
the Blowtops
"VooDoo Alley" |
Low down, shit under
the fingernails grungabilly that's actually quite stellar
for this long dead and festering genre. Y'know that
vintage CRAMPS thing but even as Lux and co. themselves
has forgotten, the secret is in the FUZZ!!!! And hot
damn, all 4 tunes has fuzz like nobody's business, fuzz
that gets inside the entire length of your GI tract,
causing all manner of bodily consternation and distess.
Fucking fuzziest record I've heard in years, guitars
that sound fucked up, vocals that sound fucked up. Imagine
if the CHROME CRANKS were a good band, imagine taking
all of "Songs the lord taught Us", chewing
it up and puking the contents out, imagine Alan Vega
twitcin' in his grave, and multiply the whole shitpile
by two! Words do not do Justice. - Maximum Rock'n'Roll
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Psycotic hillbilly noise
that is hard on the ears and bad for the psyche. In
other words, you should really get a hold of this! -
Punk Planet
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Extremely cool single
from these guys outta Buffalo. Evil, garagey, noisey
rock-n-roll squall. First side is more "voodoo
evil" while B-side is more down to earth r-n-r!
It's really fucking great stuff!!!! "Chloe and
Clyde" rocks like a mutha...I'd place this next
to my Beguiled/Neccessary Evils platters, and it will
stand up to them. Reverb-drenched all the way down to
the fiery holes of hell. Look for an LP and 7"
on Dee-troits' Flying Bomb Records soon. But first...GET
THIS! - Savage
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Totally debilitating
garage punk, not even slightly foreign to a Baseball
Furies or Necessary Evils fan. "Cannibal Lust"
oozes an eros for the ages, "Chloe and Clyde"
is all ephedrine and bop, with the occasional feedback
issues. Strong first outing. - Multiball
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4 songs of pure minimalist
garage mayhem. Songs so raunchy you should get greasy
just listening to them. A good choice if you're looking
to buy. - Etch Magazine
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Man this shit is way
fucked up...obviously these guys are into over the top
trash sound and fans of that stuff will flip over these
four songs. - Hit List
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The Blowtops are monster
punk--all kinds of loud, very rude, and scary in an
engaging way. Taking the best elements of Lux Interior,
George Romero, and Ron Asheton, the Bowtops are the
perfect candidate to kick your ass! Their new record,
"Voodoo Alley", takes lo-fi to new extremes,
filling every possible groove with heavily effected
vocals and overdriven raunch. Stinky as hell. To say
"Cannibal Lust," or "Simple Taste"
is the best Buffalo garage refuse since the mid-eighties
would not be pushing it. An essential docment of an
under-represented genre. - Buffalo Beat
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You say you like loud,
rough, trashy sounding 1960's garage rock and punk,
as well as 70s and 80s versions of that approach? Well,
this 4 song 7-inch is something you should acquire.
Hig fidelity is not a problem or a concern here, the
basic, straight forward, rugged sounding garage rock
would be a bit hard on some ears to begin with in its
apparent one take approach, but with coproducer Mr.
Ski-Mask working with members of the band Andy and Aaron,
some virtual white noise accompanies several songs and
flavors all. The record starts with "Voodoo Alley"
a loud crashing 60's and 70's garage blast of punk rock
with piano adding a STOOGES "Raw Power" feel,
the vocals are all but intelligable, but with the screaming
producing some seminal emotion, who cares? The song
has a great nasty guitar rhythm riff and stinging, slightly
distorted solo straight out of 60's psychedelia and
punk. "Cannibal Lust" follows with fast shuffling
drums, another rough riff and then the rest of the band
joining in for some fun but slightly evil-sounding punk
from all the above mentioned eras. Side two starts with
"Chloe and Clyde" with a snarling surf/garage
guitar riff, throbbing bass and crashing drums, again
I can barely make out more than one our two words per
verse, but the music, a bit rough and trebly with some
distortion is fantastic. "Simple Taste" ends
things with a faster noisier sound, the vocals are about
the same as before, but the music takes an even harsher
and more 60's feel, and the guitars still have some
pop and melodic touch to them. - Night Life
Magazine
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I think this was their
debut record, and man does this kick. Great horror swamp
rock, sort of like the Scientists meet Pussy Galore.
Any or their releases are well worth looking for cause
all of them will stay on your turn table for weeks at
a time. - the Kings of Trash R'n'R.
