Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Break It Up Experiment

Back when I posted Bad Religion's bestest album I threatened to drop this fucking corn -studded turd from punk's past. You thought I forgot, but I didn't. Let's try an experiment, since I know this won't be downloaded or commented on much: I want everyone who is reading this to download it, listen to it for as long as you can, then in the comments section, just type how far into it you were before you turned it off, and the first word that comes to your head to describe the album. I would greatly appreciate it. Could be fun.

90 comments:

  1. I got a far as calendar... but i skipped though all of the songs about a minute into them.
    Mayonnaise

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  2. Jesus fucking Christ. I put this on thinking, "I'm not going to let something so simple as a record defeat me." I'd heard that the latter SSD records were bad, but how bad can a record be when the guys behind it wrote a song as anthemic and awesome as Glue? When the first riff kicked in, I winced. When the vocals hit, I damn near clicked "stop" there and then. In the end, I slogged through the first song, then noticed the other 9 are all even longer... nope, I can't do it. I have indeed let something so simple as a record defeat me.

    In some macabre, masochist kind of way, I am nonetheless thankful for this upload... I think.

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  3. Oh, and a comment to fulfill your request:

    200 seconds. "...What?"

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  4. No single words really come to mind; it's just not evocative enough to warrant a description or justify the effort of conjuring one. It's not aggressively bad (which would actually be preferable to this), just mediocre and generic, vaguely utilitarian. If you put it on a wall and signed it, it would be found music. Made it through almost all of the first song because I stopped paying attention to it. When I remembered it was there, I turned it off.

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  5. ah, the download took too long. So, 0 seconds, I guess. First word? Cornstud.

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  6. 0:44 into "Children can play". HORRIBLE! Like a third-rate AC/DC... This is so just so boring that I don't even feel like complaining about it.

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  7. Second song at 1:51

    and "head cold"

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  8. I listened the album up to track five and it got so boring that I skipped the rest. This is like the most generic hard rock imaginable. Just like Kiss with really fucked up vocals. The vocals are also the only thing that reminds me of the bands past. Anyways thanks for uploading and sharing this experience. Interesting piece of music history this one.

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  9. Break It Up - 1:27 - got bored

    Children Will Rock - 0:47 - is this just the first song slowed down?

    Heart Failure - 0:12 - fucking ridiculous opening

    Hit The Bottom - 0:21 - I bet this is one of those bands that think they're fucking great

    Blood Flood - 0:16 - it's the first song slowed down again just not as much

    No Solution - 0:07 - just awful

    Baby Black - 0:10 - awful

    Calendar - 0:05 - it's slowly getting worse

    Screams Of The Night - 0:22 - my ears are screaming NO

    Feel The Flame - 0:10 - just no

    Thanks for opening my eyes to a band worse than Wolfmother.

    I don't get the Bad Religion thing though, I just can't see why everybody thinks they're so great. Admittedly I haven't heard much, but what I have heard bored me.

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  10. ...and if you didn't turn it off?

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  11. Oh shit, I've been meaning to listen to some SSD. The vocals are rad. DLing NOW

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  12. Still listening after four songs.

    Vardis

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  13. do you get bonus points for wearing a bobby hat and suspenders while listening?

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  14. 30 seconds into the second track.
    "anemic"

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  15. Listened to the whole damn thing while reading this morning(was that cheating)

    first word(s):a lost Great White demo tape

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  16. 32 seconds into "heart failure". they should use this stuff in interrogations.

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  17. i made it to the lyric "jack horner" and the first word that came to mind was bullshit.

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  18. I made it to 1:11 on track four. wow - that shit sucks. I will never listen to that again. fuck!

    john/milwaukee

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  19. I got though "Break it up" and a massive 0:55 into "Children will rock, and thought the poor kids would probably prefer cock.

    Thats wrong, I know, but so is the fucking song, really wrong.

    btw the word verification thingy below is 'unkie', which might also represent how I feel about what i've just heard...

