A customer who stops by the store on a weekly basis turned me onto this record. He saw it up on our wall and asked if I’d heard it yet. He described it as “one of the most unsettling things I’ve ever heard.” He might as well have told it would blow me if I took it home with me. I was sold. This guy who loves the Residents, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV was telling me that everything paled in comparison to the German Shepherds.
As the story goes, the band was formed in the early ’80s by two guys in San Francisco. They released a minimal synth single that brought them little attention. They they tried to start some urban legends out themselves, confusing folks into believing one of the founding members was arrested on child molestation charges (this after the band already released an homage to a child molester as a b-side), and later that the same band member had committed suicide. It was all an attempt to promote Music For Sick Queers, the band’s first and full-length record, released by Del Amo in 1985.
As for the music — it’s way more confusing than the misinformation campaign fogged by the duo. In fact, I’m not even 100% certain you can call this music. It’s just a sonic melee. Noise dominates the mix, with only scant melodies and rhythms ever becoming distinguishable from the muck. It’s unnerving, far-out, and completely amazing. By the time you get to “Complacent American,” and it’s slow-building wall of wailing — oh my God, it’s just insane — you’re completely baffled by what you’re hearing. And then you realize that this whole album is a totally natural, visceral experience. It’s not complicated for the sake of being weird or artsy, it’s just primal and unrefined and brilliant. If you’re into the prog-rock and private-press stuff I normally post, you’ve probably not heard anything like this before. Wholly unique, alienating and engaging at the same time, it’s a remarkable record.
German Shepherds
Music For Sick Queers
Del Amo, 1985
MediaFire DL Link
01. Communist Control
02. Armageddon Man
03. Love Me
04. Preacher
05. Hitler’s Child
06. I Adore You
07. Mr. Tupper
08. THC
09. Quit It
10. Complacent American
