3 out of 5

Produced by: Josh Bonati, Mike Dixon (recorded by, mixed by)

Label: Alone Records

An interestingly confusing crossroads: I was introduced to Racebannon via the Secretly Canadian label, but SC’s first drop from the band was actually a reprint of their Level Plane release from a couple years prior, and the Satan’s Kickin’ Yr Dick In followup – same year – co-released with Alone Records, and contained rerecordings of singles that had been released between Alone, SC and others…

Part III of ‘Satan’ appears on this Alone single, for example, b/w on A-side from In the Grips – the title track – but from a separate recording session. Meaning you’re getting two album tracks, but different versions.

I rag on Mike Mogis’ effect on the band’s sound some, but I do think his embrace / enhancement of the band’s noise did a lot for ‘Grips;’ this version of Clubber Lang is a bit more “straight forward” punky, and in some regards is heavier hitting for that reason, but as the song segues into some straight out noise elements, it needs / needed Mogis’ shaping. Without that context, though, this is still a grabbing, singular performance: this is the kind of track you’d put on to display the chaos Racebannon could create.

Satan Pt. III is really only hurt due to uneven mastering: until the track gets going midway through, it’s super quiet compared to Clubber Lang; here’s also another case where – though I really have never gotten into Mogis on the Satan album – the producer’s ear fleshed out some key elements, bringing up the bass in the mix, which gets lost here.

So in both cases, I’m celebrating what Mike brought to the music, and in general, this 7″ suffers from uneven quality control. But: the fire at the core of each track remains in full force, and this version of Clubber definitely makes the 7″ worth tracking down.