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The vox are buried on
this one, maybe even more than normal. The effect turns
out a Bat Cave feel. Total garbage tones all fuzzed
up to heck make for an impressive mess. The flip is
more bluezy with mic in a bucket reverb tones. Another
winner for The Blowtops. both raw and wild. - Trash
Times
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Very spastic, very distorted.
I can't even figure out what speed to put the record
player on, but I think it's actually supposed to be
played at 33, not 45. At either speed, you're getting
some raw ass rock 'n roll, and not a moment too soon.
- WSUM
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the Blowtops
"Blood and Tar" |
The Blowtops got a blues
swagging garage punk from the underworld thing going
on. Starts off with a tub-thumping blast, almost a Black
Flag edge, well, vocally. This shit gets fuzzed out,
deadly and curling a death scream by the middle of the
wax. Loud, noisy, almost painful, and you'll dig every
minute of it. Pure ugliness in it's lo-fi, Troma Punk
squalor. Check it out and watch them drums bleed. -
Carbon 14
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The latest 10"
release from these docktors of dementia is as always,
recorded with enough nerve wrecking fuzz and reverb
to wake the dead and make them dance. Every song from
start to finish is demonic and violent in form reminiscent
of early Cramps and Dwarves (Horror Stories era). They
slow down only to twist Alice Cooper's "Black Juju"
coming off just as eerie as the original. If you dig
this record you'll dig their first LP "Deep Thrust"
recorded by Jim Diamond. Finally a band that can play
real horror inspired Rok-n-Row. - Horizontal
Action
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10" release will
concurrently wreak havoc on your stylus and your nerves.
Outrageous and violent; imagine The Brainbombs with
rockabilly riffs and you've got a pretty concise warning/reccomendation.
Considering what's being heralded as "rock"
nowadays, this heady brand of psychosis easily garners
a...!!!!!(5 out of 5 exclamation points) - Caustic
Truths
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Christ! This is some
fucked up shit! 8 tracks of noisey, fuzzed out, chaotic
rock-n-roll. This will scare the bejesus out of anybody!
The perfect combination of lo-fi garage, Dwarves-style
raw punk-n-roll, and abrasive noisecore. Not only is
this a fucking phenominal record, it can also be used
to get unwanted party guests the hell outta your house,
or to annoy those neighbors on sunny spring afternoons
when you've got all your windows wide open and the hi-fi
cranked. If you've got their full-length LP on Flying
Bomb or the Estrus 7" you pretty much know what
to expect. All Hail Big Neck Records for releasing this
baby!! - Head In a Milk Bottle
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This is sleazy and evil,
taking me right back to the nights I've spent laying
in a ditch by the side of the road, seein in red, white
and black, running through the streets with no shoes,
smoking crack on the street corner with some crazy lady
as we cry together over our broken hearts. These songs
sort of speak through some sort of malt liquor haze,
like the music you would hear as you came into consciousness,
looking up from the carpet of some cheap hotel and wondering
how you got there. Distorted guitars, METEORS, redneck
BIRTHDAY PARTY. They do a cover of "Richard Hung
Himself" by DI which is slower than the original
but still good. - Maximum Rock'n'Roll
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Horror Rock! The Blowtops
are a chaotic fire of lofi trash with grotesque undertones.
If you merged the Reatards' soul to the Persuaders'
body you’d have the Blowtops! There’re 8
songs on this sucka including, "Demon Rum",
"High Priestess Disturbed", and "Black
Ju Ju." Bonus – the vinyl is gray, like the
sky over where the Blowtops play their loathsome rock
‘n’ roll. - Blank Generation
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"Blood and Tar"
is the latest 10" from The Blowtops on Big Neck
Records. They released their debut 7", "Voodoo
Alley", on Big Neck Records, a full length record
on Flying Bomb and a 7" on Estrus. So this is a
homecoming of sorts. If you’re not familiar with
the Blowtops, they play a ferocious brand of rock n’
roll with a large dose to voodoo thrown in for spice.
Side one kicks off with "Demon Rum." It starts
off with a marching drum beat then this creepy guitar
and Creepy Dave’s spooky vocals come in. Creepy
Dave is wailing about the evils of that voodoo liquor.
Finally when the chorus kicks in all hell breaks loose.
This a good stuff. "Richard Hung Himself"
is a cover of the old D.I. song. The Blowtops put their
own stamp on this punk rocker. The volume and intensity
get turned up a few notches . The subject matter is
right down the Blowtops dark alley. It goes, "Richard
hung himself. Richard hung himself. It happened just
the other day. Jesus went and pushed him off the shelf..."
