feedtime: the Aberrant years (Sub Pop)

feedtime

the Aberrant years

Sub Pop

Apr 06, 2012 Issue #40 - In the Studio 2012 - Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, and Twin Shadow By Austin Trunick

Australia's feedtime seemed as averse to fame as they were to capital letters. The band's original lineup decided to hang it up in 1989 rather than embark on an overseas tour, leaving behind four internationally acclaimed full-lengths after their roughly decade-long existence. Deserving of more than just a post-punk-era footnote, feedtime's loud, lurching, and abrasive music sounds well ahead of its time, meeting at a spiritual midpoint between The Stooges and Big Black. Grimy blues riffs are slowed down and distorted to a lurching crunch. Whether feedtime's pulling from its own deep supply of three-minute growlers or churning out a near-unrecognizable reinterpretation of "Paint It Black," it's not pretty music by any means, but it's got a killer lowlife swagger.

That this reissue is being put out on the Sub Pop label just feels so appropriate: much of feedtime's music is prototypically grunge-y. (Mudhoney have cited them as an influence, and you can hear it pretty clearly, particularly in the messy riffage of 1988's Shovel.) This box set collects all four albums from the original lineup, plus outtakes and B-sides, in one package—for nearly the same price as a single CD. They're really hard not to recommend at that cost of entry. (www.subpop.com/artists/feedtime)

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