Raging Slab-Assmaster (1987)

 

Artist: Raging Slab

Title: Assmaster

Label: Buy Our Records

Format: LP

Cat #: BOR-12-011

Year of Release: 1987

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1987 Promo

Listed Condition: VG+/G+ deleted radio copy with station airplay and catalog stickering on cover, spine wear

Sell Date: 1/26/21

Sell Price: $14.99

Discogs Last Sold: 12/21/20 $26.82 NM/NM

Low: $12.00

Median: $19.99

High:  $26.82

Current low price: $29.27 VG+/NM

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 5

Have/Want: 157/116

Where Sold:  Statesboro, GA

Time it took to sell: 4 years

Where and When Bought: WERS 1990 record purge

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B

Sad To See It Go: No

For some reason I hated this record when it came out as a teenage DJ at WICN.  It was from the Buy Our Record label from New Jersey that brought you Pussy Galore and Children In Adult Jails, both of whom I was a big fan of.  Clearly I wanted to give this another chance in the grunge years when WERS had a purge of records to make room on their shelves a few months before I actually got on that station, so it made the stack of free records I noticed coming out of an audio production class across the hall that I could walk home with before the rest of the student body liquidated the purge pile.  The labels were still on the cover and it was duly noted that the track "Bitch To Kill" was the only track that ever logged airplay, once in 1989.

So I don't know exactly why I thought Raging Slab sucked back in the 80's.  Even the Rick Rubin years wasn't enough to win be over.   I guess the turning point for me was liking them live at CB's or Continental or both.   I saw them a bunch  in the 90's before Rubric merged with Tee Pee and liked them fine.  I was even at the tribute at Bowery Electric for Elyse, the slide guitarist that passed in 2017.  

So that brings us to where it all started, and I was looking forward to giving this a listen today before packing it up.  I noticed that the press kit and postcard of the retail comic book were inserts, so someone got a nice bonus.  I enjoyed the record, there were some hits.  Of course how could I resist the refrain "I am the master of my ass!" from the title track.  The other side closer is a banger, "Rocks Off Is Rocks Off" has a feel of, you guessed in Rocks era Aerosmith. "Alpha Jerk" and "Shiny Mama" were the other standouts for me.  "Feel Too Much" is the only number that currently can be streamed.

I'm really trying to think back of what I hated this so much.  It sounds a little more hard rock that what I liked at the time, but I didn't necessarily hate that back then, especially this straight forward.  I didn't like Soundgarden at first for the same reason.  These bands sounded too slick and songless for me with their debuts, but I grew to like them over time.  The mix didn't sound shitty and there wasn't any crappy 80's drum sound on this record.  I guess I had to see the live show for everything to fall in place in my head.

Slab aged like a fine wine.