POKE IT WITH A STICK

Poke it with a Stick-the only record by Louisville legends Your
Food-is a sui generis gem of the American underground, now faithfully
reissued for the first time by Drag City. Recorded in 1983 by four scarecrows
from Kentucky subsisting largely on cheap beer and baked beans,
the album is a burbling burgoo of hypnotic rhythm, uncoiling tension,
and sharp invective-a proud bastard of post-punk royalty.
Slint drummer Britt Walford remembers seeing Your Food at age 11:
"You knew you were in the presence of something powerful whenever
they played. Their sound was open and catatonic. Cathartic. You recognized
it right away. A lot of it was based on the bass, which was cool,
and the drums were expressive, too. Like the bass, they were simple,
but odd and insistent. The guitar was angular and somehow just as
present as the bass and drums, which seemed like the center. Doug's
singing went right along with it. He was mocking and smart, then
bare and vulnerable, without being vulnerable."