It’s been a long, long, long time since their heyday but anyone remotely familiar with TMT or, well, me, knows that Shearing Pinx were a huge part of my initial baptism into the tape underground. They used to zip those things out with alarming regularity, but they also saw the future through their cracked lenses and put out a lot of vinyl (not to mention CD-Rs, 7-inches, 10-inches, lathes; pretty much anything you can imagine) too. It’s tempting to think along the lines of, “Well, if ShxPx didn’t break through to the mainstream at all what was the point of their dozens of releases?” Well, for one, when you rule all kinds of ayse for so long, folks begin to take notice, such as James Fella, purveyor of fine vinyls in the form of Gilgongo Records. Like me, he’s a longtime Pinxist, and as a serious appreciator he’s taken on the challenge of keeping the memory of this gr(e)at(ing) band alive, starting with a split 7-inch with Soft Shoulder last year and continuing with Poison Hands, which originally was, get this, a DOUBLE 3-INCH CD-R on Not Not Fizzy back in 2006. Ahh, the format warz. Anyhoo, you should get a grip and rip this sucker to your mainframe before you, once again, miss out on the chance to get your brain sheared to a crisp. Poison Hands has everything one could want from a ShxPx project: Incisive riffing, active, fluid drumming, myriad breakdowns (and down-breaks), a schtickle of noise, and there you have it. Pissed Jeans, Das Oath, the SYR series, and a lot of other bands you probably haven’t learned enough about, factor in either as precedents or antecedents. Please don’t be afraid to learn the ways of the lung-scorchers…
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