I grew up in Germany during the mid to late 80's when the almighty dollar could buy you records on the German economy at about $5/apiece, so we were more experimental with what we listened to.

This rekkid was an example of one of the gems we found during that time. To us, it was kind of like watching a horror movie. The music and lyrics are creepy. When I went into college, though, I made a tape of this for a friend and told her "This is the most innovative record since Sgt. Peppers!" I realize now that was a little over the top, but I really enjoyed this album that much.

The lyrics are just plain fantastic on this album. When I worked in NC, there was an elevator at my facility where someone had written "In God We Trust" above the doors on the first floor. I was always tempted to put "In Cars We Rust" below it. The above mentioned song starts out with "I'm on a cross looking down." So you know that ASF is coming out swinging on this one.

While every song is a hit, my personal favorite is "Breakdown and Cry, Lay Down and Die, Goodbye." After working a factory job all day during the summer months between college semesters, I used to come home, turn the ceiling fan on, turn the lights out and just veg to this tune. The lyrics make absolutely no sense, yet paint colorful pictures: My cigarette burns yellow and then it burns blue/I'm heading due south was it blanks we fired at you? Downtown Saturday, uptown Monday morning/ The telephone rings it leaves me yawning/This ain't no show, this is for real/The candles all burn for you love and just for you while the ceiling goes round and round and round and round for me/Lights out, shall we go to sleep? Is this just a show? Is this just a dream?

The hit, if any, on this album, would have been "E.S.T. (Trip to the Moon)." It would have fit nicely on the radio with all the other great 80's music that was going on back then.

Anyway, if you like music made with great synthesizers, rocking guitars, and proper drum machines, load up with "Acid Bath." You won't be disappointed.


My Favorite ASF Album   March 26, 2008
This was the first ASF album I ever heard, probably around the time Maximum Security was originally released. It was on vinyl and a CD release would be years away. A girlfriend played it for me and I was immediately taken in. It was the first album I heard that bridged the gap between New Wave and Punk successfully, in my opinion.

I found my own copy at a local record store. After listening to my own copy the first time through, something was different. Side two had a different track listing. The brief "Smoke My Bones" lead the side, but "Boneshaker Baby" (a nod to the Cramps) was missing. Some of the songs were mixed differently, like "Dead & Re-Buried" instead of "Dead & Buried."

Indeed, there were different pressings of this album, with changes to the cover art. The CD straddles the both of them.

Another funny thing about the recording is that it almost never sounds the same twice. ASF put so much weird stuff in the mix that you hear things you didn't catch before.

As an album, it has a good flow to it. It almost demands to be listened to from start to end. The opener "In God We Trust (In Cars You Rust)" comes out of the starting gate at a good pace. "Dead & Re-Buried" maintains that pace, and ASF's bizarre humor. "She's a Killer" is pretty scary and so is the strange "Hee-Haw (Here Come the Bone People)" -pay no attention to `bone xylophone' sound. "Smoke My Bones" is almost like short reprise of "Boneshaker Baby" -what gives with all this stuff about bones- the leads into the bad trip depression of "Breakdown and Cry (Lay Down and Die, Goodbye)" and "E.S.T. (Trip to the Moon)" (that means electro-shock therapy, craze). The pace picks-up again with the ever rocking "Attack!!!!!! #2" and the rockabilly madness of "Boneshaker Baby" (did I mention the Cramps). The remaining tracks are b-sides from some previous 12" singles, now long out of print. "I Am a Product" is a live version of a slow track from the previous album "Who's Been Sleeping In My Brain?" and "30 Second Coma" may just as well be 30 seconds long.

This album shouldn't be played around people with emotional problems or subject to hallucinations. The title seems to refer to the psychedelic quality of the recordings there-in. Definitely, bottled insanity along the lines of the [...] Surfer's "Rembrandt Pussyhorse" or Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's "Trout Mask Replica."

Unfortunately, I don't think ASF ever got the recognition they deserved.