The Stuffings, I Strangle People & Macro Metal, 1995

The Stuffings, I Strangle People & Macro Metal, 1995

Listening to The Stuffings is not a casual undertaking. Their, um, sound (music doesn’t seem to apply) is disorienting, maddening and ultimately exhausting. Using the same tools as a million other bored kids with crappy gear and loads of time, this amorphous, amoebic ensemble (apparently led by the mysterious C. Gregory), through sheer purity of vision and boundless imagination, produce works of sublime strangeness. Much of it is funny, in a juvenile way, but the bizarreness is so persistent and strong that you can’t mistake it for fooling around. Deny it if you will (and I know you’ll try), but this is Art with a capital Dada. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to have a lie down.

— Jim Santo’s Demo Universe

PERSONNEL:
I Strangle People
Released April 1, 1995
At this time The Stuffings consist of:
C. Gregory, Scott P, M. Sorriero, K. Joy G, D. Pratt, J. Wilcox, A. King, R.T. Pollard, Salinger Lewis, K. Werner
recorded and mixed March 31, 1995-April 17, 1995, Stuffings Studio, Boston

“I Strangle People” is what I’d like to do, have done, will do right now, have read about, think about if I knew any, dream about, if I cared enough, do to myself if I didn’t keep passing out.

— Chris Gregory

Macro Metal
Released June 1, 1995
The Stuffings on this album:
C. Gregory
M. Sorriero
D. Pratt
K 10 Joy G
J. Wilcox
M. Etheridge on “Window’s Remix” (w/o permission)
Guest vocals on “Militracey” – Mark Tracy
Keller was supposed to guest…but did not…
Recording and engineering – C. Gregory
Cover art – C. Gregory
Other Stuffers not included but still influencial:
Scott P, Salinger Lewis, R.T. Pollard, A. King, S. Gentile, D. San Angelo, O. Irretrievable

TRACK LISTING:
Yeah, no. Not doing it. There are 70+ “songs” on this two tapes, and you can’t make me!

To my shock, amazement, and to be perfectly honest, relief, both of these insane recordings are, at this writing, available on Bandcamp, along with 50+ more, all of which are probably unlistenable, but hey, it saves me the trouble (and SSD storage) of digitizing two cassettes that, again to be frank, I don’t even know why I’ve held onto for more than two decades.

I Strangle People and Macro Metal were the first tapes I received from Chris Gregory (my original review, above, combined them, just as I’m doing now), but hardly the last: January 1996 brought Lumber (“This tape documents the patient…in an advanced state of decay”); and October of that year saw the arrival of four cassettes: Hhhuuurrh…glover by The Stuffings (“Disturbing soundscrapes and straitjacket pop flash by like scenes from a half-forgotten nightmare”), Physical Planting by Fuscillage (“Toxic folk songs by C. Gregory and Miss K10 Joy, whose vocals squirm like caustic worms into your ear…”), Walker, by Ear Or Cincture (“Handy to have if you ever need to torture a prisoner”), and a shockingly normal solo tape by Stuffings member Damien Pratt.

March 1997 brought two more: a live album, (the Power of) The Right Angle (“Ya gotta be a big Stuffings fan to dig it, and I don’t know if such a creature exists.”) and Martha’s Mutation (“Can I sit and listen to more than a few minutes of this? No.”); and finally, in 1997, Easy To See (“Only the most hard-core lo-fi lunatic will last more than a few minutes”). Most of these and more — so much more, more than anyone can bear — is up on Bandcamp, and I’ve added links for them.

Curious? Have at it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

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