Psycho-Head Blowout

Psycho-Head Blowout
EP by White Zombie
Released May, 1987
Recorded 1987
Genre Noise rock
Length 29:34
Label Silent Explosion
Producer White Zombie
White Zombie chronology
Pig Heaven
(1986)		 Psycho-Head Blowout
(1987)		 Soul-Crusher
(1987)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Psycho-Head Blowout was the third EP released by the band White Zombie in 1987.

Contents

Recording

Rob was very critical of Mark Kramer's engineering work, saying that he "wouldn't do anything we told him to, and he kept smoking pot and falling asleep".[2]

Tour

Psycho-Head Blowout was White Zombie's first release to receive praise from more well-renowned critics. However most of the attention was directed towards the live shows surrounding the release of the EP rather than the record itself. Simmons of the The Village Voice wrote, "Their recent EP Psycho-Head Blowout reams the cranium quite nicely, but the live shows will really open your skull"[3] while Smith from the same newspaper simply wrote, "Seethisband. Seethisband. Seethisband. Go."[4] During this time the band toured mostly with other local New York bands such as the Swans, Rat at Rat R, Pussy Galore and The Honeymoon Killers. "We didn't really fit in", recalls Sean "it felt like the East Village scene was amused by us, at best".[5]

Release and reception

The vinyl of the EP was released on White Zombie's own label Silent Explosion and limited to a pressing of one thousand copies.

Allmusic writer Bradley Torreano gave the album three out of five stars, saying, "young Rob Zombie sounded like Damaged-era Rollins, while the band crafted some of the gnarliest grunge on the East Coast" and that "any fans of the New York noise scene would do themselves a favor by hearing this album".[1] Kurt Cobain pointed to this record as being one of his favorite EPs, praising Tom Guay's guitar playing style as being "fucked-up, bending strings, borderline in-tune--that type of chaos".[1][6]

Packaging

The picture of the band on the front cover was taken by Michael Lavine, who had previously worked as a fashion photographer. He had been friends with Sean Yseult and was asked to take the band's picture for the cover despite having never done that kind of work before. The photo made an impact however, as no one else was releasing albums with their picture on the cover at the time.[7]

The quotes "How's things in the pimp business?" on side a and "I don't know nobody named Iris" on side b of the vinyl are from the 1976 film Taxi Driver.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Rob Zombie, all music composed by White Zombie.

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Eighty Eight"   3:45
2. "Fast Jungle"   4:24
3. "Gun Crazy"   4:29
Side two
No. Title Length
1. "Kick"   4:08
2. "Memphis"   3:37
3. "Magdalene"   4:12
4. "True Crime"   4:50

Personnel

White Zombie
Additional musicians and production

References

  1. ^ a b c Torreano, Bradley. "((( Psycho-Head Blowout > Review )))". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r215852. Retrieved March 28, 2010. 
  2. ^ Sprague, David. "I WALKED WITH WHITE ZOMBIE". Creem Presents: Thrash Metal. 1988, cited July 31, 2008
  3. ^ Simmons "White Zombie". The Village Voice. August 4, 1987. Cited January 9, 2011
  4. ^ Smith "White Zombie". The Village Voice. August 4, 1987. Cited January 9, 2011
  5. ^ Yseult, Sean. "Psycho-Head". I'm in the Band. 2010. pg. 17, cited January 9, 2011
  6. ^ DeRogatis, Jim. "Milk It!". October 2003. pg. 7
  7. ^ "Grunge by Michael Lavine". January 2010, cited June 11, 2010
White Zombie
John Tempesta · Sean Yseult · Jay Noel Yuenger · Rob Zombie
Phil Buerstatte · Tom Guay · Tim Jeffs · Paul Kostabi · Peter Landau · Ivan de Prume · John Ricci
Studio albums
EP's & Remix albums
Compilations
Singles
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