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Anal Cunt

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<tr><th>Country</th><td>United States</td></tr><tr><th>Years active</th><td>1988 - present</td></tr><tr><th>Genres</th><td>Grindcore</td></tr><tr><th>Labels</th><td>Relapse Records
Earache Records
Menace to Sobriety Records</td></tr><tr><th>Website(s)</th><td>www.sethputnam.com</td></tr>

Anal Cunt

Anal Cunt is a band from Boston, Massachusetts that has been categorized as noise, hardcore, and grindcore. They are often referred to by their initials A.C. (often written as AxCx) due to the offensive nature of their name and censorship limits on some radio and publications, and many of their album covers simply display the initials A.C. However, the band has managed to subvert even this abbreviation by drawing these letters in a manner resembling an anus and a vulva.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] The Founding of the Band

Anal Cunt was founded in March 1988 in Boston, Massachusetts by Seth Putnam. The name Anal Cunt came from Seth Putnam's attempt "to get the most offensive,stupid,dumb,etc name possible" [1]. A common misperseption is that the band is named after the song "Anal Cunt" by GG Allin, but in fact Allin's song was written years after the band had started [2]. In Q Magazine’s 2005 book The Greatest Rock & Pop Miscellany Ever!, Anal Cunt was included in a list of ”25 Band Names That Should Have Stayed On The Drawing Board”. The band was meant as a joke, and was supposed to only record one demo and do one show; however, they are still going strong in 2006, despite several brief breakups.

Originally, the band was to produce a form of 'anti-music', without rhythm, beats, riffs, lyrics, song titles or any other of the normal features of a band, an approach exemplified by the 5643 Song EP. Anal Cunt wasn’t the first such band Seth Putnam had created; as early as 1980, Seth Putnam formed a noisecore band with his cousin Michael, named Noise. The problem was most of these bands consisted of the same few members, and so Putnam wanted to form a new band with different people.

In previous bands, Seth Putnam had normally played guitar, but now he just wanted to do vocals, so for guitar he persuaded his best friend Mike Mahan to join. For drums, he hired someone who he had seen play fast once, even though he hated him. This was Tim Morse, who would later become the subject of some of the band’s insults. Thus, Anal Cunt was born.

[edit] The Early Years, Part 1

The very first Anal Cunt recordings and performances have not been heard for 18 years. The first public show (following the success of the one in 1988 at Putnam’s mother’s house in front of some family members) was live over the radio at Brandeis University on June 1, with Anal Cunt being the latest in the long line of Putnam’s bands who had performed in this way. The first demo was recorded on a 4-track in April, but this has never been mixed.

After a few more shows, the band decided to attempt a US tour, a few days before which they recorded their 47 Song Demo, which was later re-released on a few compilations of the bands’ material from the early years. They recorded their 88 Song EP later that year and after its release, a number of record labels started showing interest in the band, including Earache Records.

A few releases later, Earache Records again made an offer to the band, this time to license the 5643 Song EP for a European pressing, but Anal Cunt continued to turn down such offers. This was also the point where the band decided they had done as much as they could and decided to split up, after releasing Another EP and completing their first European tour. This tour was in April, and recordings from this tour are numerous, appearing on the compilations Fast Boston HC and The Early Years and the bootlegs Harmonized Noise and the Anal Cunt/Patareni split. Following appearances in a few other bands, including George H. Brown, From Sloth To Anger and Post Mortem, Seth Putnam and Tim Morse decided to reform Anal Cunt on March 1 1991

[edit] The Early Years, Part 2

After the band’s reformation, they decided they wanted to change their style to avoid getting bored again. The guitarist for the new, slightly more musical, Anal Cunt was originally supposed to be future member Paul Kraynak but ended up being Fred Ordonez, an ex-boxer. Some more EPs followed, including the world’s first acoustic noisecore record, the Unplugged EP, before Putnam finally decided to introduce some elements of “real songs” into the band’s material. Seth Putnam and Tim Morse tried out this idea in a 6-song session in 1992, just before Putnam successfully auditioned for the reformed hardcore band Siege, but it was a while before the plans were fully realized.

Later that year, Anal Cunt decided on another European tour. Despite the fact that Tim Morse pulled out at the last minute, the tour still went ahead, with the band deciding to find a drummer while they were touring. The two drummers who auditioned weren’t fast enough for the band, so Anal Cunt decided to have them both playing the same drum kit at the same time for the beginning of the tour, before resorting to just using the faster of the two. This tour firmly left Anal Cunt’s violent footprint on Europe, with most of the shows consisting of Putnam and Ordonez going into the crowd, punching people and destroying equipment, because of not only drunkenness but also the fact that the drummer did not know their songs very well. This was also the tour that saw Seth Putnam joining Fear Of God onstage as their drummer for one show and him and Fred Ordonez recording with Seven Minutes Of Nausea.

On returning to the US, Anal Cunt decided to get a second guitarist who could carry on playing with the drummer during the violence and shouting. The choice was John Kozik, and with it came a new era of the band.

