with I Can’t Hardly Stand It, Save It and Uranium Rock. Aaron manages to capture the raw sounding Punk Rock spirit of the original recordings whilst putting his own creative stamp on things. The vocals maybe too experimental or surreal for some but at least they’re quite different to the original.
The Worst Music For The Worst People is perhaps suited for fans of both The Cramps and The Lumbar Endeavor in general. The sound of the album is quite aggressive and experimental which gives the whole record a NO HOLDS BARRED and NO FUCKS GIVEN attitude throughout which ultimately seals the deal of this being another excellent covers/tribute album from The Lumbar Endeavor.
You begin to realize that Halloween is the perfect time for The Lumbar Endeavor to release The Worst Music For The Worst People. As Aaron has made sure there’s more than enough SPOOKY and GHOULISH sounds to keep long time fans of The Cramps mightily impressed and superbly entertained for a long time to come.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to The Lumbar Endeavor for the promo.
The Worst Music For The Worst People will be available to buy on Cassette/Digital Download via Smorgasbord Records from Thursday 31st October 2024.
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