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  20. Jesus Christ, this is worse than the Warzone s/t and the 2nd 7" from Antidote COMBINED.

    ...maybe not, but it's pretty fucking bad.

    -Adam

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  21. I made it to the second song, after that i just listened to the first 20 seconds or so of each song. I remember some of these songs from the 'Power' cd that came out. I knew it was gonna be bad, but the vocals take it to a whole new level of awful.

    Despite a few good songs, i always thought SSD was super over-rated anyway. This album seems to suit the vocals more than the hardcore does.

    I get visions of the 'SSD's final show' from American Hardcore. embarassing!

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  22. 2:17 into "Heart Failure." One word: tryin'. As in too hard. This sounds like the songs AC/DC rejected for the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack.

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  23. Midway through track one I deleted the entire album from the computer.

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  24. Is this the band in "America hardcore" that one of the members could hear the crowd say "Play something fast" ?

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  25. I am at "No Solution"...and I really need to stop. If I hated myself more, I would go further.
    I remember picking up their other terrible record when I was a kid, and the record store guy warned me against it. I can't believe this was only released a few years after their first record...
    You gotta read what Alan Barlie said about Springas "SSD tour":
    http://funvampires.com/2008/05/15/ssd-reunion-shows-so-much-for-sticking-together-like-glue/

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  26. oh yeah, my word would be "sellout"...and what's with all the solos? Did they get Sickie Wifebeater to join?

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  27. 42 Seconds into Children Will Rock. The only thought in my mind was "No". Not a particularly loud or angry no. Just, no.

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  28. you guys are jealous

    you WISH you could come up with something like this

    you just don't understand


    this is some other level...


    this is fucking hardcore


    think about it..... if this shit pissed off ALL of you, i mean.... this is what hardcore punk is all about, maaaaaaan


    fuck yeah

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  29. Right on, you all rule for doing this. I have never made it through this album.

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  30. Listened to the whole album. I even listened to a couple of songs twice.

    Maybe having spent 4 years in Worcester, MA in the early 90's makes me immune to generic crappy AC/DC hard rock rip-off bands. It reminds me of eating breakfast in the cafeteria where the radio station was permanently tuned to WAAF.

    One word: solos.

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  31. First chorus of the first song.

    "Cocaine" it's still a waste of time.

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  32. even worse than "how we rock," but the sad truth is that i did not download this. instead, i honored your request by walking four steps to the left, flipping back "kids..." and "get it away" and pulled my own copy of this gem off of the shelf. i cannot thank you enough, my "to sell" pile has grown by one.

    next up, DISCHARGE's "Massacre Divine"? please? if you thought "grave new world" was a turd....

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  33. funny crap. had more fun reading these comments vs. actually listening to the album though.

    can (?) be my word. i'm pretty drained at the moment.

    thanks though, yeah maybe THATS the word, THANKS.

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  34. track 7 - no solution. voice had way heavy efxs. 1st thought was late 70's rock not 80's. burn't franks & beans over soggy cold pancakes.

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  35. In a word: turgid

    So this was originally a hardcore band?
    First song sounded like a garage band attempting to cover Lick It Up or Shout at the Devil.
    Actually, as the record keeps going, that's a fair assessment for the whole damn thing.
    Basically, it's generic hard rock or 'heavy metal'. Problem is, they don't have the chops to pull off this style with any flair. Under a proficient band, Break it Off could possibly be a solid, if forgettable, record. But with these performances by this band? Borders on unlistenable. It's monotonous in a bad way. It plods along, dragging its feet. Past the first song, each track has sounded nearly identical to the previous. I think every song may be in the same key. I think every song may use the same progression. For all I can tell, every song may use the same lyrics; the vocalist has a slurring RARL similar to a drunken Darby Crash, so these may or may not be actual words I'm hearing.
    ———
    I'm down to the last few seconds of Blood Flood and I've decided that I don't want to hear this anymore. I skipped through the last few tracks to see if I'd be missing anything. Nope. Won't miss anything. If I weren't looking at the screen while I skipped tracks, I might've thought that I were skipping backwards. These songs are completely interchangable.

