Louse / The Shits split 10″
An insert packaged with this lathe-cut 10” bills this as the first in a series titled The Red Room Collection, a repository for “the UK’s most distinguished scum rock outfits.” Clearly, you have to come flying out the blocks with a claim like that, and this occurs with the SHITS and LOUSE (from Leeds and Newcastle respectively, although I believe there’s some shared membership). The SHITS have been getting increasingly psychedelic over their short-ish discography, albeit in a disagreeable bad batch kinda way; of their two cuts here, “Gratification” sticks in the head hardest thanks to an ignorant wah pedal sound as heard in latter-day BRAINBOMBS albums. LOUSE tips the cap to their confessed influences even more straightforwardly via a cover of DRUNKS WITH GUNS’ “Fist Puppet,” alongside two of their own. “Human Ashtray” is like when you listen to KILLDOZER and ALICE DONUT and think it could stand to be a bunch more deranged. That adds up to distinguished scum rock!