Noise for Zeros

Jubilix / Nitro Burning Funny Cow 7″
Sympathy for the Record Industry, 1991

From where else but Iowa City, Iowa could such a burly ass sludge punk band named Iowa Beef Experience go ripping into early-nineties grunge obscurity? Actually, IBX did have a bit of clout in the pre-Teen Spirit world of grunge, with an interview in Maximum Rock ‘n Roll and an LP released on the London-based Vinyl Solution record label. In 1991 they may well have been the best-known punk band from Iowa, despite the fact that Iowa had, and has always had a pretty healthy little scene. Learn a more about it from previous posts here and here, or from The Secret History of the Cedar Valley wiki site here. Anyway, IBX had a fairly unique take on the pigfuck genre, namely with some of the gnarliest growling vocals you’ll ever hear, and a gut-rumbling guitar sound that can only gurgle up from the deepest depths of the rural midwest. This 45 is their best release, featuring forceful, antagonistic riffs and a floor-rumbling production that some of their other releases lack.

DOWNLOAD

Iowa Beef Experience – “Jubilix”
Iowa Beef Experience – “Nitro Burning Funny Cow”

Delving deeper into the legend of Los Marauders, the Nehring brothers (aka Nobody and Edward T. Action) streamlined their rockabilly sound with the more conventional and cleaned up band The Roughhousers. And while the aggro trash punk elements of the Marauders were removed, the Roughhousers could still tear it up and were one of the funnest live bands to see in the mid-90s, serving up loads of entertaining stage banter and hopped up, sweaty, roadhouse rhythm and blues. Unfortunately, they rarely made it out of Iowa City and even more unfortunately, very few recordings of the band exist. In fact, I believe these two tracks from a pair of local scene compilations are the only releases this should-be legendary group put out.

DOWNLOAD:

The Rough Housers – “Hit Da Floor”
from Herd Mentality compilation CD, Feedlot Records, 1997

The Rough Housers – “The Feet You’re Standing On”
from Land of Dirt compilation CD, Feedlot Records, 1996

Every Fuckin’ Song We Know CD
Teenbeat Records, 1996

In every independent music scene across the country, there seems to be at least one band that plays some variation of old school rockabilly. Whether they have the standup bass, 1950s greaser style, or some reverbed hollowbody guitar action, there’s always a token group that looks to the primitive R&B past for inspiration. Groups like the Kingpins, The Crows, The Rev. Horton Heat, and countless others fill this niche, but only a few really stand apart from the pack and add something to the mix that keeps them from being a tired retread of the past. Iowa City’s Los Marauders took the rockabilly template and fucked it up enough to create an entirely different beast. Just as The Cramps mutated rockabilly into psychobilly with the rawness of punk, Los Marauders kicked up the tempo and aggression and pushed it into the hardcore realm. Singer Nobody’s throaty vocals (achieved by chain-smoking cigars) aren’t too far removed from the hoarse barks of Negative Approach, and Johnny Aztec’s ultra-revved up guitar kept their sound miles above the mundane. They could kick out some fairly conventional rockabilly too, but they always had an edge that kept them at the top of the rockabilly heap.

DOWNLOAD:

Los Marauders – “Wild Women”
Los Marauders – “Got A Rock”
Los Marauders – “Green Martians from Mars”
Los Marauders – “Wreckin’ Machine”

LINKS:

Los Marauders on YouTube
Los Marauders on Teenbeat Records