3 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records

Produced by: Weasel Walter

This was a confusing one, or so I want to claim, since I got it wrong when explaining it to someone… even though I quoted from Skin Graft’s press, which explained it correctly.

So, er, likely I’m just a confused person.

But: AoR released a single split with The Locust before the Yahweh or the Highway album, then decided to rerecord those same tracks for Yahweh, but ended up not including the re-records for whatever reason. 15ish years later, Skin Graft digs up those unreleased, re-recorded tracks, and does two things with them: puts them onto the end of a rereleased edition of Yahweh, but kind of cutely calls the original Yahweh songs bonus tracks to the re-recorded split tracks, and then also releases a fancy 7″ version which just contains the rerecorded tracks.

I do think that release model was a little confusing. I had to pull out my physical editions to kind of recheck myself, though, again, maybe this is just me, living my truth.

Anyhow, setting aside the digital option, you were either paying a new CD price for two songs – the Yahweh stuff isn’t changed in any way – or twenty dollars for that fancy 7″, i.e. also two songs. I do factor all of this into the rating, because it goes under the category of “is it worth it?”

Er… yes? Cautiously? So… no?

Let’s step back. The rerecorded tracks are ‘3 Meals Away From a Crack Whore’ and ‘Piggin’ In the Pumpkin Patch.’ Both were originally recorded in 2000, with Rick Pelletier of Six Finger Satellite, and in those incarnations, represent the group when they were moreso noise anarchists. Paul has a crowded recording style that’s fitting for that; those versions are stumbly, loud. The definitely have the DNA of the no-wave noodly dance vibes of Yahweh, though, and you can understand how the group might’ve wanted to rescue the songs for a revisit: they exist right on the cusp of the ante-ing up of their sound for their final release. Onto the new versions, then, Weasel Walter – a perfect pairing – is at the boards, and helps the group massage out the melody in each song; Eric Paul has also stepped up his vocals by this point, with 3 Meals especially offering quite a unique performance not only in comparison to the Pelletier recorded one, but versus AOR’s work as a whole. It is kinda unfortunate they couldn’t find room for this track on the album, but musically it’s similar enough to other Yahweh stuff that I kind get it; Piggin’ also could be criticized for the same.

Thus while I think the new versions are superior, the older versions are probably more distinctive on the whole. The yes / no of this very much becomes a collector question, and one of cost. If you’re a collector, the answer is obvious; cost-wise, if you already own Yahweh, you might be better off picking up Stolen Singles, which collects the two original tracks plus other 7″ material, since the original 7″ is quite pricey nowadays, and then you could always pay the few dollars for digital copies of the newbies for comparison.