Skin Yard

Back at the start of the year I picked up a Skin Yard LP, hot on the heels of picking up their Sub Pop 7". The band features Jack Endino, who produced a lot of classic Sub Pop / Seattle bands like Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Tad, etc. Skin Yard were around from the mid 80s to the early 90s and play 'grunge' that is typical of that era. I have been keeping my eyes open for other records by them, and recently ended up finding a clear vinyl copy of their first LP.

This was put out by C/Z Records, which was another label based in Seattle, and released in 1986. I'm not sure of the pressing information, but for sure the majority of copies were on black vinyl, with this colour being more limited.

I was stoked to pick this up as it's quite hard to find these days, and I figured that their first LP would probably be a bit more raw then the later ones. However, I was slightly disappointed when I played this, as it doesn't quite sound like the other stuff I have heard. After some online research, I came across their bandcamp page, and it has this disclaimer about this record:

This is the first full length released by Skin Yard and is the the version of the band when Matt Cameron was their drummer. This record is notably different from all of the subsequent records that Skin Yard recorded and released: It is much "artier" and more cerebral than their other records.

So at least it's not my imagination. But of course, in my own typical way, I decided to stick with this as I often grow to like what is acknowledged to be the worst release by any band I like. And I'm now starting to dig it. It reminds me a little bit of early Faith No More in places, a bit like the mellower Bad Brains songs, and and also a bit like the band Outface who had a record on Rev's sister label Crisis many years ago. It's maybe not what I'd usually go for, although I seem to be saying that so much these days that I should probably acknowledge that I pretty much like everything now.