Artist: Norman Bates And The Showerheads
Album: Norman Bates And The Showerheads
Year: 1989
Genre: Hardcore Punk
The release
of The Age Of Quarrel by Cro-Mags
established a slight obsession with the music, the people and the lore of New
York Hardcore. Being a Detroit-area kid,
we had our own characters and stories, but there was something fascinating
about what was happening in New York. Although,
I had previously owned records by Agnostic Front and Kraut, it was Age Of Quarrel that overly piqued my
interest in everything punk and hardcore related coming out of NYC in the mid
80s through the early 90s. Who into aggressive
underground music wouldn’t be intrigued, right?
We’re talking Murphy’s Law, Judge, Warzone, Youth Of Today, Leeway, Sick
Of It All and so on and so on. Those
bands left me desiring more. Although
word-of-mouth and zines were good sources, compilations were my main go-to of
that era to discover bands. There was
nothing like hearing a song from newcomer and then going on the hunt for other
items they had released. In the midst of
getting my hands on anything NYHC, I bought the New York Hardcore – Where The Wild Things Are cassette without a
second thought. Soon my ears were being
blasted by Sheer Terror, Outburst, Raw Deal, Life’s Blood and others. Toward the end of side 2, a couple of songs
hit me like a clean one-two combo. I
remember furiously rewinding back to these two songs because this band easily
stood above all the others. They were
raw and unusually catchy. That right
there began my journey to find whatever I could by the short-lived Queens, New
York band Norman Bates And The Showerheads, because I needed more.
Well, my
journey was a brief one since NBSH only had one official full length
release. I was very lucky. Someone at my favorite independent record
store at the time had the foresight to order their self-titled cassette. I recall the excitement of seeing their name
on the spine in the middle of a vertical pile of cassettes behind a sliding
glass door that I impatiently waited for a store employee to unlock so I could
get my hands on it. I scooped it up instantly.
I still have the copy of my tape that is now extremely worn and battered
from what must be close to a hundred listens of their mishmash of Motorhead
meets DOA with a dose of more metallic Suicidal Tendencies. They weren’t the prototypical NYHC sounding
band, but it appears that was the fan-base that embraced them. The frantic guitars and drums rain sonic
energy bombs over the unusually gruff yet memorable vocals. NBSH pound away hard on each song, but never
let the hook get by them, heavily emphasizing the ever so important punk part
of hardcore punk. Their lyrics have a
clever Descendents/Ramones-esque storytelling quality to them at the times they
decide to stray from the in-your-face, attitude-ridden bluntness we’ve all come
to expect from the New York scene. Songs
dealing with arachnophobia, the daily pains of a retail job, the ultimate rise
of cockroaches after nuclear destruction and the boredom of digging graves are atypical,
but work well with their rantings of overt disgruntlement with personal issues
and society. The album has a humorous
quality, but since the music charges like an enraged rhino, the flippancy gives
the record charm and personality, and does fall into novelty territory. When you can call angry music fun, a band is doing something right.
This album is one of my
favorites, plain and simple; not just one of my favorite New York Hardcore records. Finding the
self-titled release can be difficult, but not impossible. The band did release a discography called Psycho Too which contains this release, the compilation songs that inspired me
to be a huge fan and much more. Doing a
little bit of recent research on the band, I learned that guitarist / vocalist Jim
Starace and bassist John Garino have passed.
RIP and thank you gentlemen. Your band made a record I will listen to the rest of my life.
Listen to "Here The Come (Not Another Insect Story)" here.
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