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Friday Full-Length: Scissorfight, Mantrapping for Sport and Profit

Posted in Bootleg Theater on April 25th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

Scissorfight, Mantrapping for Sport and Profit (2001)

13 years ago, Scissorfight drew a line in the sand. On one side, horseshit. On the other, Mantrapping for Sport and Profit. It’s a triumph the New Hampshire H-E-A-V-Y rockers would proclaim some four years later with the Victory over Horseshit EP, but I don’t think there’s anyone around who’d argue that the prior 2001 full-length wasn’t the decisive battle. Fronted by Christopher “Ironlung” Shurtleff, whose beard was no less ahead of its time than the rest of the band, Scissorfight were a force of fuckall domination, each riff that Jay Fortin (now of Supermachine and White Dynomite) threw into this record a hook unto itself. Made winter-thick by bassist Paul Jarvis (also Supermachine) and set to march by drummer Kevin Shurtleff (who played as Kevin J. Strongbow), Mantrapping remains a balls-out classic that earned its burl every step of the way. You know all those records where the dude does the hey-whoa-mama “whiskey soaked” vocal thing? Yeah. Scissorfight ate those bands and shit out better songs.

Even before you get to the bizarre lyrical brilliance of a song like “Deliver the Yankee Coffin,” to have an album that delivers the one-two punch of “Acid for Blood” and “New Hampshire’s All Right if You Like Fighting” (a German-language version of which would also turn up on 2002’s als0-essential Potential New Agent for Unconventional Warfare EP) just makes it an immediate win. And even when there’s some measure of letup, on “Hazard to Navigation,” for example, there’s no real letup. Bruiser grooves the whole way through and no dip in quality when you get deeper into tracks like “Mantrap,” “Candy Clark” and “Go Cave.” It’s been over a decade and I still get these songs stuck in my head out of nowhere. Earlier Scissorfight was undeniably meaner, the vocals harsher over crunchier riffing, and I don’t want to take anything away from the badassery of 1996’s Guaranteed Kill debut, 1998’s Balls Deep, 2000’s New Hampshire, 2006’s cleaner swansong Jaggernaut or any of the other EPs, comps, splits, etc., they issued in their time, but everything seemed to come into balance on Mantrapping for Sport and Profit, and it still sounds like a steel-toed boot up the ass 13 years later.

It was the album that boldly proclaimed, “Get the fuck off my car, creep.” The record that warned of blizzards, buzzards and bastards. The record that was the most dangerous animal and the record that put the hammer down.

Enjoy.

Photos have been popping up in my Thee Facebooks feed for the better part of the day from the London and Berlin Desertfests, and I’ll admit I’m pretty jealous. I’ve had a good day and a lovely evening — this afternoon I interviewed Scott Hill from Fu Manchu and that went really well (look for it next week) and tonight The Patient Mrs. and I made baked potatoes and watched the Yankees get thoroughly demolished before switching to Star Trek: The Next Generation. And I expect the rest of the weekend will follow suit in its pleasantness, so I’m not saying I’m hard up, but seeing a shot of Gozu on stage in BerlinĀ or Borracho in London, Spirit Caravan rocking out, I’d be lying if there wasn’t a part of me going, “Ah dude.” Next year. Should probably get a job first. Ha.

I should have the aforementioned Fu Manchu interview up before Wednesday. Their tour starts the same day as Floor‘s. Wow that interview fell flat this week. I thought it was really cool, was all stoked on it, and just zero response. Seemed especially cool after having talked to Anthony Vialon four years ago when they first picked back up, but so it goes. Maybe someone’ll notice it sooner or later. Once it’s posted it’s there forever. You’d be surprised at what gets noticed years after the fact.

Last week I had mentioned doing a Jeremy Irons and the Ratgang Malibus audio premiere. It got pushed back to next Monday, so look for it then. There’s a video to go with it as well, so even if you don’t want to commit to checking out the whole album, there will be a sample to start with. That’s a record worth hearing. Going to try to get reviews up of Comet Control, Bigelf and Electric Citizen too, so plenty of good stuff to come, as always.

Next weekend is The Eye of the Stoned Goat 4 as well, so I’ve got that to look forward to. Not sure how I’m going to handle the coverage yet, whether I’ll do it there or afterwards, but I’ll figure something out. I haven’t been to Ralph’s Rock Diner in Worcester yet, so I don’t really know the lay of the land, but we’ll see how it goes when I get there. There are a ton of shows the week after too, so it’ll be good to get back out to some regular, non-fest gigs too.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend, I hope Scissorfight do a reunion show and I hope I’m the one who puts it together, and I hope you check out the forum and the back-to-fully-functional radio stream. See you back here Monday.

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