4 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records

Produced by: Tommy Meehan

You caught me: I went into this pretty unconvinced. I’m likely an old man by now, who’s “been around the block” and “seen it all,” and extremely glitchy hardcore with perverse lyrics / art and performers in costume are, y’know, nothing new. Along with the fact the Squid Pisser, to me, sounded like a mash-up of Locust- / (early) Racebannon / Mindless Self Indulgence-adjacent bands – albeit with a bit more pop nestled in there – and I was rather mute on the whole thing. Dreams Of Puke arrives on a (relative) wave of press, pretty quick after other Skin Graft releases, and so I was ready to file this all into kind of a temporary listening pile – I listen to the CD and move on.

But it’s like the flurry of material SG released / re-released, leading into this album, was all just groundwork; a sample of the shtick, while guitar / noise / shouty maestro Tommy Meehan and drummer pummeler extraordinaire Seth Carolina were preparing for a full set that “realizes” Squid Pisser as its own entity, and not just a revamped version of some of the other mentioned acts. …Whose DNAs (and surely other scene stalwarts I’m skipping over; like you could trace some kind of A.C. vibe into this and etc.) are all still here, though as the gloppy base atop which “Dreams of Puke” are formed, and that’s as gross to type as it was to read.

That “form” is a balance of the thrash / noise / pop elements, and zeroes in on a selling point of the prior release: that there’s a lot of dreck in the presentation and lyrics, while there’re also serious songwriting chops and some interesting lyrical themes (beneath the gross references) at work. The production and mix (from Meehan and Steve Evetts, respectively) also seem better balanced, not trying to turn this into something too glitzy or too low-end heavy: we get the impact with a sense of ‘organicness’ that works well for the very, very busy music. Following this thread, that business has also been appropriately adjusted and sequenced, starting us out with a track resplendent in both all the noise but also a bit of restraint, then jumping into thrash, then something a bit more poppy, and cycling through these variants along the way arguably peaking with the previously released Vaporize a Neighbor – which gets recontextualized in this sequencing as a fantastic penultimate singalong – and then the relatively epic title track, which focus on punctuation as opposed to relentless speed.

…And then we still have three tracks to go. Which is really my only nit, here, that the disc is legitimately perfect at 9 songs, or perhaps the remaining three – which feel a bit unnecessary after the heft of the aforementioned title tune – could’ve been slipped in elsewhere on the album. They are good songs on their own, just come across as B-sides in their current placement.

Regardless, I have newfound respect for this duo, making good on their clear skills to make the shtick seem integral and not just a shtick. (Plus a cover by Gregory Jacobsen is a good way to get me on your side.)