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  36. Haha CDG right on with the WAAF comment I grew up in Mass too even still this fucking record HURTS. I actually experienced this cd before this post when one of my friends bought it thinking SSD = GOOD. We made it about 30 seconds into track one before he instructed me to toss the disc out the window of his car. I will never listen to this turd again.

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  37. I started to zone out a minute or so after the 1st song reading emails and shit then turned it off towards the end of the 2nd song. Definitely not my thing. My one word - forgettable.

    Thanks for the entertainment Aesop!

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  38. Ok tried it again with my lady against our better judgement made it to the solo in children will rock.

    One word: Pointless.

    The vocals are so bad.

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  39. I'm still listening to it at the end of track 2 but I'm done with it. All of the finger tapping and hammer ons through a rock scale are so mindnumbing. 30 seconds into Heart Failure. Word to come to head - Tepid

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  40. I was 56 seconds into "Heart Failure" when I decided to quit this CD.

    One word to describe it: Greastrocilicious.

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  41. The first song sounds like a high school band trying to sound like Aerosmith to me.
    ...And a little like SWA on a bad day

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  42. fuck, i played the first track for 20 seconds, and turn it with only one words comes to mind - "I must delete it from harddrive".

    20 minutes later i played 4 and 5 tracks for 30-40 seconds each other, and then turn it off again, delete this shit form harddrive, and put "Human Winter" by Teenage Panzerkorps on repeat.

    HORRIBLE, JUST FUKKEN' HORRIBLE!!!!

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  43. 1:59 into Heart Failure. i guess my one word would be pointless

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  44. I made it 40 seconds.
    I remembered it being bad, but not THIS bad.

    First thought: GET IT AWAY.

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  45. C'mon......I've made it through much much worse albums.......it's not like it's Velvet Revolver or something........

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  46. Made it through the first track. Sounds like some cock rock band, and that album art is hilarious. One word to describe it: turdcluster

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  47. The songs have a weird way of seeming much much longer than they actually are. That being said, I listened to like half of the first four tracks, not attempting the rest.Horrible.

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  48. All the way through it (vacuuming). Massholes!

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  49. First few tracks. I feel pretty miserable now.

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  50. i've never listened to much SSD...so that said, and ignoring the little i heard on American Hardcore, the first 2 songs aren't bad...Hit The Bottom is listenable..the buried vox (pitchwise) and that shitty guitar tapping gets repetitve...like worse than Vinnie Vincent Invasion (that's an album to put up and see how far one can make it thru)...

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  51. Lord Aesop, if I may, I made it all the way through track 6. too hungry to continue

    first word? CODEINE!

    as in, this sounds like TKO on codeine to me

    most importantly, i backtracked to that bad religion. big ups, b'wana!

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  52. I was totally drawn like a shark to chum by this one. Usually when people say something is really, truly awful, I'm usually more motivated to check it out than if people were saying it was good just to see if it really is bad as all that. It's like passing a car wreck when driving somewhere: you know it isn't gonna be pretty, but you still have to slow down and look.

    Anyways, this is, in fact, pretty bad but mostly to hillarious effect. I made it halfway through Blood Flood before the "charm" (if you can call it that) wore off and I decided to, erm, break it up. Comparatively it looks like I did pretty well. God, the vocals are ridiculous. In fact that's my one word review right there: "ridiculous." Thanks again.

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  53. 2:18 into the first track. the first thing i thought was "un-groovy."

    pavel

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  54. I listened to the whole thing. It's better than T.S.O.L.'s "Hit & Run" and the first two Glamtera records, but not anywhere near as good as "Cold Lake" or "Grave New World".


    I love albums like this, thanks for sharing Aesop!

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  55. Playing quality hard rock is an artform. SSD surely lacks the skills. Extremely anoying stuff!

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  56. this picture reminds me the 21 of october, when a gorgeous mother with an orange dress where killed by wonderful children bloking small faces with a bit of disco on american charts
    great !

