[$5 // Edition of 100 // https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/ad188-filthy-fuckers-paradise]
It seems like no matter how I try, no matter how many times I listen to Filthy Fuckers, I just cannot come up with a good comparison for them. The only single artist I keep going back to is Guttermouth simply because the two seem to share a liking for words which are often described as "obscene", but aren't we now past the idea of "Well, how are you going to get played on the radio with a name like that?" TBS lets "American Dad!" say "shit" but does that mean we are growing worse as a society or just realizing that there are more offensive words? (I've always been more offended by words like "war" and "rape" then "fuck" and "shit")
Dark acoustic rock fills this cassette but it can also plug in and become electric rock as well. I've had a song by Pansy Division stuck in my head for about a month now and I'd usually then try to apply that as a comparison here since they're both acoustic-based but it just doesn't quite click for me. There might be some anger in these songs but there is also a lot of sadness. I suppose a line such as "I'll put a bullet in your head" could be considered angry but to me when taken in context it has a sadder feel to it, as if this person has become desperate and this is not a violent act as much as a last resort.
For that level of despair I can put this on the same wave length of a band such as Soundgarden but musically the two don't share a lot in common. It's gritty and raw, exposing wounds and twisting the knife within to make the point. Sometimes I feel like we're about to go into that song about going through the desert on a horse with no name but then that feeling fades. The last song is instrumental though and it has a slight western feel to it, which I enjoy but does send my whole thought process of reviewing this into a curve every time I hear it.
What I feel like could be the best way to describe Filthy Fuckers to you is to simply pull a line from one of their songs and it says "On Christmas the world is a fucked up place". Now, we can take three things from this single line, all of which have both to do with the lyrics and music on "Paradise". For one thing, Christmas is supposed to be a happy time and all of that, so for the world to be fucked up instead the song being about the traditional feelings of joy or whatever shows you right away where this music is coming from exactly. It's fairly straight forward and direct in that sense.
But then you have to wonder whether or not the line is to be meant on a personal level or in a broad sense. On one hand, the author could have had a life-changing negative experience around the holidays and thus always feels sad at Christmas instead of how he is supposed to feel or you could just see it as the mass of people who miss the point of Christmas and could then set it as the soundtrack to people fighting in Walmart over low, low prices.
And I feel as if that is the best way to describe "Paradise" as a whole cassette. These songs might be personal to the author but you might be able to relate to them personally as well and if not, you'll at least be able to give them some general relations. Because of that complexity I feel like it is also difficult to simply state "Oh, it sounds like ___", which has never been a bad thing.
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