I've owned all of Grimple's material in seemingly endless forms over the years. I've got some of the original vinyl, I've got some of the stuff on CD, and I've got the discography CD that came out on Liberation Records some years back ("Remember..."). This collection is very similar to said discography, sans the songs from their split with Logical Nonsense in favor of three tracks from the "Stoned" demo. The material appears in reverse chronological order starting with the "Up Your Ass" LP, then the "Get Me Out of My Van I Have No Key Phil" 7", and then the demo. For those unaware (Where have you been?), this California band played catchy melodic punk with a really raw and dirty edge and snotty vocal snarls. The basslines are distinct and all over the place, rarely simply mimicking the guitars, and most of the tracks run less than two minutes to keep the energy rollin'. The band gradually started getting slightly heavier and darker on their split with Logical Nonsense, which is actually my favorite set of songs from Grimple, so I'm disappointed to see them absent here. The disc only runs 34 minutes, so there definitely should have been room for those tracks, and I'm not sure why they were left out. The booklet also mentions a live video filmed in 1998, but when I popped in the CD I got nothing but audio data? I don't know what that's all about either. It's been awhile since I gave any Grimple a spin (which is a shame, as this CD is reminding me of how good they were), but this remastered version sounds way thin... I know this stuff wasn't originally recorded with a mega budget by any means, but this CD is oddly lacking in low-end and that hurts. I don't know if this is true to the original recordings or not, but either way, they should have beefed up the low-end a little bit, because it's a little flimsy even by early-90's standards (especially the tracks from the LP for some reason). The volume levels are also inconsistent, I feel like each subsequent set of songs is a bit louder than the last. It's not a big deal because the songs are great, but I find myself wanting more punch. The layout is definitely superior to the Liberation Records release though, here including tons of band photos and flyers, better cover art, lyrics to all of the songs (except those from the demo), etc. It looks similar, but more consistent and informative. The lyrics range from the personal to the political, as song titles as varied as "Walls of Shit" and "Vivisick" might suggest. So one minute it's, "All these dreams, and all these feelings, I can't scream, it's killing me!" and the next it's, "The very beginning of the rest of my life, work, buy, smile, die, money in my pocket. Green paper propaganda controls my smile, trying to fight it but wind up buying it, happiness found within a fuckin' coin!" This is a solid collection of material from a damn good band that could have done so much more, but I can't help but frown upon the decision not to include the tracks from the Logical Nonsense split. The three demo tracks definitely don't make up for it...
[Prank]
Running time - 34:22, Tracks: 22
[Notable tracks: Vivisick, I'm Not Gonna Stop, Please Come In, Grimple Up Your Ass, Guess Who, Suicide Song]
Prank Records - http://www.prankrecords.com
