This installment of our BREAKING SOUNDS feature series goes to the irresistible squelch and sophisticated slobbering of The Uzi Rash Group Band and their debut LP, Hight and Phree, released recently on the Freedom School Records imprint, and set to blow heads off from coast-to-coast. The first time we stumbled across this DIY mess of rabidly retarded, gurgling goodness, it was back in 2007 and we'd just featured them on our "Top of The Slop" links. But at the end of the year, an inconspicuous "demo package" had arrived, filled with two different CD-Rs and a crushed up stalk of then still-legal salvia divornum inside. We were intrigued, based on the newly 'discovered' psychedelic plant and it's growing concern based on a number of YouTube videos (see here), and the craziness of a new, still-legal mind-altering substance, not to mention the wonderfully warped Uzi Rash music contained therein.
As most projects like this evolve from a typical bedroom nutcase recording-style, the deranged songs churned forth take hold immediately and hypnotically channel an ugly groove system, not far off from the vastly influential noise of The Intelligence, yet pull away their own sloptastic strain of lo-fidelity lunacy. So, basically this debut LP is Uzi Rash's first official release, and not content to repeat the vast slums of demo material he's spewed forth, the Hight and Phree album stands up incredibly well to repeated listens, with the breakaway hit landing in the last slot on the first side in the form of, "Bag of Dirt," (up now on VoT Radio!) an ass-slapping riff that takes you straight to Mars, man.
With an assortment of both creatively quaint and downright despicable songs interspersed throughout, Uzi Rash has unleashed a unexpectedly respectable album, and everything from the ridiculous cover art and expanded band name, spells off-center brilliance in its most inconspicuous format. Freedom School Records (the label responsible for delivering the first 12" EPs by Blank Dogs and Stupid Party) delivers another essential 12" platter that you shouldn't go through life without, so choke that pride down and put your fists on the counter of your local record store, and demand your copy of the debut LP by The Uzi Rash Group Band today. Get it straight from the label HERE, or if you're of an even higher cranial capacity, track down Rev Stanley J. Bingman himself and pry a copy out of his bloody psychedelic fingers.
check out a video clip/interview on The Creepy Touch with Uzi Rash, courtesy of MishkaNYC, right here:
