Not only are these guys my one of my very favorite bands ever, this year they are celebrating 30 years of ball busting, Hardcore Rock with an unmistakable Southern accent.
I love everything about this band; Joe Young’s Signature heavy distorted guitar chops, the rhythm section made up of Bassist Jon Bowman and Drummer Phil Keller that's so loud and tight it's a brick a wall of sound that not just anyone could stand front and center belt lyrics out to; That would be Jeff Clayton. Only Jeff Clayton could do Jeff Clayton's job. You can stack five Phil Anselmo's up and you still won’t get one Jeff Clayton. Read more
SEPTEMBER"S PICK "ANTISEEN"
Nothing in particular against Anselmo, granted He rocked it "Brutal Like" for a few years but ANTISEEN has been doing this 30 fucking years. Altogether they have over 100 LP's, EPs, CDs and DVDs with different line ups, splits with different bands, not to mention they tour all over the world. My guess is Clayton is probably around 6ft, a hulking figure with long hair, a beard, both arms completely sleeved in tattoos, he could easily be mistaken for one of the Old School wrestlers he admirably sings about in songs like Cactus Jack, Baby face killer, Funk You and From parts unknown. Having been to multiple ANTiSEEN shows, once even lucky enough to open for them, I can honestly say they are one of the best live gigs there is.
More shows than not Jeff Clayton bashes his head with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, shoves a broken beer bottle into his head, or just smashes the microphone or microphones into his head, seemingly whatever is handy to split his head open until he's gushing blood all over himself, never missing a word of his at times offensive lyrics. Well, I say offensive only because I know a lot of people are offended by lyrics like "Animals Eat’em so You don't have to feed them." Fuck The Kids, or The Song Spare change in which he rips hipster panhandlers a new asshole. However I probably wouldn't like someone that is offended by ANTiSEEN lyrics much anyway. I’ve never went in for the overly P.C. crowd, especially the people that seem to have sold out their sense of humor just to fit in with the other politically correct dweebs.
Unfortunately I was about a decade late discovering ANTISEEN.It was 1993, I was sitting in the floor drinking surrounded by GG Allin, The Meatmen, The Dwarves CDs and a couple Mentors cassettes when my roomie came in and handed me a copy of Eat More Possum. I put it in and was immediately drawn to the fast paced, noisy, no bullshit songwriting style. As with most of favorite Punk Rock bands there wasn't a lot of what I considered useless or excessive musicianship, such as long ass guitar solos or songs with seventeen different parts and a million chord changes. They just played it, played it fast, played it loud and fuckin meant it. This was love at first listen.
There's a damn good chance I listened to that CD 100 times in the next week while consuming more alcohol than most people would think humanely possible. That was the summer and fall of G.G. Allin (he died that year) ANTiSEEN and ABC Malt Liquor.
I was a really big GG Allin fan and '93 was a bittersweet year we lost GG but I also got a copy of the work he did with ANTiSEEN on the MURDER JUNKIES album they put out together. Alotta people will describe this as ANTiSEEN being a back-up band for GG but to me it was an ANTiSEEN album with GG ALLIN featured on vocals. I say this because listening to the musical songwriting and arrangements, it's obvious (to me) that Joe Young and Jeff had wrote much of the music leaving GG to concentrate on lyrics, making a brilliant final product. Notable Tracks are Kill the Police, Violence Now, and My Prison Walls.
A year or two later, back in Tennessee another friend hipped me to The Confederacy of Scum, founded by ANTiSEEN. Unfortunately now defunkt the Confederacy of (COS) opened my eyes and ears to a bunch of other kick ass Southern Scum Rock bands, There were some incredible show line ups and super shows all over the states, as there were some great bands involved. Just off my head there's Before I Hang, Hammerlock, Limecell, Hellstomper, Cocknoose, Rancid Vat, Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, and The Tunnel Rats.
The last time I seen The Boys from Brutalsville was when my band The Dirty Works finally opened for them; It was 2011, I do believe. I'm not sure if it was the fact we got to play, because I was feeling particularly good that night, the atmosphere of The Longbranch Saloon and all my local friends being there or The Band were just really pumped to play that night but that is the best I ever seen them play. The way they took over the stage, the bar to the point the whole place was a pit was fuckin' beautiful. I'm not 20 years old anymore, far from it so I usually sit out of mosh pits these days but I couldn't help my old ass. I was in the middle of it all night, if I remember correctly I caught an elbow right in the mouth, not that I minded a bit. Well, at least not the next morning when I woke up feeling as though I'd been beaten by a damn ball bat but even then, reminiscing on the phenomenal show the night before I immediately felt a little better. Unfortunately I didn't catch ANTiSEEN last year that's why I'm so stoked about the Oct. 5th which is when The MEATMEN and The HOOKERS are kicking the party off
for ANTiSEEN?S 30th Anniversary show at Tremont Music Hall, which is 400 W Tremont Ave, Charlotte, NC 28203. The MEATMEN, The HOOKERS and ANTiSEEN. This is going to be a big one and I'm gonna get there if I have to crawl on barbed wire the whole way!
See you there,
Christopher Scum
Scum Note While writing this on Sun. Aug. 18, Antiseen?s Cosmic Commander world wrestling
announcer passed away. RIP my friend....
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