ANTiSEEN--15 Minutes Of Fame...15 Years Of Infamy
Steel Cage 2000
One of the toughest things about following bands who operate on an indie level is keeping up with their often minutely pressed vinyl-only releases. This is especially problematic when said band has been rolling along for a couple of decades. Thanks to 15 Minutes Of Fame...15 Years Of Infamy, a good number of those rare such recordings by ANTiSEEN have been gathered in one place. Motorhead once sang "the chase is better than the catch," but losing the fun of doing legwork to hunt stuff down is a small price to pay when the tunes are as sweet as this.
As previously stated, 15 Minutes Of Fame...15 Years Of Infamy is, besides a few tracks off the Honour Among Thieves album, a collection of rare 7"ers and live material. While covering most eras of the band, and thus showing variation in sound quality/production style from track to track, this is consistently coarse and should appeal most to fans of ANTiSEEN's brutal best. Most importantly, the bulk of these releases have been out of print without being reissued for years, making this disc a godsend to completists.
This said, all those in the know are keenly aware that every stitch of ANTiSEEN's output is a necessity. For those in the dark, 15 Minutes Of Fame...15 Years Of Infamy will more than bring this fact to light. You get amazing covers of Roky Erickson's "The Singing Grandfather" and "I Can't Control Myself" by the Troggs, neither rendition included on the Antiseen covers collection Hell. Still, ANTiSEEN are at their best when they're using their own voice and coming from a place of great truth as on "It Looks Good For Them To Care." Ditto for the greatest anti-hippy song ever, "Hippy Punk," included here with the rest of the legendary Blood Of Freaks EP--one of the collection's top highlights. Just as big a treat is a previously unreleased live version of "People Like You," complete with onstage organ accompaniment (!!!). It's all a thrill to take in.
In the end, 15 Minutes Of Fame...15 Years Of Infamy is just as important for newcomers as it is for collectors. In representing virtually every era of ANTiSEEN, it flows a bit like a greatest hits package, though it isn't. Regardless, this is one damn satisfying listen. Very well put together and thorough.
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