[edit] The Earache Years, Part 1

Although the band had released a lot of material, their records were mostly out of print and hard to find, so the band got into contact with Earache Records, who had previously shown an interest in the band - they wanted a label that would not only keep their records in stock but also pay for their tours, as the band at the time was operating essentially at a loss. Earache Records replied to Anal Cunt, asking to hear some new material, and so the band went into a studio in September to record what would later be released on Relapse Records as Morbid Florist. Fred Ordonez was briefly kicked out of the band, but was allowed back in after unsuccessful searches for a replacement and Earache Records decided to sign them.

They started recording their first album on the label, Everyone Should Be Killed, in March 1993, which featured a handful of real songs, with the rest of it being just noise. This was also around the time when Putnam got arrested for punching a woman in the face in San Francisco during an Anal Cunt show – that, and another show from the same year, is documented on the classic, very rare Anal Cunt 7” Breaking The Law.

By this point, Fred Ordonez had been permanently kicked out of the band and had been replaced by Paul Kraynak, but Kraynak soon left the band. After some searching, Anal Cunt decided to just stick with one guitarist, John Kozik. After the release of Everyone Should Be Killed in 1994, the band did more tours, one in Europe and one straight afterwards in America. The European tour encompassed Germany, Spain and Austria, and Anal Cunt were supported by W.B.I and the Necrophiliacs; on the tour of the USA, they were joined by Incantation, Morpheus Descends, Afterlife and Gutted.

The transition from noise-style songs to fast-hardcore-style songs began in Autumn that year with the recording of their next album Top 40 Hits, which featured the renowned single Stayin’ Alive (Oi! Version). Relesed in 1995, this album contains about 50% noise and 50% “songs” and marked a siginificant change in the band’s style.

Another US tour followed and then, in June, the band’s first Japanese tour. After this, another line-up change occurred, and John Kozik was replaced by Scott Hull, of Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed fame. With this line-up (or variations on it), the album 40 More Reasons To Hate Us was recorded, and this album marked another change in the band’s direction, as it marks the start of them having lyrics and, more importantly, insults contained in their songs.

Yet another tour followed (this time a fortnight-long one with Eyehategod), during which Scott Hull was replaced with John Kozik. After this tour, the band was again close to breaking up (for the second time), but instead decided to change the lineup once more. The problem seemed to be with Tim Morse, so he was kicked out of the band – Seth Putnam was now the only surviving original member of the band.

[edit] The Earache Years, Part 2

The band was on hold for a while, the only thing they recorded being a song (You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side) for the Smiths tribute album The World Still Won’t Listen, with Scott Hull on guitar and Seth Putnam doing the drums and vocals. During this period, Seth Putnam also did backing vocals for Pantera’s The Great Southern Trendkill, in New Orleans, and lead vocals for an Eyehategod show.

Seth Putnam was again tempted to end the band (for the third time), but instead hired a new guitarist, Josh Martin. Martin was a student at New York University in 1994/1995, when Anal Cunt used to play in New York a lot, and they had become good friends. Indeed, this was a friendship that would continue, as Putnam and Martin would join forces later in Adolf Satan and cult acoustic black metal band Impaled Northern Moonforest. Now, Martin had moved to Boston, following his graduation and was appointed by Putnam as the new Anal Cunt guitarist. After trying out a lot of drummers, they ended up with Nate Linehan.

Yet another tour followed, this time with Incantation and Mortician, and then the release of their next full-length, I Like It When You Die, which they had recorded prior to the tour. This album was essentially a collection of insults disguised as songs and featured classics such as You’re Gay and Technology’s Gay, as well as a guest appearance from Kyle Severn from Incantation. A lot of the songs refer to things being ‘gay’, as this was a common slang word in Massachusetts at the time.

Following the tour, Linehan left the band and again the band was on hold because of line-up difficulties. Even so, Putnam and Martin recorded a few songs for a Black Sabbath tribute, In These Black Days Volume 1, which was a split with Eyehategod and featured Seth Putnam on drums. A few months later, Putnam asked Nate Linehan to rejoin the band and he agreed.

Another two tours later (one in America with Murder One, one in Japan), Anal Cunt recorded what would be their last album on Earache Records, It Just Gets Worse, which was released at the end of their 1999 European tour with Flächenbrand. This is the most offensive of the band’s albums and was surrounded by much controversy – the label changed some of the song titles and also censored the lyrics to two of the songs. Nevertheless (or probably because of this fact) this is now considered to be a classic cult grindcore album, which was criticized heavily by the general music press but praised just as much by the underground grind community.

[edit] 21st Century Anal Cunt

Despite being dropped by their label (although Earache did later make them an offer to come back, which they turned down) and Nate Linehan leaving (again), Anal Cunt continued, now with John Gillis on drums. Some more touring and a few releases followed, such as the Defenders Of The Hate EP. There was also a Defenders of the Hate tour in 2001, featuring two legs – one to California and back, and one to Texas and back - and the band released a limited tour edition of the record as part of the tour. This tour showed that Anal Cunt were still as violent as ever, straight from the start of the tour – Josh Martin was so drunk at the first two shows that he smashed up both his guitars and had to search for pawn shops to buy a new one. However, the band issued an official press release at the end of December 2001 saying that they had broken up (again). This time, the band seemed to have permanently disbanded, with only a few compilation tracks and the Very Rare Rehearsal From February 1989 CD being released.

