Cocktail Companion

(Estrus)
by Mark Phinney

Oh boy, get me another, baby cakes. Instructions: Place CD in player, suit up in a snazzy get up, invite the grooviest people you know to your swingin’ pad, and proceed to to drink until you forget your mother’s last name. Estrus never fails, but I can’t seem to figure out their formula. Maybe all they do is sip cocktails while scouting the hippest bands to sign. The Estrus Cocktail Companion compilation is dangerous. The label’s heavy hitters explain it all in simple terms: Here’s what we like to drink, and this is how we like to drink it. I always say Man or Astroman kick ass, but the kick ass carbonated Comets here are The Spacesters, who suck down a volatile outer limits juicer and achieve a drunken “Get-the-hell-outta-my-house” stupor from the wah-wah peddle. On the other end of the surf spectrum, Satan’s Pigrims beachcomb with “Vampiro,” and Teengenerate, the weirdest looking fellers on the disc, take more of that punky backyard boozin’ to the limit. Estrus are bad boys who know just how to knock me right off my ass.