Side Two begins with "Brasshead Smash." It
starts of with a blast of noise, breaks it down, noise,
breaks it down, noise. You get the idea It’s about
bustin’ your head, or rock n’ roll or something.
Hell, I’m not sure. One thing I am sure of is
it rocks. Another perfect choice in cover material is
Alice Cooper’s "Black Juju." Now I know
Alice Cooper. One of the guys I use to ride to school
with had an eight-track of "Welcome To My Nightmare."
That's the only damn thing he played every day, so I
know Alice Cooper. This is a good cover of Alice Cooper.
My favorite part of the record is when Dave is singing
"bodies need rest" over and over. He get quieter
each time he sings it until his voice is just a whisper.
Of course the whole bands comes screaming back in and
I jump out of my skin. This is some scary ass rock n’
roll. Get "Blood and Tar" from BIG NECK RECORDS.
- Cyclops
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Desparate wickedness
that seems to be more devoted to conjuring demons than
to rocking the crowds. The guitar sounds bring to mind
destroying murder evidence in a wood chipper. - Rocktober
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This is one stellar
piece of lo-fi damaged punk rock. This shit is raw,
dirty, and evil, and I love it. It reminds me of the
REATARDS and the CLONE DEFECTS. On the mighty fine BIG
NECK LABEL. - Hit List
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I first heard about
this band from Andy at Flying Bomb who was raving about
them. He'd mention how dark and psychotic they were.
I respect his opinion very much but after hearing the
record he released by them I was left scratching my
head. Too much Bauhaus and not enough Cramps for my
treble drenched tastes. Since I was curious if I was
missing something I went to see them live and was still
left cold. "What the fuck?!" I'd think "He's
wearing black eyeliner." Their sound was muddy
but not in a Mississippi River way...I dunno...maybe
more like puddle in a Walgreen's parking. It just did
not move me. A few weeks ago this comes in the mail.
I hold Bart at Big Neck in the same regards as I do
Andy but my face had a pained look after I pulled this
record out of the envelope. "Aw man..." I
put it on my turntable thinking "Well, if I play
it once I can then say I heard it then I file it in
the back of the pile." When the needle hit's the
groove I am taken a back. It lunges out of the speakers
wielding a rusty kitchen knife hoping to hit a vital
artery and making the blood spill. Really !!! As where
previous records by them made me wonder if the wanted
to own a hearse because Herman Munster drove one for
a dayjob I now think they're gunning for taking the
one off the hands of the creepy old man from "Phantasm".
Now if I could cope with the make-up thing... - Smashin'
Transistors
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the Blowtops
"Blackstatic" |
These guys are masters
of horror rock with their mix of garage sound and white
noise. The Blowtops are very good with their brand of
distaste and shock for their second full-length album.
"Black Static" kinda sounds like a serial
killer plotting his murders and carrying them out in
a horrific, but focused fashion. The victims (your ears)
will die either way. Highlights include "Honey
Head Bloody Moon", “Criminal/Animal/Expendable”,
“Sixteen” and “Flesheater Receiver”.
One of the best CDs I’ve heard all year. Top ten
list, baby. - Crimewave Magazine
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Sweet Jesus walking
on the water, this is insane. Noisy and intense as all
hell breaking loose in a lunatics mind. This is dirty
and chaotic, but also rhythm bound with the combustibility
of a Buddhist Monk in a protest. Songs like "Criminal/Animal/Expendable"
and "Honey Headed Bloody Moon" are incredible.
I guess you might say this is vicious artpunk that has
an almost industrial churn to it. It can be dark and
ugly enough to inspire masochistic frenzies. The singer
sounds so unhinged that it is hard to imagine him avoiding
bloodshed in concert. An intense listen for sure…get
it, but be careful not to listen to it in a fragile
emotional state. - Rock'n'Roll Purgatory
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Another BigNeck feature
with a new release last year are THE BLOWTOPS. This
band has remained in former hometown of BigNeck, Buffalo,
NY and have skilled themselves in a hellish creation
on angst, horror, nightmare and any variety of psychosis.
"Black Static", the new BLOWTOPS ain't no
different. The bands musical outcome is based on manical,
screaming, angst-ridden vocals, distorted, amputated
and disgruntled feedback guitars, a blatant and bludgeoning
rhythm section pushing and shoving the whole lot into
mental oblivion. Each and every song sounds as if it
a fought battle on its very own, as if different ghosts
need to be overcome or need to be destroyed to come
out without a therapeutic result which might suit as
a guideline for yet unaware. THE BLOWTOPS have learned
to make good use of their inevitable influences (Pussy
Galore, Scientists, Birthday Party, Lubricated Goat,
King Snake Roost) and turned them into a aural sonic
mayhemgrinder at very, very, very good result!! The
world of THE BLOWTOPS is haunted and spooked, is desperate,
but the bands battles are pieces of diabolic beauty.
