alternative tentacles. virus 45 / 10 tracks / 1985

F: new rose records. rose 75 / 1985

D: wall city records. wy 005 / 1985

CAN: fringe. fpl 3018 / 1985 (?)

RI: AUS: aim records. 1021 / 1989 (?)

RI (CD): JAP: teci-21140 / 2002

+ printed inner sleeve. Initial copies include poster with art by HR Giger (“Penis Landscape”); a concerned parent sued the band, this turned into a long-going nasty legal battle which ultimately broke the band (although the case was dismissed). US test pressings exist. Australian reissues on purple swirl, grey swirl and red vinyl. German lyric sheet was available upon request. UK&US CD reissues on Alternative Tentacles.

This album gained notoriety mainly for the poster; musically, this has the band trying to diversify a little more. Part of it is still the typical mid-tempo DK hardcore punk as heard on Plastic Surgery Disasters, some songs are in the faster hardcore vein of the Bedtime album, and others are more experimental and angular. It’s a good and diverse album, but not quite up to their old LPs. [8]

Die Platte, die die größten Wellen in der Geschichte der Band schlug, allerdings nicht wegen der Musik, sondern wegen des beigelegten Posters des schweizerischen Künstlers HR Giger, das einen der spektakulärsten Zensur-Prozesse der amerikanischen Geschichte auslöste… Musikalisch hat man teils noch die typischen, mittelschnellen DK-Nummern à la Plastic Surgery im Programm; andererseits versucht man sich aber auch an schrägeren und avantgardistischeren Klängen, einige Tracks sind auch an den damals vorherrschenden schnellen HC angelehnt. Insgesamt eine gute, abwechslungsreiche Platte, die allerdings nicht ganz den Kultstatus der früheren Werke erreicht.

Tracks: soup is good food / hellnation / this could be anywhere / a growing boy needs his lunch / chicken farm // jock-o-rama / goons of hazard / mtv get off the air / at my job / stars and stripes of corruption