THE EX "HISTORY IS WHAT'S HAPPENING"
1982, More DPM Records/Ex Records
The Ex are a band who have very few mistakes in their catalogue even though they explore quite a bit of territory; they sometimes dabble in improv, jazz, world music (including covering a national anthem on "Turn"), noise rock, and straight noise but they usually work best when focusing on punk. So while there may be some more accomplished albums in the Ex's catalogue, this is the one I usually put on when I feel like listening to them: it's just a straight blast of distorted punk that is extremely off-kilter and even a bit catchy. It doesn't waste time with acoustic interludes or noise breakdowns or something.. it's just a heavily distorted bass, really crisp military drumming, high-pitched treble guitar, and lyrics about anarchy and paranoia and such. An amazing listen and a totally underrated album with some of my favorite production ever. Check it out...