Janitor Joe was Joachim Breuer of Bastards follow-up band. Janitor Joe aren't a whole lot different than Bastards. Just better writing, better guitar playing and just overall more focused than Bastards. Unfortunately this band may be most well known because of bass player Kristen Pfaff's tragic death more than anything else. Kristen joined Hole after this album and played bass on Hole's Live Through This. As the story goes, she apparently quit Hole and the night before she was going to move back to Minneapolis to return to Janitor Joe she died of a heroine overdose. Her body was discovered by Paul Erickson of Hammerhead. Her contributions to Janitor Joe were missed in the bands inferior follow-up Lucky. Big Metal Birds is an essential Amphetamine Reptile Records release. Every bit as good as Helmet's Strap It On or Cows Cunning Stunts if you ask me. Maybe better.
Fantastic record. I just realized that Kristen Pfaff was 27 when she died too. What is it with that age?
ReplyDeleteThe curse of 27... Always seems like a strange coincidence with musicians doesn't it?
ReplyDeletePeople in general tend to freak out around that age, they call it Saturn's return or something. 30 approaching, loss of youth, sense of mortality, all that good stuff.
ReplyDeleteYou could try amazon japan for the albums?
Numerologists say 2+7=9, which is the end, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely one of the best Amrep records of all time. Boys in Blue alone is worth the price of admission. Thankfully, I still have my vinyl copy, but it's nice to have a digital one. Thanks for uploading!
thanks so much for this post, man.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a tape with janitor joe on the a side and chokebore on the b side.
let´s see how this works