Tumor Circus "Tumor Circus" 1991**

Jello "Dead Kennedys" Biafra has described this album as "...my most criminally overlooked album... That total noise-grog-semi-grunge-amphetamine-reptile kinda-sounding thing I made with Charley Tolnay of Grong Grong and the guys of Steel Pole Bath Tub...my most demented project". It certainly isn't one for the weak at heart. For the most part it's grungy and muddy noise, with Jello's trademark obnoxious vocals and subversive lyrics. Opener "Hazing for Success" is a cacophonous, hilarious and offensive fantasy about George Bush Sr.'s initiation in the "Skull and Bones" secret society that ties his membership in it with oil companies and the Gulf War "For kicks we kick around the globe/Start a war if we're going broke/Supply both sides, watch 'em choke/Blood of the WASP runs thick as oil". "Human Cyst" is more conventional punk rock a la Stooges, "Fireball" and "Calcutta a-Go-Go" grungy lo-fi noise metal and "Take Me Back or I'll Drown Our Dog (Headlines)" is the lead single, a satire of modern living inspired by the headlines of the "yellow press". "Meathook Up My Rectum" is an attack on censorship and the album's 2nd single. For those not in the know, Biafra is a head figure in the anti-censorship movement and very active politically, although he has "softened" his former anarchist views to the point of joining the eco-socialist US Green Party (See his bio here). "Turn Off the Respirator" is the story of a dying man: "Kept alive/By sick machines/Doctors know/I ain't got a chance/Wanna see our home/One last time/But, it's too late/And our savings are gone/I love you all/I'm so sorry/But someone's gotta pull the plug". It's a tragic situation told over 15 minutes of such a slow and agonizing distorted guitar noise that will have you wishing someone does pull the plug soon, just to shut him up!

**** for Take Me Back or I'll Drown Our Dog (Headlines)

*** for Human Cyst, Fireball, Meathook Up My Rectum, Calcutta a-Go-Go

** for Hazing for Success, The Man with the Corkscrew Eyes, Swine Flu, Turn Off the Respirator