The gods of weird have unearthed yet another obscure group of misfits and re-unleashed them upon those of us that zealously engross ourselves in all things loud, fast and fucked up. This is the complete discography of Northern California’s short-lived thrashing party punks, Infectious Garage Disease. There is a whopping two-plus hours of material on this double disc collection. It includes their 21-song debut album from 1988; 22 songs that made up their 1986 and 1987 demos, My Pet Disease and The Joke That Went Too Far; a 12-page booklet with all the trimmings; over 35 minutes of rare video footage; and over 40 minutes of live and rehearsal audio. In the late ‘80s Infectious Garage Disease played opening slots for some of the genres biggest bands at the time, like D.R.I., Agent Orange, Kreator and The Accused. So as far as frame of references go, that’s pretty much it right there.
Despite the sheer amount of stuff available on here it’s a little difficult to single out any songs because so many of them sound indistinguishable from each other. In fact, many of them appear numerous times. However, one of my personal favorites is the album version of “No Sense,” which—equally recalling early Suicidal Tendencies and ‘80s skate punk like JFA or The Adolescents—is both thrashing and eerily haunting at the same time. Songs like “Chef Boyardee’s Mercenaries” and “Party’s Over” are cut from the same balls-to-the-walls party thrash that present-day bands like Municipal Waste, Dios Mio and Cross Examination have successfully resurrected. Several songs are stupidly offensive seemingly just for the sake of being stupidly offensive. I’d reprint lyrics from “Pubic Lice” or “Fat Dykes on Welfare” if I didn’t think anyone was smart enough to figure out what they are about based purely on their titles.
Considering the band dealt primarily in raunchy, overtly belligerent subject matter, this collection won’t appeal to everybody. For the curious, it’s best-served to approach it with a healthy sense of humor. Pairing that with the fact that this discography contains an overwhelming amount of material, it’s probably better to ingest in small doses, rather than attempting it all in one sitting. That being said, if you have a penchant for fast songs about cheap beer, shoplifting, and pornography and have a high threshold for blatant misogyny and the grotesque, you likely won’t be disappointed. In fact, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised.
