Hellworms

Crowd Repellent (Alternative Tentacles)
by Jon Sarre

Ex-Victims Family/Saturn’s Flea Collar folk, Ralph Spight and Larry Boothroyd, join up with drummer Joaquin Spengemann to produce some rockin’ brainy prog punk in that bass-heavy Frisco vein that some people I know really dig. That high-end guitar and ball-draggin rhythm never really does much for me personally, but the Hellworms do occasionally shelve some of their dork-rock-boy tendencies, even if it’s only supposed to be a joke when they do (like on “Cock Rock Superstar,” the best song’s also a parody, what’s up??!!). Spight, who handles vocals, yells some funny stuff ’bout “all music being stupid” and “no matter what you do, you’re always working for the man” (“Zillionaire”) and rhymes “Joseph Campbell” with “Start to ramble” and “Tony Iommi” with “I want my mommy” (but not “money”) on “Master Manipulator.” The thing about this no-sellout purism in-it-for-the-music shit, though, is the records produced by bands like the Hellworms come off as a dissertation, a job even, any real “loss of inhibition,” or whatever comes off as parody, like “rock is stupid, but we’re smart!” Fuck, that’s stupid and by virtue of being so friggin’ smart, this scientist rock shit is even stupider! Stupid, isn’t it?
(PO Box 419092 San Francisco, CA 94141)