Don't Bother Getting Your Hopes Up

I've been wanting to post the Humpy/Oheisvasara split for a while now, but first I couldn't find my copy, and then when I did find it, it turned out that I'd lost the sleeve for it a long time ago (which explains why it wasn't jumping out at me as I flipped through my 7"-er boxes for the millionth time). Then, as luck would have it, I went to Redscroll a couple of weeks ago and there was a spiffy-looking copy-- sleeve and all-- sitting in their used bin for a mere $2. See, it pays to leave the house every once in a while.

Missoula MT was a pretty happening scene back in the late '90s, with bands like Humpy and Honky Sausage (who later became Fireballs of Freedom -- they're great, check 'em out). My two favorite zines back in the '90s, Shat Upon and Inner Muscle, both came from the same town, Missoula. Shat Upon was written by Humpy's Rusty Smetanka, while Josh Vanek -- who now helms Wäntage Records out of the same P.O. box in Missoula -- was sort of the guy in charge at Inner Muscle. I guess Missoula had a decent-sized Finnish population, because they were always writing about Finnish stuff. One article in Shat Upon decribed the different ways that people in Finland would home-brew alcohol on the cheap (taking cans of frozen orange juice concentrate and just letting them ferment, for instance), as well as recounting a lot of the fringe-type eats that they had over there, like blood pancakes-- which to the unaware would look like big chocolate cookies, apparently-- and some sort of canned fish that was served rotten; you'd have to fill a sink with water and open the cans while they were submerged, otherwise the contents would explode all over the place.

No doubt this is one of my favorite splits ever, mostly for the Humpy side, which rages in a great early-'80s hardcore kinda way, sounding a lot like "Let's Barbecue"/"Wacky Hi-Jinks"-era A.O.D. (even more so on the self-titled EP that they recorded a few months afterward). Oheisvasara are from Finland, naturally, and their lyrics are listed in both Finnish and English. Humpy returns the favor by translating their lyrics over to Finnish also, as well as singing one original song in Finnish ("cuff me to your dick, fucking cop") and covering Terveet Kädet.

"Bardzo dobry krążek wydany w USA. Oheisvasara to dość znany zespół bo grali kiedyś w Polsce i wydali u nas kasetę w Czerwonym Diabełku- po prostu dobry surowy fiński czad w stylu lat 80-tych. Humpy ze stanu Montana to dla odmiany 4 Amerykanów zafascynowanych starym fińskim brzmieniem do tego stopnia, że mają nawet fińskie ksywki, grają cover Terveet Kadet i jeden swój kawałek śpiewają po fińsku. Plyta BDB (lekko trzeszczy), okładka BDB- (jest to xerówka więc z upływem lat nabrała lekkich zagięć); 9 kawałków, wkładka z textami po ang. i fińsku"




Humpy -

"Montana Plates"

"Victory Garden"

"Outo Maa"

Oheisvasara -

"Sijaiskärsijät"