Scrounger Complete Discography LP
On August 8, 2023, August Golden was murdered during a mass shooting at the punk house Nudieland in Minnesota. The shooting was a hate crime motivated toward the LGBTQ community represented at the show. Golden was a member of the band SCROUNGER and a central guiding light to the punk scene. His influence was far-reaching outside the Minneapolis orbit. It’s often difficult and debatable if we can, or should, separate art from the context it’s created in. In that sentiment, this final collection of the band’s recordings is an homage to Golden, the DIY scene, and the ethos of standing up for what you believe in and fighting the good fight. Side A has scrappy, lo-fi, heart-on-sleeve anthems in the spirit of SHOTWELL, ADD/C, and BENT OUTTA SHAPE. It captures profoundly the sounds and temperaments born out of basement shows and punk houses in the early ’00s. That side ominously and appropriately closes with a HICKEY cover, “Make Sure There Aren’t Any Squares at My Funeral.” Side B has a collection of acoustic songs including “Country Time,” a cover of an early THIS IS MY FIST song which is an alternate version of “E-Ville Part 2” off their History of Rats album. There’s also a ZERO BOYS cover and an acoustic version of the HICKEY song from Side A. The album was remixed by Ashley Krey from SEXY, whose opus “Por La Vida” has been a nonconformist cyanotype for the DIY spirit of this time—a mantle this album dutifully carries on.
