Feedtime

All Music Guide:

Imagine laying your head on railroad tracks, feeling the vibrations of the oncoming train rattling through your head, and leaving your head on the tracks as the train roars over it, and you're getting close to the sonic assault that is feedtime. Crude, repetitive, droning, simplistic; these are all qualities that lead to big fun when any one of feedtime's four records lands on your noggin with a resounding thud. In fact, it would be reasonable to more succinctly describe these guys as Australia's Flipper/Big Black/Melvins (pick one).

Amazingly, there is something that passes for nuance in each of their records. Emerging from the tar pit of sound are blues licks (albeit the loudest, most-distorted blues licks you've ever heard), folk, and country touches, and art damage on a par with Flipper and Pere Ubu. Ferociously direct, the music of feedtime is as relentless as it is dark; there are no happy moments here, and the gurgling, vomited-up vocals add to the black mood. That, however, doesn't mean these guys didn't have a sense of humor: their third record, Cooper-S (the title comes from the name of an Australian manufactured sub-compact car) is loaded with covers (Beach Boys, Stones, Ramones, etc.), wherein feedtime bludgeons each one to death with tongue-in-cheek.

Sadly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, feedtime's extreme take on rock & roll ground to a halt in 1989. Maybe they simply were too intense for themselves to continue, but in the meantime they unleased a lugubrious fury of sonic distress that few bands have equalled.

Wikipedia:

feedtime was an independent postpunk rock trio from Sydney, Australia, formed in 1979. The name is stylized with a lowercase 'f'. The members were credited by their first names only: Rick (guitar, vocals), Al (bass), and Tom (drums).

History

feedtime made four albums in the 1980s. Initially they recorded only for Aberrant Records in Australia, but their second through fourth albums were released internationally by the legendary indie label Rough Trade and by Megadisc in Holland. The second album, Shovel, received the greatest critical acclaim. The last of these four albums, Suction, was produced by Butch Vig.

feedtime's sound was loud, primitive, and brutal. The most distinctive musical element is thick, roaring electric guitar, played with a slide, over a thick, chugging rhythm section. Their loud but stripped-down, minimalist approach led them to be compared to the British postpunk band Wire (although feedtime didn't know Wire's music), but feedtime's sound also heavily referenced rural American country and blues. A large influence from classic rock is most easily heard on their covers LP Cooper S on which they covered the Rolling Stones and the Animals in addition to punk forebears like the Ramones and the Stooges.

Bruce Griffiths of Aberrant Records describes working with feedtime: "The bands that have given me the most satisfaction to work with ... Possibly the most satisfying was feedtime, because they became extremely close friends as a result of working with them, and I guess part of the satisfaction with them was the fact that they achieved recognition; they were licensed to Rough Trade in America, they're now licensed to Vinyl Solution in England and Europe, to Megadisc in the Benelux countries in Europe, so I guess that was satisfying in the way things happened, and a lot of people as a result of my involvement and us working together came to appreciate this band that I thought was really special."

feedtime disbanded in 1989 just prior to their first American tour due to internal stress, with Al stating "We just felt that we weren’t going to be at full potential as a band".

Reunions

feedtime surfaced again in 1994 and 1996, with a different drummer, for a reunion album Billy (for Amphetamine Reptile).

The original lineup reunited in 2011 for a US tour in 2012, in conjunction with Sub Pop's reissue of their first four albums.

Reissues

Sub Pop Records released The Aberrant Years, a 4-CD/LP reissue of the first four feedtime full-length records, in March 2012.