Review / 200 Words Or Less
Pestilent Endeavors
Adult Onset Death

Backwoods Butcher (2015) Nathan G. O'Brien

Pestilent Endeavors – Adult Onset Death cover artwork
Pestilent Endeavors – Adult Onset Death — Backwoods Butcher, 2015

This is a cool tape sent in by Mr. Food Fortunata, the fine gentleman behind the always enjoyable and reliable Saginaw, MI-based publication Ear of Corn fanzine. A lot of these tracks—and there are a whopping 21 of them, although mostly very short—remind me of early Mudhoney, something for which I am never disappointed. Some of the odder-sounding stuff on Flipper's Sex Bomb Baby! compilation comes to mind as well. There’s a fair amount of humor going on here. Take for example these lyrics from “A Cure For Everything”: “Alcohol is the cure for depression/Depression is the cure for herpes/Herpes cures nasal congestion/And congestion cures alcoholism.” There’s something really, ah, historical that resonates from this. Like it was made in the ‘80s. That, or by 40 year-old guys that decided to bang out the same kind of skuzzy punk that they listened to in junior high. That is not a rip, rather a compliment! A little-known band like Frantix is another good frame of reference I suppose. I’m not sure but Food might actually be in this band even though the players are identified as Patient Zero and Doctor X. (I lost the note the came with it.) I can tell you though with 100% certainty that he did the artwork, which is excellent and creepily engaging as always. The overall packaging is really nice. It’s a pro-printed 3x fold-out J-card that recalls the days when cassettes were the only medium (as opposed to the on-trend one they are now) so your stuff had to be on point visually if it was going to attract any attention.

Pestilent Endeavors – Adult Onset Death cover artwork
Pestilent Endeavors – Adult Onset Death — Backwoods Butcher, 2015

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