The USELESS EATERS are approachable through the fuzzed-filter on the record that barely touches thirteen minutes. Opening with a strange arrangement of unclear horns and bass combinations, “Temporary Mutilation” then becomes vivid with the cheerful cling and bounce of xylophone-esque concert bells that add this odd sense of childlike wonder to the sound. The guitars and vocals which are played by Seth Sutton have him describing the mundane 9-5 workings of a draining job, “Clock in, clock out, show me what you gotta do. Clock in, knocked out.”
With a lower-quality recording sound, TEMPORARY MUTILATIONfeels personal and a bit closer, almost as if the band is setting up somewhere for a house show in the basement rather than rocking an arena stage. This could be partially from Kelley Stoltz who was the recording producer for the USELESS EATERS and manipulator of the final sound. It was his over-branching style and ability to form these engaged but shifting entities into one giant continuous mix where the sound is not as close to crisp as it is to relatable.
Hearing the bass rumble and the percussion in a blitz on “Car Accident Face,” the track is a much different transition and more of a forward, head-on approach. Creating some chaos behind the sound, USELESS EATERS take the nihilistic lyrics of “I can’t be bothered, I won’t be bothered” to coincide with the more punk styled instrumentation.
Rounding out the sound in a full whirlwind of experimentalism and progressive side, TEMPORARY MUTILATION is one of the records that has a shape-shifting styles. It works in tandem to the tone of the band and of punk influences, but still feels approachable enough to be well-rounded in sound.