Fears of the band’s fans seemed to be confirmed when in October 2004 Seth Putnam went into a coma for nearly a month as a result of a drug overdose. Initially reported as a sleeping pill overdose for legal reasons, he later claimed it was a combination of alcohol, crack, heroin, and a bottle of sleeping pills. Doctors thought that even if he survived, he would suffer permanent serious brain damage and were intending to ‘pull the plug’, before Putnam’s mother intervened. Even after coming out of the coma, the driving force behind the band was now paralyzed and had sustained severe nerve damage, needing months of physical therapy to recover. In fact, for the first show that Anal Cunt played following ths coma (which was a show with Eyehategod), Seth Putnam had to remain seated in a chair throughout.

Although some thought it was poetic justice, Seth Putnam says he will continue to play songs such as You're in a Coma and has promised that the band will release ‘new’ material soon. He confirmed that there will be a new Anal Cunt album, most likely to be released in 2006, which was originally to be called Wearing Out Our Welcome, before Putnam changed its title to Assholes and Troublemakers. He has also promised a Defenders Of The Hate full-length, which will feature bonus now-out-of-print tracks, such as those from the 13 Bands Who Think You’re Gay compilation. Other releases that have been promised include a sequel to Picnic Of Love, Picnic Of Love II and an Anal Cunt/Gay Bar split, featuring unreleased Anal Cunt material from the Putnam/Martin/Linehan era on one side and a recording of Seth Putnam in a gay bar on the other.

[edit] Controversy

Image:AnalCunt I Like It When U Die.jpg

Common lyrical themes include misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, ridicule of the unfortunate, and insults directed towards other bands, as in "Anyone Who Likes The Dillinger Escape Plan Is a Faggot." Some examples of their controversial song titles are "Hitler Was a Sensitive Man", "I Hope You Get Deported", and "Your Kid Committed Suicide Because You Suck" (the original title was "Connor Clapton Committed Suicide Because His Father Sucks"; it was changed because they were working for a label in Britain, where libel laws are very stringent). One recurring song title is "X Is gay", with X being a person, place, thing, idea or event. Examples include: "Technology Is Gay", "Recycling Is Gay", "Pottery's Gay", "The Internet Is Gay", "Windchimes Are Gay", "The Word 'Homophobic' Is Gay", and "I'm Gay". Another recurring song title is "You X". Examples include: "You Own a Store", "You Live in a Houseboat", "You Are an Orphan", "You Go to Art School", and "You Keep a Diary". The band themselves parody this with the song "You (Fill In The Blank)".

With the exception of the satirical Picnic of Love album, their musical catalog consists almost entirely of ridiculously and intentionally offensive material. This renders the inclusion of covers of songs completely different to their usual style, such as "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)," "The Theme From Three's Company," and "Hungry Hungry Hippos," as well as the occasional innocent silliness of tracks like "I Got Athlete's Foot Showering At Mike's" all the more confusing (or hilarious). There are even very rare tracks that suggest concern regarding a social problem, but in light of the band's humorous approach to their songs, this is not to be taken too seriously.

The typical Anal Cunt song is short and loud with extremely distorted guitars, near incomprehensible screaming and blast beat drumming. The band has often been criticized for its popularity being based solely on their controversial song titles and lyrics rather than any musical ability. Anal Cunt is often mentioned when a criticism is being made against the grindcore genre or hardcore punk music in general, but they are far from typical. One ongoing dispute is whether Anal Cunt actually takes their own music seriously.

Anal Cunt's take on making song titles a joke in themselves may have influenced many other hardcore punk and grindcore bands who attempt to get laughs from humorous, but often cryptic, titles.

[edit] Bands and Artists that Anal Cunt has Ridiculed

[edit] Band members

  • Seth Putnam: Vocals
  • Josh Martin: Guitar
  • Nate Linehan: Drums

[edit] Past members

  • Mike Mahan: Guitar (1988 - 1990)
  • Tim Morse: Drums (1988 - 1996)
  • Fred Ordonez: Guitar (1991 - 1992, 1992 - 1993)
  • John Kozik: Guitar (1992 - 1995. 2003 - 2006)
  • Paul Kraynak: Guitar (1993 - 1994)
  • Scott Hull: Guitar (1995)
  • Nate Linehan: Drums (1996 - 1999, 2003 - 2004 - 2006)
  • John Gillis: Drums (1999 - 2001, 2004 - 2006)

[edit] Discography

[edit] External links

fr:Anal Cunt nl:Anal Cunt ja:アナル・カント pt:Anal Cunt fi:Anal Cunt sv:Anal Cunt

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