Noothgrush, Failing Early, Failing Often: Overachieving at Underachievement
Posted in Reviews on September 14th, 2011 by JJ KoczanIn the spirit of their reissue of the out-of-print Early Works Compilation from Church of Misery, the vigilant Michigan label Emetic Records now plays host to a renewed edition of Failing Early, Failing Often, a collection of demo cuts and rarities from Oakland, California, sludge imperialists Noothgrush. It’s one of several releases the Noothgrush have on offer for fall 2011 – as the band also plays their first live shows in a decade, they’re unleashing a host of vinyls and CDs, including this, the Live for Nothing live album on Southern Lord, a reissue of their Erode the Person full-length, a reissue of their first demo, and a collection of unreleased songs and covers. The material on Failing Early, Failing Often, which was first released in 2001, comprises Noothgrush’s second two demo tapes and numerous contributions to splits, compilations and 7”s. Recorded over the course of a little under two years between August 1995 and June 1997, this 17-track, 70-minute CD is equal parts expansive and oppressive. Any way you cut it, it cuts you first.
The reasonable assumption when approaching a disc like Failing Early, Failing Often is that these songs — which are culled from no fewer than 14 disparate sources and put side by side — would have nothing in common, sound-wise, and that the comp would be completely haphazard as a result. Not so. Noothgrush recorded this material over the stated stretch of time, true, and with a varied lineup around drummer Chiyo Nukaga, guitarist Russ Kent and vocalist/periodic-guitarist Gary Niederhoff, but they did it all at the same studio. The entirety of Failing Early, Failing Often’s material was put to tape (over eight sessions, according to the liner notes) at Trainwreck Studios in Mountain View, California, and between that and the consistency of Niederhoff’s ultra-gnarly throat abrasions, it’s enough to lend some measure of consistency. The tracks don’t flow as easily as they might on an album, but the rough production they all receive throughout acts as a base that songs stray in various directions around, either grittier or cleaner. Mostly grittier. Noothgrush – who’ve gone underappreciated in the resurgence of sludge-influenced acts like EyeHateGod and Buzzov*en – clearly knew at the time what works for their genre, and there’s no capitulation anywhere to accessibility. Failing Early, Failing Often is 70 minutes of mud-covered fuckall to which many endurances will no doubt fall.