Description

Tar Babies – Death Trip – Vinyl Record

Death Trip by Tar Babies is an album that showcases the band’s distinct blend of punk rock with funk and jazz elements. Tar Babies were known for their innovative approach to the punk genre, integrating diverse musical styles into their sound, which set them apart from many of their contemporaries in the hardcore punk scene of the 1980s.

Tar Babies, originating from Madison, Wisconsin, were part of the vibrant American hardcore scene but stood out due to their genre-blending music. Death Trip exemplifies this unique fusion, featuring driving punk rhythms combined with funky bass lines and experimental jazz-influenced guitar work. The album captures the energy and rawness typical of punk music while infusing it with a rhythmic complexity and musical sophistication that is less common in straightforward punk releases.

Tar Babies never achieved mainstream success, their work, including albums like ‘Death Trip,’ has been influential within underground music circles. They are often praised for their innovative approach to punk, which not only challenged the boundaries of the genre but also provided a blueprint for future bands interested in incorporating diverse influences into punk music.

Death Trip and other releases by Tar Babies contribute to the narrative of punk as a versatile and evolving genre that intersects with various musical styles. Their music is a testament to the creative possibilities of punk, encouraging a broader appreciation of how punk ethos can be expressed through different musical vocabularies.

For fans of punk looking to explore its intersections with funk and jazz, Tar Babies’ Death Trip is a significant and rewarding listen, providing an alternative perspective on what punk music can encompass.

One of the lesser-known bands on the legendary SST roster, the Tar Babies emerged from Madison, WI, with a distinctive brand of punk-funk that often drew comparisons to their labelmates the Minutemen, as well as the Texas-based Big Boys. Colored with bits of psychedelia, jazz, and avant-noise skronk, their music quickly progressed beyond their roots in hardcore and evolved into a scratchy but danceable, groove-centered hybrid complete with horns and George Clinton-style jamming.

The Tar Babies were formed out of the ashes of Madison hardcore punkers Mecht Mensch, who disbanded in 1982. Guitarist/vocalist Bucky Pope, bassist Robin Davies, and drummer Dan Bitney debuted with the 1982 EP Face the Music, issued on local indie Bone Air. By the time of their second release, 1985’s Respect Your Nightmares, their funk influence had begun to come into focus, which helped catch the attention of SST. The Tar Babies’ first album for SST was 1987’s Fried Milk, on which their punk-funk fusion truly crystallized. For the follow-up, 1988’s No Contest, they played up that funk connection by adding horns, most courtesy of woodwind player and multi-instrumentalist Tony Jarvis.

Their third SST album, 1989’s Honey Bubble, also proved to be their last. After a brief hiatus, during which some of the band’s personnel shifted, Pope reconvened the Tar Babies, now with second guitarist Bobby Vienneau and new horn player Andrew Lawton; this lineup cut one record, Death Trip, for the small Sonic Noise label in 1991. Following its release, the group disbanded permanently.

Dan Bitney moved to Chicago and joined the seminal post-rock combo Tortoise as a percussionist and effects manipulator, also playing with Isotope 217 and several other local projects. Pope and Davies later reunited as the Bar Tabbies for local gigs, and Davies’ son Jesse Collins-Davies was also a member of the preteen hardcore band Old Skull.

Sonic Noise Records

Track Listing
Swarm Of Devils
Time Or Tempo
Out In Space
Death Of A Star
Odios
Out Of Bullets
Trials And Tribulations
1979
Walking Dead
Well Hell
Cheryl
Great Equalizer
My If List
Mutt