Anal Cunt

The arguably still undefeated champions of offensive band names, Newton, MA's Anal Cunt (A.c., as we will refer to them henceforth) was, not surprisingly, originally started as a joke in 1988 by vocalist Seth Putnam. Aided and abetted by Earache Records (who recognized a good gimmick when they saw one and released the group's demos as EPs in the late '80s), A.c. succeeded in giving hardcore, grindcore, and noisecore bad names before tiring of their own gag and mercifully breaking up in 1989. But the undeniable shock appeal of their moniker would lead to a re-formation by 1991, after which Putnam gradually became more serious about the quality of A.c.'s material, while surrounding himself with increasingly better musicians for further Earache releases such as Morbid Florist (1993), Everyone Should Be Killed (1994), and Top 40 Hits (1995) -- most of which were supported with U.S. and European tours, no less. Putnam has carried on dissolving and re-forming A.c. (presumably whenever the lure of easy cash was too difficult to resist) with countless sidemen through to the end of the 1990s and into the new millennium, but if album titles like 40 More Reasons To Hate Us (1996) and It Just Gets Worse (1999) are any indication, at least he remains forthright about his ruse. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide