Simply figuring out what incarnation of Caroliner one is having assault ear drums is difficult enough. Making it all the way through a recording is even more difficult, though.

As a latter day member of LAFMS, Caroliner doesn’t possess some of the traits common with better known groups from the collective. For instance, while there is a sense of repetition amidst the various compositions making up any long player from the group, there’s no semblance of a kraut influence. That, of course, doesn’t have any bearing on Caroliner’s membership (that’s probably not the right temr) in LAFMS, but it does set them apart.

But so too does the mythology behind the band.

Supposedly, Caroliner was a 19^th century bull who wrote and performed original music. Right. The family that owned the bull, upon its death, ate the animal and was granted the catalog of songs in its memory. That can’t have been worth of. Of course, though, none of that happened, but it’s a wacky ass story to base a group on.

Regardless of the back story, Caroliner might count as the least listenable group affiliated with LAFMS. Music like this still requires a good deal of talent – Beefheart’s Magic Band, for instance, wielded considerably dexterity. Caroliner, has that atop of its monumental weirdness.

Contrasting views place Rear End Hernia Puppet Show’s release date in either ’85 or ’86. But that’s just peanuts. In whatever year, Caroliner was weirder than everything else that was recorded.

What’s least (or most?) engaging about the band is its singer’s strangulated hollers, apparently shared with the microphone on occasion through a fan. If one’s able to palette those vocals, the narcotic drawl to the bands music – when it’s not reaching for a weird almost thrash as on “Joy Disease” – is nothing but enticing.

The band’s decision to use a swinging rock thing as its musical basis – not country, although, that’s mentioned in countless other reviews detailing releases apart from this one – is really the only enticing thing here. Well, if not working with digital artifacts, the actual records are reportedly all hand made, some doused with garbage, some accompanied by odd, tossed off singles from the sixties.

So while, I personally, won’t be revisiting the Caroliner catalog, it seems that band members were able to conceive of a multi-media art project that attempted to bridge aural story telling, avant musics and visual art. Not bad for second rate LAFMSers.