Drunks With Guns - Zombie

(Glitterhouse, 1990)

Drunks With Guns was a bunch of freaked-out, Flipper-esque louts from St. Louis who put out some well-thought-of records in the mid-’80s before eventually splintering into two rival groups, both called – yep – Drunks With Guns (those damn Krauts in Faust pulled the same trick recently). The lineup heard on this single features the original band’s bassist and guitarist, plus the half-funny gimmick of a 12-year-old girl named Melissa screaming the weird, disturbing lyrics about zombies, World War IX, and “fistpuppets.” The music is a series of scumbucket fuzz belches that takes the parent group’s sludgification of hardcore/punk/rock and pushes it even further into the shit. Unfortunately, it’s all too murky and punchless to achieve the heaviosity that might make it enjoyable, and the riffs just aren’t that interesting or memorable. Melissa’s creepy yowling is about the only thing that keeps the record from being a total waste, though not even that minor (“minor” – ha!) pleasure makes this stuff anything like a suitable substitute for the original records.