Something I Learned Today

One of the nice things to find in my mailbox upon my return from vacation was a promo copy of Alternative Tentacles reissue of the collected works of Miami’s The Eat. It’s Not The Eat, It’s The Humidity collects 30 studio tracks and 29 live cuts on 2 CD’s. And you know, it’s about time. The Eat are KBD legends, with their first two singles commanding ridiculous prices. It’s Not the Eat… collects these two gems, the Scattered Wahoo Action cassette from 1982, and the full mid-90’s sessions that spawned the Hialeah 7″. In the late 90’s the band themselves was distributing most of this material on a CDR called Slowly I Turn. All in all, this is enjoyable melodic, garage punk with a biting satirical edge. As the AT bio labels ‘em:

top-floor melodic punk ‘n’ roll - sort of a sped-up Real Kids with rock-bottom Angry Samoans-style lyrics

The second disc is live, and I can do without most live releases. This is no exception. (note that the double vinyl edition skips the live material). I’ll stick with the studio material. The Eat never topped “Communist Radio”, but they come close on a couple of these. Some of my favorites:

The Eat - Communist Radio.mp3
The Eat - Nut Cop.mp3
The Eat - Party Line.mp3
The Eat - Hialeah.mp3

You can buy It’s Not The Eat, It’s The Humidity directly from Alternative Tentacles
(Or, you can try and win one from Peter over at Killed By Death Records)