Scratch Acid

2/3 Rapeman + 1/2 Jesus Lizard = 3/4 Scratch Acid? How could such a thing be occurring in this world today in which?
*special introductory paragraph!
*Scratch Acid EP
*Just Keep Eating
*Berserker EP
*The Greatest Gift

Hello there! I'm the guy that burglarized Mark Prindle's home while he was on vacation in Arizona! I was just about to trade this nice computer with the flat screen for a puddle of liquid drug juice when I ran across Mark's delightful music review page. Well, I'm nothing if not a piece of human shit, so I thought I would contribute a page of my own! I may be a drug-addled worthless prick, but there's a band from Texas called Scratch Acid that I like a lot! Mind you, I don't listen to them very often because I sold all of my possessions (along with several of other people's!) for one marijuana joint, but I can still remember how much I enjoyed listening to them back in the days when I would carefree smash car windows and throw peoples' babies out into the street. The band featured a young David Yow (soon to be singer of The Jesus Lizard), a young David Wm. Sims (soon to be bassist of Rapeman and The Jesus Lizard) and a young Rey Washam (soon to be drummer for Big Boys, Didjits, Helios Creed and a bajillion other bands) and a guitarist. They sort of sounded like they wanted to be an American version of Australia's sick noisemakers The Birthday Party (especially Yow, who tried something terrific to imitate Party vocalist Nick Cave). Speaking of The Birthday Party, let me know if you have one so I can steal the cake like an asshole.


Scratch Acid EP - Rabid Cat 1984
Rating = 9

The recording is really muffled, almost as if it were recorded inside the suitcase I stole from Mark Prindle so I could carry his possessions out of the building and down the street without being stopped and beaten up like the drug using leech on society that I am. But the songs are great! Twangy sick swampy Texas guitar, blues punk terror sorrow kickass lust violence urination. With neat bass lines! A true Texan Birthday Party. Quivering shouted lyrics like "The princess lay bleeding and her cunt's RIPPED! RIPPED! RIPPED!" add to queasy eerie backroads massacre feel. And that's all I can say about the record because, unlike Mark Prindle, I'm a crappy writer. Hell, I'm not even a good thief! I stole all the shitty fake jewelry while not even noticing the expensive heirloom jewelry that was sitting right next to it! Holy christ am I a fucking jackoff!

Reader Comments

JelloB@charter.net (Leila)
you don't know me but -- hey who gives a shit right? party down with the fake jewlery----and from what ive heard of scratch acid i like it----so you guys keep stealing worthless shit and doing whatever cause youre good at it-----Later Days Bitches

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Just Keep Eating - Rabid Cat 1986
Rating = 9

Still really muffled, but the song styles have increased. The first one was mostly just "twisted cow music." This one runs around between that very same genre I just made up, more normalized rockish styles, some funk, some art rock -- all with a more traditional feel while still being oddball enough to warrant a thumbs up from miscreants like myself (which reminds me, I have odd balls, a thumb up my ass and a warrant out for my arrest!). This is one crazyass drug band from the bayou! But a smart one that knows how to put songs together for maximum atrocity effect -- and no, it's not metal or even really punk every often. And it's not TIGHT AND SHINY like the later Jesus Lizard material. It's messy, thumpy, nearly out of tune, reverbed to hell, muffled, powerless but SO catchy, memorable, creative and strange. While just being Rock Music!

I'll suck your cock for a nickel, by the way. I'm a tick-ridden bag of socks.

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Berserker EP - Touch & Go 1986
Rating = 8

This recording isn't muffly at all! It screams at you like a police officer when you're running down the street with several bottles of Mark Prindle's perfume! The drumming is psychotically aggressive and impressive, but most of the songs seem to be more about "mood" than "melody." Dark and mean, sure, but can you sing them in your head? Well, yeah I suppose you can. But there are only six songs and a couple aren't as great as the others. But the ones that are great? The DRUMS, my man! The massive attack of snare blasts, high-speed pounding and righteous clatter! And yeah, the guitar is mixed much louder than before too - the band SerIOUSly kicks ass now, rather than just tickling your ass with a WeirdBird feather.

One thing I neglected to mention because I've been sniffing scotch tape and drinking kerosene like the fuckhead that I know I am is that they have funny titles sometimes like "Big Bone Lick," "Unlike A Baptist," "Spit A Kiss," "Cheese Plug," and "Mary Had A Little Drug Problem." Isn't that funny?

Oh who can tell anymore. Was it funny when I took a Diet Coke out of Mark Prindle's fridge and just set it there on the counter for him to find when he got home? I hope so! I did it to be a funny burglar!

