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RED FANG
Deep Cuts
Relapse Records

Oregon's RED FANG has always been a square peg in the round hole of metal/alt/sludge/hard rock convention. Yet the band has managed to have a pretty decent career for itself over the course of five albums, despite its quirks and affinity for straddling the periphery.

Like FAILURE, HUM and TORCHE, and, to a degree, BUTTHOLE SURFERS, THE JESUS LIZARD and TOMAHAWK, RED FANG takes what could be a somewhat mainstream-ish brash sound - a la HELMET during its brief heyday - and bends it into something offbeat, even downright weird at times. And with Deep Cuts, RED FANG celebrates its 20th year - incredibly with the same lineup the whole way - in suitably RED FANG-ish fashion.

Instead of the usual "best of" compilation or live album, the quartet offers a wide-ranging collection of rarities encompassing 26 non-album/bonus tracks, cover versions, previously unreleased singles and garage recordings. So Deep Cuts is really more "odds and ends" or "scraps", if you will, than "deep cuts" in their truest sense. But that's certainly not to say it's a dog's breakfast. Though the album - a double LP is you choose the vinyl route - is certainly a mixed bag, there is a lot of cool, interesting and intriguingly oddball stuff.

The covers, for example, are pretty rad - and again, far from the obvious choices, like the bulldozing doom of "Through" from the uber-obscure NOTALENT and the early '70s proto-metal - complete with a buzz-sawing bass solo - of "Suicide" from DUST, whose drummer Marc Bell later went on to punk rock fame as Marky Ramone. And then there's RED FANG's takes of WIPERS' "Over The Edge" and TUBEWAY ARMY's "Listen To The Sirens", which are presented back to back. They retain both the punky rabble of "Edge" and the robotic vibe of "Sirens" while delivering them with considerably more muscle and heft, again buoyed by Aaron Beam's quaking bass work, which resonates throughout.

This is especially true on the one song you might assume is a cover tune - but thankfully is not. Instead of a rehash of VANILLA ICE's naff suburbanite rap, the "Ice Ice Baby" here is murky, clangorous bass and drum-powered industrial doom that recalls, if anything, SPINAL TAP's "Big Bottom", just without the lascivious lyrics. Indeed, the song is pretty much an instrumental until some chants emerge at the end - which is certainly preferable to ICE's grade school "Take heed 'cause I'm a lyrical poet / Miami's on the scene just in case you didn't know it ..." musings.

A lot of the original rarities here hit the mark and certainly don't seem like throwaways - as so many "bonus" tracks often do - which speaks to the band's songwriting chops. There are reasonably catchy rough and tumble rockers aplenty here - the opener "Antidote", "Murder The Mountains", "Stereo Nucleosis" - grindy, hardcore-tinged ass rippers - "The Shadows", "Black Hole" and the awesome 1:45 shout-alonger "Pawn Everything" - and a bit of Pacific Northwest grunginess - "It's Always There", "Black Water", "Endless Sea" - for good measure, RED FANG being from Portland and all. The comparatively epic "Feeder", at over 6 minutes, makes a for a solid choice as a finale as its earnest, even mellow alt-rock grows ever heavier and noisier to conclude in a fitting clamor.

The homemade, more extemporaneous stuff does tend to smack of "filler", with its smattering of practice jams - "Weird Poly", the screechy organ-tinged "In 5 With Keys", the perhaps intentionally ironic "Forgot To Write" - and electronic noodling - "Hollow Light", the trippy "OMG OMD" - betwixt and between the "real" songs. That said, the almost regal twin-guitar barrage of "Champ Chugger" would make for great psych the crowd up intro music when the band hits the stage - especially as festival shows.

All in all, Deep Cuts provides a one-stop shop for long-time fans to round out their RED FANG collection, newbies to get a career-spanning sample the band's lesser-known work and perhaps pique their curiosity and everyone to get a glimpse into how the quartet makes its unique sonic sausage. It might not be pretty, but what you get in the end is usually pretty good.

3.5 Out Of 5.0