by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Western MA’s Vanishing DMC recorded their first and only self-titled album back in 2016, a dirgy punk record that it splattered with idiosyncrasies unique to the band’s leader, the late Danny “Monster” Cruz. As a member of Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth, Cruz made sprawling performance art, but with this project, it’s all deconstructed punk and raw basement cacophony. Joined together with Matt Robidoux (Curse Purse, Graph, Sunburned Hand of the Man) and Bob Fay (Sebadoh, Deluxx Folk Implosion), the trio bring to life songs that feel both sinister and reckless, punk music that fits somewhere between Lumpy & The Dumpers and Wesley Willis, with a knack for the avant garde and triumphant inaccessibility. Four years after the recordings were captured, the album is finally here. All proceeds from the record, due out July 31st via Podunk Label, will be donated to the National Black Disability Coalition and the Disability Visibility Project.
There is a raw eclecticism to Vanishing DMC’s work, drawing from greasy punk to distorted blues, with no ideas seemingly off limit as the band sputter out only to coil back in. Lead single “Doggin’ A Pizza” is probably the band at their most senseless and primal, a lo-fi garage punk workout that slams with pounding drums and a vocal repetition, the song’s mantra very much being “doggin’ a pizza.” Whether you know what that means or not (I can’t say I do) doesn’t matter, it feels good. It feels right, like the anthem we never we were waiting for but will never escape now that we’ve heard it. It’s delightfully bent.