Porn Orchard - Hit The Right People Hard

Label: Self Released
Year: 1986

While most of Athens, Georgia musical lore focuses around the jangly rock of REM (nothing wrong with that, mind you), or the art party of B-52s, or fast forwards to the psych-pop Elephant Six family of bands, there was, and there continues to be, a darker underbelly of bands that primarily play house parties, basement clubs, or backyards in the seedier parts of town. I think every college town has the same phenomena, the popular bands that get all the attention, and the really good, really ugly, loud bands that play for the cooks, the bartenders, the townies, and the other musicians in town to a shower of cheap beer and a smattering of even cheaper applause.
Porn Orchard were in the same demographic as Jack-o-Nuts and Barbeque Killers, the less well known, but possibly more revered cadre of underground rock bands that blasted away in sharp contrast to the shiny happy people across town. Porn Orchard took a heavy dose of Black Flag, and gave it a run through the hot humidity of a southern summer. It's oppressive and it makes you sweat, and there's a good chance it'll leave behind a rash.
This demo comes courtesy of Ben Davis, currently of Noot d'Noot fame, but also of the untouchable math rock trio Purkinje Shft (among other projects), I swiped it off his blog, which appears to be defunct now, and it comes complete with two bonus tracks at the end. Can't beat that.

DL