Crushed Butler

Sometimes reading about records can be more exciting than hearing them-especially if the scribes at Aquarius or Johan Kugelberg(via Ugly Things) is involved. They can make the most luke warm record sound like molten lava you have to possess.
After getting totally hyped up on JK's pre-punk/pub rock run down in the last UT, I went off in search of a few of these gems. Wasn't too hard to grab reissues of Crushed Butler. Just for the name alone, I wanted to hear these guys (never mind the Hammersmith Gorillas-but that is a story for another day)
Crushed Butler is some seriously ham handed over th top rawk. Billed as some proto-punk, coming out a the same year as Led Zep One and a year before Black Sabbath, it is growing in the same garden, but no where near as accomplished. Lyrical bent is all about being and avoiding being a down and out loser trapped in the factory life. Love Fighter gives some nods to Cream, but the execution is more blundering than bombastic. The drummer seems to be struggling to come up with drum fills after a few minutes. You get elements of glam, some 70s bombast, even a little Bo Diddley beat. Factory Grime and High School Dropout are my fav tracks. It didn't blow me away on 1st listen, and there was no one track so good it should have been on White Lace and Strange, but it has grown on me. I guess looking back and already loving the bands and sounds band like these influenced, it's hard to always see how mind blowing they were at the time. Not unlike Simply Saucer who get hyped as a "proto punk" "pre punk" whatever, you are stoked to get the record, but it just doens't live up to the hype. The same can be said for pre-punk overlords like the Stooges, MC5, or Neu. Good bands, but a tenious link at best to the punk or core you grew up listening to. Despite not being love at first listen, this and the Dr.Feelgood "Down by the Jetty" cds have been getting a lot of play in my car


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