KILLDOZER

July 30, 2008

Ladies & Gentlemen… KILLDOZER! I’m still completeing the post I had mentioned, it’s taking a while so i figured in the meantime some KILLDOZER should be taking place. In keeping with the recent Touch & Go theme I thought why not do something about one of their longest serving & most loyal artists (beside SHELLAC). I cottoned on to the band a little late for some reason, it wasn’t until ‘Uncompromising War on Art…’ that I began to appreciate their unique take on rock music. I think maybe the first thing I was drawn to were the lyrics… which utilised a lot of dry humour but were clever & engaging. In many ways similar to the deadpan storylike delivery of NOMEANSNO, where you may find yourself laughing out loud at how they bring comedy to such perverse subject matter. ’Uncompromising War on Art…’ was KILLDOZER’s ‘Communist’ album, I think that in itself is quite hilarious especially when you read the Marxist interpretation accompanying each track. If any other band did this you’d be thinking ‘What the Fuck’ but these guys were exceptionally talented musicians & produced one hell of a concept record. I own nearly all of their albums & they’re all worth listening to, it’s a shame more people don’t. Check out Mark Prindle’s page for a good overview & Michael Gerald interview from 2003. KILLDOZER were pioneering a brand of dirty fucked up slo motion dirge rock years before you, I, or anyone else thought it would be a good idea. Out of all the current bands.. I’d say only HARVEY MILK could be seen to have picked up the torch & upheld the same spirit.

As usual I had a dig around to see what i could put up that might be of interest. It seems kinda pointless to post up albums that are relatively easy to obtain, and more importantly ones you should actually OWN. A stack of poorly encoded mp3′s doesn’t constitute a ‘record collection’. For me, a good music blogger should upload the rarities (demos, live, singles etc.) that are harder to comeby. It’s nice to actually read some background also, not just a shitty Jpeg of the cover. Anyway, the above photo was another cutting I had made from Melody Maker (mid 90′s) and the two scans below were taken from a local fanzine called Dissident circa 1994. The interview is with Michael Gerald and well worth a look for any KILLDOZER fans, some great lines in there: ‘We brought a clothes iron on this tour! We have nice crisp shirts on stage as well as on the street’. The audio below is a singles collection featuring some great cover versions, their take on ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ is just plain fucking awesomeness!