The band name may sound a little goofy, but that's okay, because this is a cool reissue of a shitload of tracks from Eerie Von's pre-Samhain/Danzig hardcore/punk band that existed from 1981 - 1983. Eerie played drums for this Rosemary's Babies, and after talking with the band's bassist decided to remaster a bunch of material from old reel-to-reel tapes - including most of the band's sole release, the "Blood Lust" EP. For some reason the track "Sanctioned Violence" doesn't appear, while "Let's Molest 10-Year-Olds" has been renamed simply "Let's Molest", and the songs from the EP are scattered throughout this disc along with unreleased tunes. As one might expect the band plays straight up hardcore/punk that sounds very much in line with what you'd expect to hear from the early-80's in the US, ranging from fast power chords and pissed off sneers to slower, quirkier riffing with more of a snotty vocal disposition. Of course the content and overall style of the songs follows suit, from socio-political commentary in "I Vote Yes" to smartass hardcore/punk in "Sex Maniac", plus sillier tracks like "Attack of the 50ft Cowboy" sounding sort of hokey and fun. Elsewhere you'll find the ultra quick blasts of "What I Hate" and "Inferior", and the crazily fast vocal patterns of the memorable yet atypical "Blood Lust" - all of which makes for a damn solid listen. At the end of the disc after a few minutes of dead air there's a weird instrumental that has some annoying keyboards in it, but I don't know what that's all about. The sound quality is fine, though. Dated, of course, but it stands up well and the remastering has no doubt done some good. The guitar tone is a little too weak, but the rhythm section sounds fine, the vocals are great and really possess tons of attitude, and the playing is perfectly competent for raw, straight ahead hardcore/punk. All of the songs sound really consistent with one another as well, so I'd assume they were recorded in the same general timeframe, if not the same session altogether. Shockingly enough the five live tracks from CBGB's in 1983 sound damn good as well, and not so unlike the studio work!? The packaging is all done in black and white and offers little, just a few band photos, the original cover art for the "Blood Lust" EP, and that's about it. The only credits are the band lineup and the recording dates for the live tracks, so... no lyrics, no liner notes, no recording information for the studio tracks, etc. Since the disc is only around 35 minutes long they could've easily thrown on the other 7" track and then some (what I've read about the disc indicates that there were more songs to choose from, but not all of them were included), and I actually think it was a massive oversight to neglect the inclusion of liner notes or any other form of detailed documentation about the band, as it's not like everyone out there knows who the fuck Rosemary's Babies were, you know? I'd also liked to have had the "Blood Lust" EP included in its entirely with the original song order, not to mention more documentation about that as well. But fuck it, I guess, because the music is really solid and should appeal to any fan of early-80's US hardcore that isn't wrapped up in everything having to be super caustic and aggressive all the time. Eerie's solo work is fuckin' awful, so he probably should've stayed content holding down the rhythm section in various kick ass bands... but at least he made the wise decision to reissue this stuff, because the band is definitely worth a listen.
[Ghastly]
Running time - 35:00 (approximately), Tracks: 25
[Notable tracks: What I Hate, I Vote Yes, That's Alright, That's OK, Small Minds Think Small, Blood Lust]
Ghastly Records - http://www.ghastlyrecords.com
