BYO Split Series #1
This split LP, recorded in three days in 1999, seems as miraculous as it is a godsend. Because they were one of those truly astonishing modern groups that spontaneously combusted in the midst of an attenuated creative peak, Leatherface's unexpected 1993 bust-up seemed particularly cruel. Thousands of scattered souls openly mourned when the news came down that the punk/post-punk powerhouse had vanished. Perhaps after listening to the sea of old live recordings and B-sides, Leatherface's members realized what they'd thrown away, buried what hatchets needed burying, and pulled a Lazarus. The sound of this new recording recalls the spark, the lift-off, and the balls-out clear smack ofMushandThe Last. Though Frankie Norman Warsaw Stubbs' vocals are mixed just a little too low to totally match those older detonations -- you have to go down into the two guitars a little to find him, making the words harder to get -- it's still such a corker, it completely corrects the muddy mixes on Stubbs'JesseandPopealbums. And though this record also finds the quartet retreating to a stylistic territory closer toMushandMinx, backing away from the more adventurous turf ofThe Last, it's too intense and exciting to even remotely quibble with. That this unexpected recording is a reality is that rarest of things: a long-shot wish fulfilled. More recent American emo stars Hot Water Music surprisingly put up a good fight, trying to be in the same ballpark with Leatherface's ashen attack, but they lack a singer of Stubbs' caliber to be appearing on the same LP as him or a tightness in playing that takes one's breath away. Better to try them on their own records, because out of this context they would sound rather powerful. --Jack Rabid, All Music Guide