Joe chatted with the band at the merch table after the show (I ran into a guy from high school I haven’t seen since ’89 so was reliving some of my own 80’s punk memories with him) – SFH play out quite a bit but mostly basement shows, to which we are apparently invited but I’m pretty sure we’ve aged out of that scene, as fun as it probably would be.

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While probably a bit biased, the reviewer on the Green Noise Records website totally nails it and is worth quoting here: “…holy fuck, holy fox face, this album rips, ripped out my brain and made my day, scraped my brain from my skull and slapped it on a platter, red and black swirl indeed, stick my head in that batter and call me baked, slap a bow on my ass and call it an early Christmas, these women are obviously not messing around, the goods have been delivered, teeth fang and claw, once bitten twice delighted, welcome to the planet of Fox Face, this is obviously their world, and I’m just happy I get to live on it…As the sleeve art suggests this is a monster from the Rust Belt, impossible to ignore as it thunders into your eardrums, driving riffs into the punk rock, lifting it up on a bottom thick as plate iron and powering forward, shaking like an earthquake.  Take cover, a big one is coming.”

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Demonseed is a great, short and punchy album with a warm and lo-fi sound; we ran into another friend/Milwaukee musician after the Mittenfest performance who told us Demonseed was recorded completely analogue. That sound enhances the DIY garage vibe of the music, which is great 60′s-inspired surfy garage punk with an occasional dose of grunge (“Love Doll”). My top tracks include “Love Doll,” “Meat Stick,” “Zombie Baby,” the psychedelic punk freak-out “You’re Not the Walrus” and the title track “Demonseed.”

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Allmusic’s review is a long-read but really great and I definitely have at least a bit more appreciation for The Replacements having read it. Here it is: “Part of the Replacements’ appeal always was that they didn’t quite fit into any tidy category and nowhere was that truer than on their 1981 debut, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. Falling over themselves to fit into the Minneapolis hardcore scene, the ‘Mats played fast and loose, which was part of the problem – they were too loose, lacking the discipline to fit within hardcore, which even in ’81 was adhering to the loud-fast rules that would later morph into straight-edge. Then again, that was a common problem in the Twin Cities, as Hüsker Dü also were too big and blustery to be a standard hardcore band, but where the Huskers traded in violence and fury at this early stage, the Replacements wallowed in cheap thrills. Danger still pulsated in their music, but the group didn’t inflict emotional damage: they were a party spinning out of control, getting sloppier with every beer swilled. The messiness on Sorry Ma is hardly confined to the cheap, thin recording or the band’s playing – they sound as if they’re stumbling upon each other as they fumble for the next chord – but how the songs pile up one after another, most not managing to get close to the two-minute mark. Such brevity could be dubbed as hardcore, but apart from the volume and speed, this doesn’t feel like hardcore: there’s too much beer and boogie for that. Then, there’s also the fact that the Replacements reveled in mid-American junk culture, with Paul Westerberg boasting that he’d bought himself a headache the very year that Black Flag sneered that they had nothing better to do then having a bottle of brew as they watched the TV. Neither did the Replacements, but they sang about this with no disdain, as they enjoyed being “Shiftless When Idle,” as one of the best songs here called it. This could be called defiant if it seemed like the ‘Mats were raging against anything besides garden-variety suburban troubles, as there’s nothing that attacks other punkers (quite the opposite; there are love letters to Johnny Thunders and Hüsker Dü), and even when Westerberg is chronicling Midwestern ennui, there’s a sense of affection to his laments, as if he loves the place and loves acting like an angry young crank. This strain of premature curmudgeonly humor is undercut by the boundless energy of the band, so happy to make noise they don’t care if they’re recycling old-time rock & roll riffs that are closer to amped-up Rockpile than the Ramones, as there’s more swing to the rhythms than that – swing that careens wildly and madly, but swings all the same. And that’s what made the Replacements seem so different with their debut – they didn’t fit anywhere within American punk, but there’s no defiance here; there’s a celebration of who and what they are that’s genuinely, infectiously guileless. It may not quite sound like any other American punk record but Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash is one of the best LPs the entire scene produced in the early ’80s.”

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Wisconsin is fast-paced 80′s punk with Dr. Demento-meets-Jay-Tiller (Tiller is from Wisconsin’s Couch Flambeau) level vocals, which is a bit off-putting, borderline ear-bleeding but it does make The Crucifucks unique. The musicianship is surprisingly competent, with lots of big rhythm and remarkable, almost prog-rock level hypnotic guitar riffs and solos (ie “Concession Stand”). There’s also some crazy experimentation, especially on the epic track “When the Top Comes Off” where all of the above-mentioned characteristics are present (and the screechy grating vocals are on overdrive). The tracks “Artificial Competition” and “The Savior” both have great grooves but for home-state solidarity, I’m going to say the title track “Wisconsin” is my favorite on the album though it’s probably the least-punk track on the LP with a rather delightful lilting jangly guitar that morphs into a great blues riff (but it still has Dart’s nails-on-chalkboard screech).

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