The Flying Crap -- Never Mind Your Head
Never Mind Your Head
Sonet Music, 1995
For a nation as sparsely populated and out of the way as Norway, the hackneyed motto "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" has, in recent years, been taken to extremes from which even Ozzy Osbourne would recoil. Since 1992, when Mayhem's Varg Vikernes set fire to several medieval stave churches and murdered Øystein Aarseth, Norway has hosted some of music's more shocking excesses. Even Sweden's hillbilly house outfit, Rednex (whose dreadfully catchy version of "Cotton-Eye Joe" can still be heard at minor league ballparks across the United States), were arrested in Trondheim for partying too hard on stage. More typical, however, is the sort of Iggy Pop versus Sid Vicious shenanigans exemplified by the Cumshots whose notoriously chaotic and violent performance have resulted in scores of injuries to audience and band. Plus, thanks to the wonders of viral video, one can watch a live performance of "Go Forth and Fuck" in which the band one-ups the Stanglers' infamous strippers-on-stage scandal by allowing a pair of environmental activists to copulate onstage. Not to be outdone, the Flying Crap got themselves banned from Norwegian television and Kristiansand's Quart Festival by incorporating the firing of a shotgun loaded with live ammunition into their live act.
Oh. And they play music, too.
The Flying Crap are a pretty run-of-the-mill hardcore outfit and Never Mind Your Head is a fairly pedestrian hardcore album with bits of sludgy metal (particularly evident on tracks such as the dirge-like "Kill 'Em All") thrown in for good measure. Lyrically, the Flying Crap are reminiscent of the sleazy subject matter of bands like the Dead Boys (even the old school song they choose cover, Wayne/Jayne County's "Toilet Love," is a suitably disgusting ode to sloppy Larry Craig-style bathroom sex). With sex, hard drugs, disease, and misanthropy as running themes, the Flying Crap are relatively indistinguishable from the mass of mediocre hardcore outfits churning out metal-tinged, gutter-minded punk rock. Still, tracks like the aforementioned "Toilet Love," "Dirty Lause (sic)," and a spirited cover of "Teenage Kicks" stand out as worth the extra listen.
Sobriquet Grade: 77 (C+)
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