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  57. Alright, I got about 25 seconds in until I became slightly annoyed, and then about 33 seconds in I got really annoyed, and i was finished around the 1:25 mark.

    Some other songs might be okay, but i'm not going to try.

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  58. It's not terrible; in fact, it's quite an achievement to create a record this bland. There is absolutely nothing outstanding about it at all, good or bad. I never thought, "God, this is awful! Make it stop!" I just got really bored with it really quickly. It's like a classic rock Coldplay.

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  59. i listened to the first 2 songs before work but today is a busy day at work and i don't want my day ruined just yet.

    this bar-rock band called 4 Easy Payments (but there were 5 guys in the band!?!?)used to practice at our old house, they were all 15-20 years older than us, and they played shit like this.
    actually, it sounds like L.A. Guns just doesn't give a fuck anymore.

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  60. I listened to the whole album, but only to prove that I could do it. And I was making breakfast while doing so.

    The word that comes to mind is "awkward".

    This is more fun I think: Put on the Warfare LP posted a couple of days ago, listen to the first track and start reading about Heather Leather while doing so. Then tell me it doesn't sound like the first track is actually called "Cholo Armageddon".

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  61. haha - just realized I pulled the Warfare LP from http://truepunkmetal.blogspot.com and not from here. So my joke probably made no sense. Which is probably for the best. It still applies though....

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  62. I am still listening to this. Only thing I can really say is "boring". So that will be the word that comes to mind. Boring.

    Now that I have written this, I am going to turn it off.

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  63. Sounds like some long-lost hair band. Total cock rock. I would almost think Britny Fox would be jealous of this.

    Currently I am halfway through the first track. Rawk.

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  64. This could have been alot worse, I found my self actually digging the first song, while I know it sucks. It is hard to believe that its SSD, what happened?

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  65. so i tried to listen to this after work and it just wasn't happening. it sounds like they got higher during this album than i've ever been in my life.
    everyone always hates on the unrleased Void lp too...but it's waaaay better than this shit.

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  66. I actually like this. Then again, my girlfriend and I do rock air drums and air flute to the Law & Order theme song, so...

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  67. I do know what the dude said about the Warzone record though..That one was true pain.

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  68. My first thought was the Necros playing the Nuge Medley. The Necros sound a lot more polished, though. I actually sort of like this, but I like some shitty, generic, barely competent hot rockin'.

    I think an earlier commenter captured it really well:
    "The first song sounds like a high school band trying to sound like Aerosmith to me.
    ...And a little like SWA on a bad day"

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  69. one of the previous commenters said ssd were way overrated. i think so too. there were MUCH better bands in and around boston in those years. still, i like "the kids will have their say" lp because of its brute force. i don't mind that it sounds like a slightly retarded version of dys... but this is from a different universe. been reading really much about how later ssd sucks, but never actually heard any of those albums, so i couldn't resist the temptation of trying to listen to it. first track is by far not as terrible as i expected. enduring second track in its entirety was a much harder task, but i managed. however, after that i just endured like 40 seconds to one minute of each track.... one word is not enough. in one sentence: fits nicely with the cover art.
    roman

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  70. I wanted to stop about 32 seconds into the first song when he started "singing"

    Made it a bit farther than that and then promptly deleted from my hard drive.

    Like slowing down a bad ac/dc-motorhead tribute band?

    omgthisisfuckingterrible

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  71. That was some pretty awful SSD but most of their music is pretty bunk....now if that was'nt enough bad music for you to digest,I would like to suggest another mind-rapingly bad album that actully came out recently.the record is the self titled album by a band called UK....which is a jaw dropping "metal" side project of Oi legends THE BUSINESS!!!!!!Micky Fitz is singing some of the worst shit I've heard.I found this albums link on some random blogspot now I cant find it,but feel free to search this one out,the reworking of "Smash The Discos" is so wrong,I cant even explain,it makes the SSD LP look good. Bad,bad,bad,bad....... http://convulsingdischargeofinanity.blogspot.com/ MIKE

