In 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.

Samples pop up throughout the tracks – from such familiar sources as the Planet of the Apes series and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood – and Noothgrush seems to have started out their career with a particular affinity for Star Wars ,as the late-arriving (on the disc) “Imperial March/Alderaan” and “Jundland Wastes” from the 8D8 demo show. Other material moves away from that subject matter, but with lyrics taken direct from movie lines, samples and “Sith,” originally from the third demo, Kashyyyk, there are no shortage of references the band makes. They’re not the only sludge band to be under that influence – Negative Reaction’s earlier work comes most readily to mind – but if you’re going by just what you can hear from the disc and not the lyrics included in the liner notes (release info is there as well), you probably won’t pick up on it until the samples kick in, as Niederhoff’s screams are largely unintelligible. One could criticize the samples and say they date the material, but that’s missing the point. This is a collection of early works from the band. It’s supposed to be dated. That’s at least half the point.

But as Noothgrush never released a real studio full-length in their time together (even Erode the Person was a collection of material similar to Failing Early, Failing Often), it’s easy to see why other bands were able to amass a more considerable reputation. Whether this current series of reissues and shows will change that is anyone’s guess, but the fact remains that Noothgrush earn respect on these songs and deserve to be in the consciousness when it comes to the acts who helped solidify sludge as a genre in the mid-to-late ‘90s. It may be filthy, hard to listen to and presented with such an encompassing bitterness so as to be a downer in more than just the pacing of its songs, but that’s what Noothgrush were going for. Failing Early, Failing Often, fortunately, doesn’t live down to its name, instead highlighting now in retrospect the timeless nature of sludge at its most visceral.

Noothgrush on Thee Facebooks

Emetic Records

Tags: California, Emetic Records, Noothgrush, Oakland

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.