Better Than Nevermind No.1 : Barkmarket - Vegas Throat

Barkmarket - Vegas Throat (Triple X, reprint on American Recordings in 1992)

Good thing that I start with an album with a bad cover! No shit, albums with ugly covers actually make up at least a third of my vinyl collection. Heck, if I had based my choice on the cover only, I would have bought not even a tenth of what I have. Some of the art in there... Nevermind… (see what I did there), let's stick to the music. The guitar player and vocalist of Barkmarket is the producer. Actually, Dave Sardy has produced more albums in a year than others do in a lifetime. From System Of A Down to Melanie C by the way of Atari Teenage Riot. And he scored the music for Zombieland. But I digress...

So we have a power trio rooted in noise rock, a guitar player that is also a vocalist and a solid rhythm section. The LP that I bought on Triple X starts with Grinder, an apt song title with abrasive guitar tone and funk bass lines, like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jesus Lizard had a threesome with Soundgarden and ended up with a mutated love child. I vaguely remember seeing the video on MuchMusic jeeest before the end of the year. All the songs are badass, especially The Patsy with guitar god Marc Ribot on second guitar, and the groove is mighty solid on all of them, Salvation for example. There’s a cover of Jimi Hendrix in there but, lord, it could be much worse.