Oil Tasters, Oil Tasters (side A)

The sterile and primitive recording/mixing of 1982's Oil Tasters seems to miss some of the power that I can only guess this group delivered in performance. Fortunately, the playing is great, and the songs really shine through. The Oil Tasters were a trio with the strange configuration of sax/bass/drums, and they had a punk energy with less classic rock than the Minutemen but less chaos than the Contortions. Richard Lavalliere was a funny and memorable lyricist, and his crazy tales shine through the band's potent din. The cover art is also hilarious—a weird picture of a tire with a couple of pastel monochrome fields (and pastel monochrome lettering too).