Review Summary: a new day, fuckface
Bloodloss were an Australian band that played a rough, loose, and grimy mix of noise-punk-blues with occasional tenor sax from guitarist Renestair E.J. That sax is ***ing awesome every time it shows up. Bloodloss released 3 LPs in Australia from 1986-1990, scrapped a fourth, then two of em moved to Seattle and linked up with Mark Arm of Mudhoney (guitar) and Guy Maddison of Lubricated Goat (and later, Mudhoney, bass) for their brief life as a U.S.-based band. This 10" EP was released by the U.S. incarnation of Bloodloss in 1995.
Ten Solid Rockin' Inches of Rock Solid Rock feels rougher and looser than the rest of their 90s material because the songs are short. Not too short. They have something to say, a vibe to push on you, they do it and move on. No idea outstays its welcome. Side A's ten tracks tear by you in 15:40 - the only track longer than 1:55 is a cover of Alice Cooper's "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye". It's a great cover, fits well on the EP, but the original tracks surrounding it are the reason to tune in. "***face" and "Motherlode" are the highlights. "***face" is written humorously as the internal monologue of a ***up with health issues and the music ***s up, slows, and stumbles to match. "Motherlode" is a great showcase of Renestair EJ's amazing bird-shriek vocal technique (0:25-0:36), used too rarely throughout the Bloodloss discog.
Side B is "Bloodloss, the Movie-Musical", a 17-minute soundtrack to an imaginary movie in the style of Bloodloss. One track in twelve movements, with vocals. Musically they're still playing around with punk and blues loudly, but this side of the record has transitions between songs (funny spring sounds, doors creaking, canned laughter, voice samples etc.) and presumably a story, although I haven't been able to follow it yet. It's strangely ambitious for a band like Bloodloss. And yet I've found that when people share this EP online, they usually omit it. That's really bizarre to me because the songs within "Bloodloss, the Movie-Musical" rock just as hard and filthily as the songs on Side A. Don't skip it.
If you dig the noise punk of Cows and Flipper, or the Aussie punk blues of feedtime and King Snake Roost, you'll probably like Bloodloss. All that said, this might not be a great place to start with them. The production is muddy, guitars too quiet. While this ambitious EP isn't the best starting point for a new listener (that would be either
The Truth is Marching In or
In-A-Gadda-Da-Change), it's still a fun experiment from a band worth hearing.
