R.I.P. Jason Rainey. 1967-2020.

With cover art by Pushead, the band's 2nd album was the beginning of their crossover music shift that saw post-thrash, speed & hardcore meshing with burgeoning groove. Along with alternating lead vocals & thunderous drumming, BTD's underrated streamlined sound of rythmic riffing and the brashness of their stop-start schizophrenic time-changes also incorporated sparse elements of nihilistic noisy dissonance & industrial plodding. With the album's 3 singles and 2 official videos, the New York power trio would find themselves sandwiched inbetween grunge & metal and even snubbed by both who called them pedestrian and/or hit-and-miss mediocre (ironically inspite of rotation on MTV's Headbanger's Ball and with the decade's observation of listening tastes expanding personal musical horizons) but this was a unique surgically clean approach with melodic density more perfectly fitting beside HELMET, VOIVOD and PANTERA before their later mechanic albums that followed. Happy 30th Anniversary.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of TABOO (1980) opening in XXX theaters. This was the first hardcore franchise to penetrate the inc*** fetish, and written by a woman, its sex scenes have a surprisingly softer edge as opposed to a darker tone given what the subject matter invokes. TABOO gave new meaning to sayings "charity begins at home" and "motherfucker" as well as their just desserts by putting an erotic, kinky spin on the "keep it in the family" branch of imagining what it looked like doing it with one's own flesh n' blood. Barbara is a gentle mom whose husband has dumped her for a younger lady. Mistreated at work and tired of lecherous grabby dates, and further put off by swingers at an orgy (suggested by her pervy female friend), she gives in to her mutual encounters with licentious 19yr old son Paul. Judging by present norms, such real activity might not be something the current majority of a general public engages in but the voyeurism for a topic deemed unacceptable in society nevertheless grabbed huge lusty interest. Kay Parker said she really related to the vulnerable character who was wrestling with guilt & shame from her actions born out of confusion, frustration, attraction, horniness and passion. And the same sensuality would be found with her different role in PRIVATE TEACHER (1983). Inspite of its controversial theme, TABOO was no one-off, and still one of the most popular 1980s' xxx titles (constantly in top 10 lists of that decade), it went on to spawn a whopping 22 sequels with the last in 2007.

Happy Birthday to BRIDGETTE MONET