Originally from Montana but based in San Francisco, Steel Pole Bathtub dropped their first album Butterfly Love in 1989, followed by the Lurch EP one year later. This release includes both works in their entirety and though the group continued to put out records throughout the nineties, these two represent their most explosive music. Genre-wise, they inhabit a grey area — not exactly punk, not quite metal, too slow to be traditional hardcore — but extraordinarily heavy, relentlessly tough, and wildly entertaining to listen to. The squalling guitars are so distorted and effects-laden they sound like a swarm of killer bees, the bass rumbles like a monster truck, and the merciless drum fills could easily accompany a late-night Voodoo ceremony. Topped with shouted vocals and a bizarre selection of uncleared samples (from The Brady Bunch and Easy Rider among others), the resulting music is hard to describe but easy to get into. Key tracks: "Time To Die," "Tear It Apart," "Lime Away," and the epic "Christina."