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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Death By Salt - A Slug Magazine
Compilation (Eighteen Percent Grey)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Slug Magazine (www.slugmag.com) has the admiration of the folks here at Cosmik Debris. Not only do they do a fine job of running a magazine, they also do something we shudder at the thought of: putting out compilation CDs. Death By Salt is their seventh release, and it's a 3-CD stew of styles and sounds we can really relate to. "Diverse" is too plain a word for the miles of sonic highway between the extremes on this comp. If you're a fan of indie rock, metal, folk, electro-pop, punk and alternative in its many forms, this is something you should hear. The Salt Lake City scene is probably something you're not aware of unless you live there, and as it turns out, that city is a breeding ground for some of the most potent, urgent music in the country. How does a thing like this happen? In the official words of Slug Magazine, this is "what living in the most socially oppressive and politically suffocating state in the nation does for that state's counterculture." Turns out there's something to that old saying that every cloud has its silver lining. There's so much music here in so many different styles that you'll certainly find some leave you cold while others blow you away, but the sticker price of 14 bucks for a 3-CD box set and the general high quality of the music makes this a safe bet for adding some new bands to your personal radar screen. An informative 64 page booklet will even give you an instant education on your new favorites. Hell of a deal.
TRACK LIST
Disc One:
Walk Right In (Red Bennies) * It's Easy (Starmy) * Rock n' Roll (Thunderfist) * Your Electrocution (Chinese Stars) * Your Taste (Silvox)) * City Line (The New Transit Direction) * Anchors Away (Redd Tape) * Bird Shit Bombs (Purr Bats) * The Way (The New Evils) * Heartship Through the Stars (The Blue Collar Line) * Dedication (The Numbs) * Drink Yourself to Sleep (T-Bone) * Ted Nugent (The Killpatricks) * We May Belong to You, But Our Souls Belong to Satan (Le Force) * Ritalin (Never Never) * Apnea Test Failed (Day of Less) * Uneasy (Prototype Remix) (COSM) * Movie Man (Bob Moss) * Space-Themed Song (The Vexations) * Day After Day (One Way Nowheres) * Get Stakerized (Get Stakerized)
Disc Two:
Whiskey, Weed & Wild, Wild Women (JW Blackout) * Espionage (DPful remix) (Books About UFO's) * Blue Eyes Black (Stiletto) * Has Been Neutralized (The Cronies) * The Monster That Remained in the Mind of the Orphaned Boy (Erosion) * Cravings (Debi Graham) * No Safe Place (The Downers) * Damned Anyway (The Corleones) * Cold to Come (Hello Amsterdam) * The Hate Seed (The Coyote Hoods) * I Love Personality (Rope or Bullets) * Show No Mercy (12th Street Staggers) * Swimmin' in Booze (Salt City Bandits) * The Teeth Must Be Destroyed at All Costs (Then Blood) * The Feeling (Dead in the Womb) * Mommy (Fantazmic 4) * Lower (Deep Six Holiday) * Stealing Claire's Prescription (Dan Morley) * Straitjacket (Hudson River School) * The Woman Song (Mooseknuckle)
Disc Three:
Keep Smilin' Ed Smart (Form of Rocket) * Port of Morrow (Nimh) * You Got the Eyes (Fifi Murmur) * Slow Burn (Sherlock) * I Don't Know (The Switch) * Winter Blackbirds (Brownham) * The Stone (Stacey Board) * Square Candies (Tolchock Trio) * Train Song (The Debonairs) * Does Your Momma Make Gravy? (Iodina) * Tekla (Gerald Music) * ADHD (The Mental Midgets) * Shotgun Colorman (Parker Sisters) * Let it Go (Nurse Sherri) * Walks of Life (Facts) * Lands (Dulcesky) * Vultures (SLAJO) * Why? (Buddha Bros)
© 2004 - DJ Johnson