There was a lot of activity in our filthy 24th Street flat in the late '90s - specifically referring to musical and artistic creativity and creation (though that opening salvo could definitely refer to plenty of other kinds of "activity") that our little group of miscreants had their collective hands in. In addition to countless bands and side projects and zines and drawings and paintings and writings...OFF DA PIGS was a neighborhood band that shouldn't have existed...Matty Luv (HICKEY, FUCKBOYZ, YOGURT) on guitar, Captain Norlon (FAGGZ) on bass, Scottzy (FAGGZ, IDIOTS, FUCKFACE/ARTIMUS PYLE) - everyone was friends and everyone partied together, so why not rock together? But the music was something like the sum of those parts recreated as an adult funk band with drug addled psych-by-way-of-Haight-Street guitars. It was weird, and made weirder by neighborhood dude Big Dog rapping over the whole thing, typically with a small posse of large men in tow. It didn't make any sense....and it was completely logical at the time. I guess maybe one way to casually acknowledge your position and privilege as a first wave gentrifier (arguably second or third wave) is to ask a local dude who grew up in the neighborhood to sing for your band and invite him over to get high, right? There was on 12" on Probe in 1998 that you can still snag for well under $5....you can hear Big Dog's vocals better on that recording than on this rehearsal tape, but I really feel like Norlon and Scottzy are in the pocket on these songs, and Matty is playing out of his mind leads. Plus, the third track could really just be a funky re-working of a HICKEY track, which is pretty cool.
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