Rubber 0 Cement, "Butyl RNA World, Solid City State, Ratar Toilet Seat Cover" dvd-r (Brutal Sound Effects, 2007)

Rubber 0 Cement, Butyl RNA World, Solid City State, Ratar Toilet Seat Cover dvd-r
(Brutal Sound Effects, 2007)

For more than a decade, the costumed noise anomaly known as Rubber 0 Cement has been the mutant poster child of the San Francisco Bay Area's bizarro music community. In that time, Rubber 0 Cement has toured Europe, Japan, and the USA as the Bay Area's freaked-out flagship act, having shared the stage with such acts as: Wolf Eyes, Nautical Almanac, Boredoms, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Smegma, Speculum Fight, Comets on Fire, Karla LaVey, and many more. What do I actually know about Rubber 0 Cement? Not much. Never having seen a Rubber 0 Cement performance, Butyl RNA World, Solid City State, Ratar Toilet Seat Cover is my only window into the crazed sonic terrorism this creature cooks up in a live setting. And just what in tarnation is that seven-foot tall 'instrument' he beats, smashes against the ground, swings through the air, and somehow amidst all the commotion, plays? Answers are pending.

Personally, I enjoy the pungent air of mystery (watch out: could be Agent Orange) surrounding Rubber 0 Cement and the Brutal Sound Effects community at large, which is somewhat reminiscent of the Theory of Obscurity once beheld by another notable Bay Area act, The Residents. Besides, in this hyper-modern era of ultra passivity via high-speed multi-media supersaturation, I savor the challenge of having to actively seek out, and possibly personally contact artists to gain even the slightest shred of information or copy of their work, as opposed to just passively filling up my Amazon.com basket and learning everything I never needed to know about (insert obscure artist here) on AllMusicGuide.com. In any case, what I do know is that Rubber 0 Cement churns out, spits on, and bleeds some of the most weirdly addictive electronic noise to ever blURP, squiggle, and SCREECH within range of my cartilage sound-catchers.

Initially, it seemed to appear as if Butyl RNA World, Solid City State, Ratar Toilet Seat Cover was the most professionally packaged thing I'd ever received from the Brutal Sound Effects label. Most, if not all of their releases have come to me ornately wrapped in what looks like physics homework, plastered with hand-made art, and tightly tucked within magazines or comic books, whereas this dvd seemed pretty normal. At least, until I opened the package to discover on the inside cover that the dvd case had been recycled from a Wicked Pictures porno, which was just as cool finding my copy of 'Melancholy Petri Muse Si-Si-Si' stuck inside a Green Arrow comic. Seeing that reconstituted corporate dvd case made my day before I even popped the disc into my dvd player, so kudos to Rubber 0 Cement for yet another example of creative recycling! Bubbling over with anticipation, my excitement level peaked when I discovered, sandwiched in between a Brutal Sound Effects festival flyer, a pair of *Gasp cardboard 3-D glasses tucked within the inside cover. A Rubber 0 Cement dvd in 3-D! I'd say "sign me up!", but I already bought the thing! Before even viewing a split-second of the total visual meltdown to cum, I knew that Butyl RNA World, Solid City State, Ratar Toilet Seat Cover really was, as Brutal Sound Effects described it, "the best noise deal out t/here (sic) right now!!"

The disc's menu, like every piece art adorning a hand-packaged Rubber 0 Cement release, is a Bonnie Banks (correct me if I'm wrong) drawn barrage of inscrutable graphics and brazen colour: bio-mechanical Cthuluoid horrors infecting amplifier deities, electronic bat-skull brains, pulsating organ detritus, all emblazoned in brain-frying neon. As soon as the title menu appeared before me, a sharp screech of burning lazer ecstasy had me scrambling for the remote as my eyes vainly attempted to make some sense out of the menu. There are no titles to speak of, save for the trademark Rubber 0 Cement logo flickering on the top of the screen, and three numbered circles along the bottom. Clicking on the 0 (or, the tire graphic) in between Rubber Cement plays the entire dvd in full, and after viewing the entire disc, I realized that the three numbered circles on the title menu divide up the disc into its three major arcs. Digging deep into the discs many multi-tiered menus reveals plenty of awesome eyesore secrets to be discovered by the intrepid viewer; one of my favorites being the menu screen that allows you to select several clips set to loop indefinitely for "insta-insanity."

Rubber 0 Cement's Butyl RNA World, Solid City State, Ratar Toilet Seat Cover features 22 chapters of 3-D monster madness, obtained from live performances "and scenarios" reaching as far back as 1999. While I wasn't checking my watch, I figure that this baby is loaded with well over an hour of Nasa-D face-melting noise. It's 0bvious that Rubber 0 Cement and those wonderful mutants at Brutal Sound Effects put a lot of effort and care into making this an absolute must-have for even the casual noise fan's dvd collection. Butyl RNA World, Solid City State, Ratar Toilet Seat Cover is a radioactive treasure, and easily ranks as my favorite Rubber 0 Cement release yet.