I think most folks like me know Meat Whiplash because of "Don't Slip Up", an early Creation Records single that seemed to show up on a lot of of that label's compilations a few decades ago. The cut sounds like The Jesus and Mary Chain. That makes sense since that band's Jim and William Reid produced the single. But there was more to the brief story of Meat Whiplash than that.
Collected/Contextualized is a new compliation on the Silver Girl Records imprint and it collects pretty much everything Meat Whiplash ever recorded. It's a fascinating dive into a band who never quite got their due, despite the fact that they were one of the very earliest acts on Creation Records, and their sound was full of the sorts of things that kind of cemented the Creation sound prior to Oasis getting scooped up. Both "Don't Slip Up" and "Here It Comes" are here, of course from the Don't Slip Up single, but then we've got the goodies from the band's radio sessions too. "Loss", and in particular "Walk Away" are fantastic and dark as hell. These numbers, like many of the BBC session tracks here, reveal a band who seemed to want none of the nice bits of JAMC's early efforts, and only the grime and noise. I mean, "Eat Me to the Core!" is rougher than "Taste the Floor", and that's saying something. Still, there's an uneasy beauty that's lurking in the BBC session version of "She Comes Tomorrow", a selection that seems to prefigure the majority of the efforts of eventual label-mates The Telescopes.
In addition to those radio sessions, a selection of live cuts and demos adds to the legend of Meat Whiplash, revealing a band who were just beginning to find their sound before going their separate ways. Morphing into The Motorcycle Boy following the addition of vocalist Alex Taylor (The Shop Assistants), Meat Whiplash became just a half-remembered Creation signing. This compilation performs a miracle and brings to light pretty much the entire output of a group lots of fans of Creation know, but maybe hadn't known enough. A clutch of remakes of the group's songs rounds out Collected/Contextualized, and certainly acts like A Place to Bury Strangers and Bubblegum Lemonade owe lots and lots to early Creation signings, but there was magic in the water in 1986. The material from Meat Whiplash still sounds a bit dangerous, nearly unhinged in spots, and gloriously anarchic. Listening to this set, I can even almost make the argument that in 1986, Meat Whiplash were going to give The Jesus and Mary Chain a run for their money. Well, at least in terms of noise and sonic chaos, I guess.
Collected/Contextualized by Meat Whiplash is out now. Details below.
[Photo: Meat Whiplash Bandcamp]