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  72. Ah yes. Thats the first word that comes to my mind when hearing this. I'm from Choad Island aka Rhode Island, you know that little town in long island NY. I've heard this many times. It really makes you stop and think. Alot of the so called holy kings of punk/hc were tough guy idiots wanting to make money and get fucked. Noble aspirations as long as your up front about it. We've all heard the stories about springa never being straight edge (I think that's awesome) Instead most of these football team douchebags put out 1 or 2 good records and then moved on to the next "cool" phase. In the case of ssd they put out one awesome record, then an okay record, and then 2 piles of absolute shit. Boston is a perfect example of bands that come out of the corner swinging and by the second round are completely out of gas, ssd, f.u.'s, gang green, jerry's kids. I think its comedic that Al barrille (guitar player of ssd) talks about how great ssd were and blames the singer for the demise of the band....he seems to suffer from selective amnesia. HE wrote all lyrics and songs. The last two releases were piles of shit that came from HIS ass. Thats my spiel, I'm off to go fire bomb an f.s.u. hangout.

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  73. 3 mins into the second track and that's enough for me. i had to look them up on wikipedia because i thought there's no way this is the same SSD as Get It Away, etc.. but it was the same SSD!

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  74. I have to agree with a previous comment. As soon as I heard something about "Jack Horner" I was done.

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  75. I've got this on Vinyl and I've had it for years. Don't ask me what the B side sounds like though !

    Cam

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  76. I got about 50 seconds into the first song and then skimmed some others. I can deal with shitty bar rock... but those lyrics just eroded my patience at a record rate.

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  77. EEEWWWWWwwwwww...

    I really don't need to download this one as I was one of the poor souls who got fucked out of 7 dollars when this turd was pooped out of its poop-hole. The feeling was not unlike being anally fist fucked by the jolly green giant.

    20 some odd years later and I'm still pissed about it.

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  78. Well, not content with doing this, Al Barile then goes on to further ruin SSD name with "Power" Want to know why the Classic are not available officially (and thus get bootlegged) read on....
    I Found this on Amazon, while hunting for info on the Power CD.

    "The members of SSD have very good reason to be proud of their band, and proud of their records. However, in Barile's case, pride has festered into sheer arrogance.

    SSD released four records during their existence: The Kids Will Have Their Say, Get It Away, How We Rock, and Break It Up. While some are better than others (Get It Away is easily their swansong,) each is a classic. Yes, even Break It Up, which contained nary a single hardcore song. It's still a great "rock" album. In any case, rather than re-issue each record in its entirety, TAANG! chose instead to release this horrible mish-mash of a "KTEL Presents: SSDecontrol's Greatest Hits" package. I waited and waited for the true re-issues to appear, but they never came. Eventually, one day I happened across the official X-Claim (a moniker certain Boston HC bands released their records under in the early 1980s) website, and I noticed Al Barile's name attatched to it. (Al was the guitarist, songwriter, and primary force behind SSD... he now has a band called Gage.) I emailed him, offering my condolences at how TAANG! obviously screwed him over with the botched Power CD. To my surprise and dismay, Al responded by telling me that Power was primarily HIS idea! He said that he "didn't want the original SSD records to be tarnished by re-releasing them." "If you were there at the time, you were part of the scene and you already have the records. If you weren't, you have no reason to own them now." I hope no one reading this needs me to point out what a colossal mountain of elitist, arrogant B.S. that is.

