Mentally Ill - Gacy's Place

'Gacy's Place'
Mentally Ill
1979

Review by Joey

Genre/s: Hardcore Punk, Punk
For Fans Of: The Crucifucks, Stains (LA), Tar Babies, Vile, basically weird and scummy punk

Okay, so I'm going to just come out and say it. This is hands down one of the best punk recordings of all time, and certainly one of the best that came out of the first wave of 70s bands.

That's pretty high praise, especially coming from someone like me who loves to dump on everything (maybe I can get a shot in on some lame band in this post), but it is definitely deserved. On "Gacy's Place," Mentally Ill combine the best elements of the scummiest, freakiest, bounciest, and most vile first wave punk, and channels them all into something truly sleazy and deranged; something which not only went unmatched when it came out in 1979, but also which has quite possibly gone unmatched even to this day.

So, who are the slimeballs responsible? Mentally Ill were a short lived band from Deerfield, Il and were associated with Chicago's punk scene. Apparently they never played live, but they released this 7" (and another which was meh) and then vanished. In the 90s they recorded with Steve Albini and released an unremarkable LP and then disappeared again. From what I've read, they didn't end up playing live until 2008 and occasionally do one off shows every so often.

None of that really matters though, what matters is that this record is pure punk rock smut. One thing that's always struck me about this recording (aside from the guitar tone which sounds as if something is broken) is the level of musicianship members of this band had, particularly the drummer. Oh, and the vocals are totally manic. And did I mention that the guitar sounds broken?

Well, that's enough of that. You just want to download this and chances are you've skipped the rest of this just to get to the fucking link. I get that, I've been there. But here's the part where I tell you the title of this post is kind of misleading. I'm not just posting the "Gacy's Place" EP, I'm also including the entire recording session from which the three songs on that EP were taken. So there you go.

Tracklisting:

'Gacy's Place'
1. Gacy's Place
2. Padded Cell
3. Tumor Boy

'Starbeat Sessions'
1. Gacy's Place
2. Tumor Boy
3. Doggie Sex
4. Not Quite Dead Yet
5. Padded Cell
6. Split Crotch Straight Jacket
7. All Mixed Up
8. Stalag Thirteen

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