Vim Fuego
Touted as “… the first ever acoustic noisecore record”, Anal Cunt’s “Unplugged” EP was a middle fingered response to the early 90s trend of rock bands, generally glam metal bands with slipping fortunes, to throw together an acoustic album in a vain attempt to widen their appeal by softening their sound. It didn’t work for Anal Cunt.
Recorded in front of an audience which probably didn’t reach double figures, side one was recorded at vocalist Seth Putnam’s house.
An unrehearsed shouted intro leads into a twangy, obviously jokey intro, and then the noise kicks in. Unplugged or not, this is one hell of a racket. Putnam screams and shouts for all he’s worth, and the drums are dominated by cymbal and snare. There’s a few twangs on what sounds like an out of tune nylon stringed guitar, but it gets lost when the vocals and drums are playing. There are possibly some songs being played here, or it could be all improv noise. Who knows? Does it really matter anyway? The few people in attendance seem to be enjoying the performance, whatever it is.
Side two was recorded on a cassette recorder, and had no P.A. or even a microphone for the vocals. The guitars are a bit louder than on side one, and there’s no audience noise, but it’s still a mangled audio mess. There’s a few riffs poking out here and there, but nothing too song-like to spoil the overall effect.
This EP was released to only 500 copies, which was probably about 490 too many when it was pressed, but time can be a funny thing. Copies of this EP now sell for hundreds of dollars. Yes, it’s rare. Yes, the packaging is pretty cool. Yes, Anal Cunt is now defunct. All of these factors add to the value, but at the end of the day, the music is still shit. There must be some diseased minds out there which value this release, but for everyone else, no matter how curious, don’t buy the damn thing at those ridiculous prices! Despite being acoustic, it’s still noisy and incomprehensible. If this piques your interest, find a digital copy somewhere and listen to that first. If you do buy it, you can’t say you weren’t warned.