- Up Yours
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Second long-player (that
I know of) from Buffalo’s kings of gloomy, gallows
garage, and it is a scorcher. Sounding akin to a car
crash of The Birthday Party, The Stooges, The Cramps,
Pussy Galore, New Wave Theater muddled with a contemporary
bend of say, a gothic Piranhas meets old Jon Spencer,
The Blowtops are definitely a acquired taste. They’re
noisy, rhythmically abstract, noisy, dark, angry, and
did I mention fucking noisy? I happen to love the living
shit out this record. Particularly the disjointed rock
and roll blast of “Honeyhead Bloodsmoon”,
the pure fury of “Ward Infinite” or the
Iggy-esque mania of “Flesheater Receiver”;
from a whisper to a seizure like frenzy, the vocals
are what Mark E. Smith of The Fall would sound like
if he had family nestled in Detroit, yet made a point
to shoot smack with Iggy on the weekends. Like The Cramps’
Lux Interior, there is mic swallowing aplenty, noises
of unknown bodily origin; gasps and shallow breathing,
hiccups, screeches, howls, cackles and any number of
psychotic manifestations layered like coffin dirt onto
any number of gloomy, fuzz-laden melodies. I would hazard
to guess the members of the Blowtops are familiar with
the work of seminal death-rock gods The Gun Club; you
can almost feel the spirit of Jeffrey Lee Pierce shaking
among the ruins. “Prescription Malfunction”
has Link Wray and Kid Congo double teaming Poison Ivy
for some kind of bass thudding, guitar vibrating spook-a-thon
(that ends in what appears to be a complete vocal homicidal
breakdown). And whether you like The Blowtops or not,
there can be no discounting their ability to both rock
like fuck and scare the shit out of you. It’s
an energizing, almost invigorating record; one that
slaps the senses wide awake with morbid curiosity; like
watching a spirited religious cleansing that ends in
broken limbs and voiceless screams; the resurrection
of rock and roll’s darkest skeletons doing a voodoo
shimmy with Roky Erikson and Professor Longhair. ‘Blackstatic’
is a ballsy, bluesy, brash and unrestrained affair.
And when absorbed in it’s entirety, I couldn’t
help but conjure up psychedelic swirls and punk rock
nightmares. Yet despite all of the raw vocal intensity
and dark guitars, ‘Blackstatic’ turns out
to be one cacophonous barrel of fun. Fed by infinite
manic energy and captivating originality, The Blowtops
have managed to kill off the derivative skinless bastard
called modern punk rock, by cradling the mischievous
soul that lies dormant underneath. - Punkrocks.net
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Here come the electrodes...
here come the electrodes... here come the electrodes.
This is a hell of a noisy rock aggregate and this disc
pushes the sonic assault up a notch or two. The intro
is a fairly pleasant organic instrumental dirge. When
the vocals kick in on the next track, the gloves come
off and the tension mounts. The band has to work extra
hard to keep an edge going that won't get lost in the
vocal harangue. The boys get loud and quirky with radio
unfriendly blasts of "Tailor Made Psychosis,"
"Honeyheaded Bloodymoon," "Flesheater
Receiver," "Underhanded Overkill" and
eight other chunks of rythmic mayhem. - Garage
and Beat
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Florida is where people
go to die on purpose, upstate New York is where they
do it by accident. It's no great wonder, then, why Buffalo's
darkest hearts, the Blowtops, infuse their brand of
rattleshake trash punk with images of flesh eating psychos
and teenage serial killers and toxic burnouts- it's
in their blood, if not their backyard. Sonically speaking,
"Blackstatic" takes it cues from the classic
Cramps/Misfits school of berserk creepabilly, shaded
in nicely with the same kind of haunted slither you'd
find in the shadows of the Murder City Devils or the
Lanternjack, and played more for apocalyptic effect
than for proficiency. Thematically speaking, the Blowtops
probably know more about Albert Fish than any decent
folks ought to. The combination is not unlike a rocket-powered
hearse ride- deadly, scary, but unmistakably efficient
at it's ghoulish task. Two weeks away from Buffalo and
they'd probably be writing love songs and changing their
clothes on a regular basis, but nobody ever escapes
from there anyway. - Sleazegrinder.com
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Me likes. Total in-your-face
savage rock-n-roll. Total chaos, total mayhem, totally
sexy, I'm in love with that crude guitar, grungy bass,
and hostile blood-n-guts vocs. It's like the CRAMPS
with ten times the speed and hostility. I feel inspired
I'm gonna go fuck something up... - Maximum
Rock'n'Roll