Reader Comments

somethingclever@mail.com
I found this album in the old record section at Goodwill. Quite the find considering their usual selection ranges from Chuck Mangione to Boz Scaggs. When I first put it on I thought my record player was on the wrong speed. I really dig the melodies and yes, the drums do kick ass. But for singing along in your head, I doubt that. Unless the voices in your head sound really fucked up.

JelloB@charter.net (Leila)
i have no idea who belongs to which band and which band plays what song......but i like the song mary had a little drug problem-----there was an instant attraction cause it destroys so much innocence......this is like the millionth comment ive left......maybe i should go to school.....nah....id rather just stay home all day smoke pot and leave random comments like these....WOO! party down------------this is definately, probably, maybe not the last one

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* The Greatest Gift - Touch & Go 1991 *
Rating = 10

What do you get when you combine three great records onto one lengthy compact disc? A GREAT COMPACT DISC! Kind of like the way I combined three of Mark Prindle's cameras and got a baggie of crack!

Reader Comments

jonrobbb@yahoo.com (Jon Robb)
Hey Prindle, sorry to hear about your shit getting ripped off. If it's any solace 1)those were some of the funniest reviews I've ever read and 2)when I was a kid (I think it was 1985, so that would make me about 10 years old at the time), my family's apartment was robbed as well. The jerkoff who robbed us threw eggs in the back of my dad's Commodore 64 (in the disk drive and monitor vent holes), so that every time we ran the computer, the sulphury stench of rotting eggs would emanate from the components as they warmed up (almost fitting, now that I think about it). Surprisingly, it still worked. He also took my dad's crappy stereo and threw food and paper around our kitchen. Fucking hilarious.

Anyway, thanks for reviewing Scratch Acid. I have The Greatest Gift CD (I read somewhere that Scratch Acid was one of Mr. Albini's favorite bands, so I thought I'd give it a shot) and it's not bad (not mind-blowing either). Kinda dark, druggy, and all over the place at times, but there are some cool sounds, powerful songs, and Yow is a complete maniac.

drazy@gatecity.com
First tuned in on the first e.p. Finally saw these guys live during the "Just Keep Eating" tour. Knew from both experiences that David Yow was completely off his l'il rocker. A drunk and a poet, I would have bet my left testicle that Yow would have never recorded for a major label. He did, so I'm glad I never made the bet. I went with The Jesus Lizard based on my love affair with this band, and for those of you who like going back in time, you shouldn't be disappointed. Spotty at times, this comp collects everything that S.A. d'id and forecasted everything that J.L. d'od.

Hans.Chew@turner.com
Hello Marky! I love your writing, it's funny ha, ha, not funny ho, ho. Anyway, I cann't love those two entities enough that are Scratch Acid and the Birthday Party. It was nice to read your reviews, I could add a million more comments like "oh my god jesus the bass!" and "I throw my head back and forth violently singing gutteral utterances along with Yow at the top of my lungs while doing 85 on the freeway at 8am on the way to work". Good god damn I wish I had been older than 10 in 1985, but I did manage to see the Jesus Lizard as much as I could afford (I met both Duane Denison and David Yow on seperate occaisions and blustered like a f'n little girl in their presence- I told Duane something like 'You'll never know how much your music has meant to me' or something like that!). Anyway, keep up the inspiration and music is love, and I love humanity and pray for us all! Adios, hombre!

totale@mail.utexas.edu
my fucking god. this page is one of the funniest things i have ever read. i haven't laughed this hard at a prindle review since you listed "uncle mammy can suck the dick" as one of the songs on bossanova.

irontyrant@earthlink.net (Michael Grefski)
Your website is really pissing me off Mark. It's reminding me about great records I sold/lost/barfed on and Scratch Acid's debut EP is one of them. "Cannibal" is right up there with Flipper's "Ha Ha Ha" as one of the greatest musical moments ever to make people wonder "What the hell were they thinking?" Which reminds me, I can't find by copy of Squirrel Bait's first record either...or Pleased Youth's "Dangerous Choo Choo Train." Which brings up a good point...has anybody ever made a compilation of post 1980 art punk stuff? Seems like it's an era and a sub-sub-genre in danger of sinking without a trace if people don't start trying to get stuff back in print soon. Seems like only the Flaming Lips are interested in having people remember what the stuff sounded like back in the elder days.

rhiann@telus.net
This one makes parents call the shrink. Yea they mighta ripped of The BP a bit but the band certainly puts their own sig. on it. And yow sounds alien and bizarre more times than not. a band like this today would go nowhere fast. anyways this one takes me over that rainbow and i havent't tired of it yet.

radfox@gmail.com
anybody who opens their record with the line "this guy doused his wife in gasoline and then he went and set the bitch on fire" should automatically get ten out of ten regardless of the content of the record. for serious

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