Music For Insect Minds

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Total Tracks: 29   Total Length: 77:08

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Joe Gross

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Joe Gross hails from Falls Church, VA, one of the Chocolate City's most vanilla suburbs. He has written for Spin, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, the Washingt...more »

04.22.11
An essential document of a generation's brutal scuzz.
2000 | Label: Amphetamine Reptile / The Orchard

Motörhead as a mod band? The MC5 stripped of the blues? The baseball bat with which the Ramones beat on the brat? All of this and more. AmRep's aesthetic-defining flagship released singles and comps of singles, and this is just one jaw-dropping smart bomb after another, thanks to Hazelmyer's saw-toothed guitar slashes and a frantic, Who-ish rhythm section. "Music" starts with the band's 1991 swan song, the downright melodic "Tired and Cold," and closes with early (and comparatively lo-fi) salvos such as "Clowns" and "Thoughts in a Booth." The sprawling middle section is just amazing — everything from "No Time" to a gnarly cover of the Cramps '"Human Fly" is thrillingly tight, relentlessly aggressive basement punk, an essential document of a generation's brutal scuzz.

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headburn music

beekayphilly

the headburn 12"(tracks 9, 10 & 11)was the ultimate in the halo of flies anthology, for my money. but the first four on this disc also ruled. timeless, hooky tunes plus the angriest lyrics made this group one of the best of the AmRep bands. which is nice considering haze ran the label. you're not gonna find those singles anywhere these days. do the right thing and grab this.

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since you're already here

mattyboyfloyd

at least download the first two songs. they are amazing!

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Whooosh!

DJJSerpico

Having gone to great lengths to collect most of these singles, I can attest to their awesomeness. Hazelmeyer's unique guitar crunch set the tone of many a fine recording to follow. I got to see one of their rare live shows when they visited Hoboken, NJ and they delivered the goods. H.O.F called it quits before they started to suck. Essential collection.

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Amphetamine Reptile

By Joe Gross, eMusic Contributor

The harsh punk rock released by Minneapolis, Minnesota's Amphetamine Reptile Records (aka AmRep) used "ugly" as adjective, verb, noun, gerund and possibly conjunction. Emerging in 1986 in as a vector for founder and visionary crank Tom Hazelmyer's trio Halo of Flies, AmRep grew into one of the crucial labels of the '90s independent rock explosion, as identifiable for a sound and worldview as Motown, Dischord or Tommy Boy. The outfit specialized in noise rock (it said… more »

They Say All Music Guide

Mostly collected from singles and compilations, Music for Insect Minds documents a raging, powerful band at the peak of its career. Titles like “Ballad of Extreme Hate” give an idea of where this Minneapolis trio is coming from. This is angry music made by angry people, even a catchy rock song like “Tired & Cold” bubbles over with songwriter Tom Hazelmyer’s contempt for humanity. For the most part, this is an engaging exercise in hardcore, much different from Minnesota contemporaries like Soul Asylum and the Jayhawks. At times it may get repetitive, but Halo of Flies have enough sense to mix up the punk with some slower, edgier dirges to keep the mix from getting stale. – Bradley Torreano

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