Cassette Review: Captain Johnny Sausage/Slade and the Big Nothing! "Advanced American Slut Technology/May 7th" (split) (Captain Crook Records)

[$1 // Edition of 25 // https://captaincrookrecords.bandcamp.com/album/advanced-american-slut-technology-may-7th-split] 

The way that Bandcamp has this split cassette listed, Captain Johnny Sausage comes first (hence my title being that way here) but yet the cassette artwork has Slade and the Big Nothing! on top as if it indicate that would be Side A.    Both sides are labeled after the artists though, so we have Side C and Side S as opposed to the standard A and B.   For whatever reason, most Captain Crook Records cassettes are never rewound to the beginning of either side so I just kind of shot in the dark and picked Captain Johnny Sausage to listen to first.  

Captain Johnny Sausage begins with guitar notes and wild bongos.    This leads into spoken words and a different set of guitar notes.   There is an Oriental vibe which has some keys that I like to think of as "baby grand" because it sounds to me what you would hear traditionally played at baseball games before the advent of recorded music.   Some static- which has a literal dead air sound- brings out whirrs which end up in a bit of a back and forth manner.    The next part is singing in a operatic manner and I'm pretty sure it's a sampled clip from somewhere, though I have no idea where, and not an original number.  (If it is an original piece, a thousand apologies)   A brief shot of acoustic guitar + vocals does poke its head out as well.

On the flip side, Slade and the Big Nothing! bring the combination of vocals and acoustic guitar to life that you should come to know them for at this point and that is to say, yes, I've just gotten too lazy to give them a comparison point anymore.   The songs can get dark in their nature, somewhat scary even to an extent, but the lyrical content is still all over the place.    What starts as people wanting to steal your car turns into songs about saying no, being in the shower with a duck, singing in the rain, killing the radio, pirates and how May 7th is the end of the world.   Slade is always spinning his lyrical webs and this is no exception.  

If you keep up with this site the way that you should, you've most likely read reviews of both of these artists before.   Now they are coming together for one super split cassette and if you've been reading anything I write then this should already be in your collection.