Stuff You Might've Missed

Along with fellow countrymen Lubricated Goat, King Snake Roost and Cosmic Psychos, Feedtime were one of the key bands to emerge out of Australian rock underground in the 80s. They were described by All Music Guide as Australian cousins of Big Black, Melvins and Flipper and put out 3 records in the 80s before taking a break and returning with one more album – 1996 “Billy”.
Trouser Press commented on their self-titled debut – “”Ha Ha,” the first track on Feedtime, pulses with deepness, guitar sawing in repetitive circles like the mating call of a didgeridoo, with vocals that are pure low-frequency growl. The grumbled “I’ve got a Pontiac/gasoline/Pontiac/gasoline” of “Fastbuck” evokes images of Big Black’s “Kerosene” with high-intensity drumming and hard, repeating chords. (The guitarist often plays with a bottleneck, which sounds pretty amazing when cranked up to eleven.) An urge to experiment and fuse mismatched genres with each other leads to a stylistic square dance, as blues pairs off with punk and metal meets mantra. Everything is shaken down until it pounds. Even an air of shimmery progressive folk crops up in the vocals of “All Down.”
Four years later, the band released “Cooper S” and “Shovel” LPs. Former was described by TP as an album “where the same pounding sense of repetition slams guitar chords at your face but adds a touch of country warp and twang on the title cut and a crisp upfront drumbeat to the band’s repertoire.”, while latter contained mostly cover versions of Rolling Stones, Beach Boys and Slade numbers (done with a “tuneless spirited roar” and barely recognizable in their noisy glory).
1989 “Suction” was the last album that the band recorded before reuniting 7 years later. It was described by TP as “an all-original swansong that (for more than half the record) runs tidy, occasionally tuneful songs through the usual floor-scraping guitar noise, adding such previously tested accents as harmonica, horns, acoustic guitar and femme vox.”
All Music Guide commented that “Billy doesn’t waste any time, packing in its entire length in under half an hour, and while things are a bit less varied than on Suction, it’s still a cleansing, thrilling blast of noise that won’t disappoint older fans and could easily win over some new ones. Rick, as before, is barely intelligible outside of a garbled word or two, but his gruff shouts say more than any specific lyric could, while his guitar playing again boils down to “get the hell out of my way.”
Further on, AMG pointed out that “As for the straight-up Feedtime fast-pace/no-time-to-talk mode, tracks like “Hero,” “Wagon,” and the title track turn the world into one huge truck barreling down an endless highway crushing everything in its path, all without a sparkle of chrome to be had.”
Along with Feedtime, band members were also involved with another band called Three Toed Sloth. TSL produced one LP before calling it a day in the early 90s.
Discography
Feedtime LP (Aberrant, 1985 / Megadisc, 1985)
Fractured / Safari / Rumble 7″ (Aberrant, 1986)
Shovel LP (Aberrant, 1986 / Megadisc, 1986 / Rough Trade, 1986)
Don’t Tell Me / Small Talk 7″ (Aberrant, 1987)
Feedtime / King Snake Roost Split 7″ (1987)
Cooper-S LP (Rough Trade, 1988)
Suction LP (Rough Trade, 1989 / Decoy, 1989)
Suction / Cooper-S CD (Megadisc, 1989)

Billy CD (Amphetamine Reptile, 1996)
Compilation Tracks:
“Don’t Tell Me” + “Small Talk” on Why March When You Can Riot? (Aberrant, 1985)
“Trouble” on Down Under (Bob Magazine, 1988)
“Take The Buick” on Untitled (Red, 1988)
“Shovel” on 3 Countries For Sale (Megadisc, 1989)
“Anne” on Hard To Beat (Twenty-One Stooges Killers) (Au Go Go, 1989)
“Plymouth Car Is A Limousine” on Scumbait #2 (Treehouse, 1989)
“Zacchary’s Song” on Professional Test Record (Black Hole, 1997)
“Melody Line” on Dope, Guns And Fucking Up Your Video Deck – Vol. 1-3 1990-1994 (Amphetamine Reptile + MVD + Atavistic, 2003)
“Don’t Tell Me” on Tales From The Australian Underground – Vol. 2: 1977-1990 (Feel Presents, 2006)
mp3: Feedtime – Plymouth Car Is A Limousine / Three Toed Sloth – Flipcar