    A lot of newcomers to hardcore could learn a lot from those old SSD records, if they were only re-issued in their entirety, with the original artworks, lyrics, and liner notes. But no, Al Barile says that they don't deserve them. Thanks a lot, Al. Thanks for this hamfisted trainwreck of a mess titled "Power."
    key
    K- Kids Will
    G - Get It Away
    H - How We Rock
    B - Break it Up

    1. Glue G
    2. Control 81 demo
    3. Boston Crew live 83
    4. Words That Kill H
    5. Nothing Done G
    6. Break It Up B
    7. Remember (Live, Shangri Las cover)
    8. X Claim G
    9. Boiling Point K
    10. Fight Them K
    11. Forced Down G
    12. What If I H
    13. Screams of the Night B
    14. Drug Fools 81 demo
    15. How Much Art K
    16. Wasted Youth K
    17. Jolly Old Saint Nick - xmas song!
    18. Headed Straight K
    19. On the Road H
    20. Under the Influence G
    21. Police Beat K
    22. Baby Black B
    23. Typical 81 demo
    24. Get It Away G
    25. Star Wars 81 demo
    26. No Reply G
    27. Francois' Journey unreleased 85
    28. Eighteen (live cover)
    29. Infinity (SSD road tape)

    Could you do a worse track order...

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  79. cocney rejects did the same in the 80s

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  80. Well the word is Aerosmith. I also hear alot of other stuff - like bits of YDI circa Black Dust in the instrumental bits of the first track, for example. OK, Get It Away it aint but I didn't think it was THAT bad & was able to make it most of the way through till I had to go do stuff & it took some perseverance.
    This is still about the most entertaining & interesting blog around so thanks.

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  81. This was really a terrible album. Even when it came out people hated it, not in the positive/ groundbreaking way, but because it was so utterly lame.I remember when other hc / punk bands decided to go "metal" such as the Necros, Red Kross, etc. and generally it was very poor. Actually I thought the "We Rock" album was good. There were other better bands from boston though too, like Negative FX, Gang Green (who also did cheesy metal), DYS (who tried metal) and Jerry Kids.

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  82. While listening to this -- and yes, I listened to the entire thing, all ten songs -- I had this *vision* of a band stuffed full of alcohol and intoxicants, consisting of one singer drunk enough to think he was the reincarnation of Jim Dandy, a drummer who thought he was auditioning for Kiss, a bassist who hoped to be the new Jack Bruce, and two guitarists pretending they were in Black Sabbath or Blue Oyster Cult, depending on the song. Tragically, this same band woke up the next day with massive hangovers and realized, upon playing back the tapes, that they actually sounded like outtakes from Pantera's METAL MAGIC. (This is not a good thing, trust me.)

    But they were still on drugs (or had no shame), so they put it out anyway.

    Incidentally, what's up with the incredibly generic titles even Kix would have been embarrassed to use?

    In one word: misguided.

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  83. 30-45 seconds into the first song, i think...

    Motley Crue fucked ac/dc and had a child that was dating stryper, you know that wonderful band that throws bibles at the audience during a show.

    -christopher

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  84. DOOD! that's great! do you have more like that?

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  85. decided to send this decade off with a bang and finally listen to this "corn-studded turd" that has sat unloved on my hard drive for 6 months...and...

    i really like this record...in fact, i think i love it. i know, i'm obviously in the minority, (and i really don't know any other ssd to compare it to, so i can't speak to the disappointment some of you must have felt when this came out.) perhaps i like it when punk bands go metal...or just have a fetish for really, really good "bad" music. but i'm digging the stoopid early kiss riffs with bad vocal mashup that this album is delivering in spades (listening to "calendar" right now, and i swear it could almost be off of an alternate universe "hotter than hell").

    so thanks aesop for making my end of the decade a little more special...keep up the great work and happy new year

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  86. Why do I always come back to this record?
    Maybe because it's like watching an awkward moment in "The Office" or something. I doesn't rock, though it tries to...maybe I like incompetence.

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  87. @ Jon:
    You know the Necros Nuge medley was a joke, right? The entire Live Or Else record is purely satire, right down to the liner notes.

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  88. Well, I admit that I only listened to the first two songs all the way through before skipping through the rest, but this is not nearly as bad as it's made out to be. Yes, it sucks, but there is a lot worse out in the world of recorded music. This just seems like a late 70s era Kiss rip off more than anything else. Hell, a majority of KISS's catalog is worse than this album. Oh well, the bottom line here is that it's forgettable.

    In a word, "eh".

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