RUSCD 8276

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The Styrenes are precursors to many of the precursors of the bands that you are listening to now. They have their origins in the burgeoning 70's Cleveland scene that spawned such classic bands as Pere Ubu & Dead Boys. Indicative of this incestuous family of Cleveland bands, the Styrenes were founded by The Electric Eels' Paul Marotta & Mirrors' Jamie Klimek, with an amalgam of attending musicians: Jim Jones (Pere Ubu), John Morton (Electric Eels), Anton Fier (Golden Palominos, Lounge Lizards), Mike Hudson (Pagans). With a style best described as jazzy agro-pop, the Styrenes were a bit "off," a bit too weird, even by CLE standards, kind of like Syd Barret backed by Pavement. Including "Drano In Your Veins" (truly one of the best songs you'll hear, and one of the most joyously violent songs of all time), "Girl Crazy," "Jaguar Ride," "Radial Arm Saws," It's Still Artastic could possibly be the quintessential Cleveland 70's anthem you need in your collection.

This is the genuine article more convincing & more daring, playing host to modern day re-makes & copycats. Although The Hives (The Saints), Strokes (Velvet Underground) & White Stripes (too many to name) are loved for their retro-sound, and are quite good at it, they risk nothing. The Styrenes, on the other hand, experiment with almost every song. The result is indescribable, chaotic, often catchy, and always on-edge. Adventurous and exciting- punk/agro-jazz w/ a tinge of hostility that can only be described as genius. The music on It's Still Artastic sounds just as idiosyncratic now as it did then, and just as prescient. The rest of the world has yet to catch up.
The Cleveland landscape is coming under the microscope again; Pere Ubu, The Electric Eels, & Amoeba (raft boy) (feat. members of the Styrenes) all recently released new albums, Rocket From The Tombs' newest re-issue is selling very well, and Cheetah Chrome is packing the house in Nashville. The time is ripe.

"The Styrenes blended psychedelia, theatricality, noise and garage rock with gleeful irreverence that recalled Syd Barrett & Captain Beefheart The Styrenes could also rock like nobody's business."
- Greg Kot/Chicago Tribune

"The Styrenes proved to be a crucial missing link between Sixties punk grunge and Eighties avant-rock It's Artastic is an overdue retro-salute to the Styrenes' rarefied smashup of ragged-ass psychedelia, proto-No Wave guitar noise, corkscrew jazz & pummeling freak rock."
- David Fricke/Rolling Stone

"The Great Rock -n Roll Swindle was really The Styrenes' exclusion from the punk rock canonessential listening for Pere Ubu fans and punks alike." - Creative Loafing

"I hate when I gush over a recording, but this is truly worthy." - Ragnarok

"It's primal American punk, up there with anything on the Ork label and the Ramones."
- Dave Thompson/Alternative Press

"It's Artastic remains fresh & exciting skewed rock." - Steve Holtje/ NY Review of Records

"It's Artastic is simply brilliant, inventive, and still extraordinarily fresh. Love em."
- David Nichols/Puncture

"They were the oddballs of their day, incorporating piano & guitar while the rest of the scene was just trying to get its Ramones licks downthat they preceded the Dead Boys and Pere Ubu, which means they had to do it on their own."
- Paul Grant/Option

"The musical missing link. I always thought there was a huge void between the early seminal attitudes of Velvet Underground and MC5If you consider yourself something of a musicologist, this is a volume you cannot do without."
- Holly A. Ennist/East Coast Rocker

"Paul Marotta must have long had his mind wrenched by microdots when he created the psychotic little baby "Drano In Your Veins".
- Sounds

"Hardcore fans of toasting will dig it." - Option

"In the ruff, tuff world of dancehall reggae, this pair are definitely Messrs. Nasty and Nice." - Select UK