2013-08-26

Vomit Launch - Shocking Early Works Vol 1




A complete change of pace, as there has been a lull in my recent outside activities.  We now turn to a Chico, CA group that is still somewhat obscure and has been a object of recent fascination. the shockingly named VOMIT LAUNCH.

Twenty-plus years after they played their final show in December 1992, and after their posthumous Not Even Pretty+ release on Mark Robinson's Teenbeat label, there is a new 7" release of songs, previously only available on the super-hard-to-find "Live In Chico" cassette.  

(by the way, they are not kidding about "Jah Lives At Joe's Barbecue"...if this ever gets out, it's likely to have you hurling and clawing your eyes out)

I wonder if the title of this derives from the Violent Onsen Geisha release of the same name.  That seems right up the alley of the material the BUFMS (Butte County Free Music Society) has been airing over the last several years, starting with their mammoth 4xLP plus "penalty CD", Induced Musical Spasticity, which also features some of the players involved on this.  The impetus of the re-release of this material was the passing away of original Vomit Launch member Tim Smyth, who is featured on the tracks that appear on this single.

On the A side, we are greeted with the sighing ennui-laden downward spiral of "The Only Way Is Down"...the band warn us at the start that they would be cribbing lyrics, and indeed, one hears the 'I put my trust in you' lyric from Joy Division's "A Means To An End".  

The flip features a *very* early skeletal take of "Swelling Admiration" that sounds like the Shaggs getting assaulted by the asshole fratboys serving as the antagonists of the song, and a gonzo, off-the-meds version of Flipper's "Sex Bomb", which itself is gonzo off-the-meds to begin with.

Bizarre, and utterly essential.  Order from Tedium House here.

There's precious little out there for Vomit Launch available available online that you cannot find on iTunes/Amazon, etc. 
or on their official website, but I can at least feature the one video they made, for "Switch" on Mr. Spench.  This almost got aired on MTV's 120 Minutes, who instead put up the outtakes for it instead and called it a day, what do you expect from pigfuckers who would go on to bring you The Real World and only now serve to keep right-thinking folks the hell away from whatever they're dishing up presently.