Karp and PNMV Proudly Present: Tumwater T-Birds

KARP has this underground image in the sludge community. Those fortunate enough to know about it know they were kids who idolized the Melvins from way-high-up in Turnwater, Washington. This was also the origin point of bands like The Whip, featuring 2/3 of KARP and Joe Preston, and Big Business, fronted by Jared Warren of this group (which would later merge with The Melvins in 2006). This was a promotional 7" they put out in '94 to fill the gap between Mustaches Wild and their next album, Suplex.

And...it's okay. That's it. It's just okay. It's not a horrible album by any means, but it really feels like KARP didn't put the work in. Their musicianship itself is fine, and I'm actually a pretty big fan of Jared's bass tone and Slayer's guitar tone. But these songs don't feel like they had as much effort put into them as some others. KARP always has this vibe of just being three friends with instruments in a garage, but these songs are subpar. The main feature on Sidde A, "I'd Rather Be Clogging". definitely has Melvins influence between the composition and how weird it gets at points, especially the ending. It sounds like the three of them sat down and just went, "what's the weirdest, scariest, quickest thing we can kick out for this EP?" And this was the result. It isn't as repetitive as some of their work, I'll give it that, but this is definitely a song that didn't have much thought put into it. At least it startles the listener awake at some points,

Then there's the B-side, "Turkey Named Brotherhood". This is the same case as the first track, but it doesn't really have the oddball charm that Clogging has. This just seems like a short, generic song that KARP also came up with in a short amount of time to fill space. But it sounds like KARP definitively, and I at least appreciate that. It's also worth noting how good Scott Jernigan's drumming is on this EP. I think this is the point where it came into it's own. It gets a little complex here and there and he can go fast much better than on even Mustaches Wild.

Overall it's not a bad release, not by any stretch. It just feels exactly like filler, and wouldn't work if it was longer than 8 minutes.