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More stellar Buffalo,
NY ROCK-N-ROLL with a touch of evil. This record might
have you selling your soul to the devil and moving to
Buffalo, but then you realize how close you would be
to Canada and settle for the desert and a good record
player. - Suspect Device
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The BLOWTOPS are harsh,
rude, scary and crude. This second album shows why you
should lock carefully the doors when these cats are
in town... 12 primitive and fuzzed out raunchy-garage
stompers that seem to have been blessed with a headless
chicken's bleeding neck by Baron Samedi himself are
the only thing you'll find on this album: the rhythms
are desperate and the singer's voice is very intense
and really fucked up, and when it comes to tracks like
"Underhanded Overkill" it'll give shivers
down your spine... horror soaked garagey-punk rock fury
in a vein just the very first GUN CLUB could have played
if ol' Jeffrey Lee had a Leatherface tattoo on his chest
is what expect you when playing this record, so beware,
'cause this shit can hurt feelings... it's so real and
stripped down and fucked up... the way I love. A big
thumb up for this record, go for it if you still have
a dark side in your soul. - Garbage Dump
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The second full-length
from Buffalo's very own horror-noise mongers. I hear
people relate them to the Cramps often, most likely
because of Creepy Dave's Lux-inspired vocals and live
antics, and any band that melds horror into their music
gets the obligatory Cramps reference. Musically, I have
always seen them as something close to The Scientists
in their creepier moments. "Black Static"
is sure to be called the Blowtops "rock" album,
as it is probably their most listener-friendly effort
so far. The extreme sonic assault is toned down somewhat,
yet still full of the usual jerky rhythms and lyrical
psychosis. If the first LP was a mad slasher, randomly
slicing and killing people in a blood-splattered tornado
of horror without abandon, then "Black Static"
is a serial killer plotting his murders and carrying
them out in a horrific, yet focused fashion. The victims
(your ears) die either way. Highlights include "Honey
Head Bloody Moon" and "Prescription Malfunction",
trademark Blowtops numbers full of noise and feedback.
Some fans may be put off by the clean sound, as it is
definitely the cleanest production you're ever going
to find on a Blowtops record. Yet the album shows a
steady progression in the Blowtops music. They occupy
a niche that few, if any, bands do these days. It probably
falls somewhere in between the "Deep Thrust"
LP and the "Blood & Tar" ten-inch on the
sickness scale. I like this thing a lot, and it begs
for repeated listening more than any of their other
records. They have focused their attack, which has reigned
in some of their previous excesses in a good way. Big
Neck delivers the swag once again. By the way, since
the recording of this LP the Blowtops have replaced
both their bassist and drummer. Live dates with the
new line-up are coming soon. - Blankgeneration.com
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“Blackstatic”
is the second full-length album from Buffalo’s
masters of horror-rock, the Blowtops. Who else but Big
Neck Records has the cajones to release this one. The
band says this is their all out rock album and it does
rock. It’s loud, noisy and full of horror movie
images. It ain’t kids stuff. “Come On In”
kicks off the album with a minute of pure noise. That
leads into Creepy Dave screaming “criminal…animal…expendable”
on “Criminal/Animal/Expendable.” This song
flies along outta control until it ends with Creepy
Dave coming all unglued. “Sixteen” is great
with its stop-and-go rhythm. It’s about some alcohol
induced suicide, I think. “Sixteen days until
they found me. Slit my throat, my own hand.” “Underhanded
Overkill” slows the pace down. This is the Blowtops
version of a ballad. It’s still noisy and scary
as hell though. “You don’t’ like the
car I drive well, you can ride in the trunk…Some
people call it love. I call it killing time.”
“Greasy Jack” has a “Hand Jive”
rhythm to it. It has a bunch of twisted takes on kids
nursery rhymes. “Greasy Jack is stickin’
Jill. Learned to sin up on the hill. Jack goes up and
Jill goes down. Twist the wheel and broken crown.”
The record ends the way it started with the noisefest
“You Can't Get Out.” It’s about a
minute of feedback, distortion and screams. This is
the Blowtops strongest effort to date. You better turn
on all the lights when you listen to this one, because
it’s scare the bejesus out of you. - Cyclops
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