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Seth Putnam of Anal Cunt should technically go down in the history of world culture as a pioneer. The music he made... had to be made. It has to exist. The racism, homophobia, woman hating, people hating lyrics found in his poetry had to be written, and set to this exact sort of music. The universe perversely demanded it to balance out its extremes, and Seth Putnam was there to satisfy the whisperings (or indecipherable shriekings) of this muse. Seth Putnam was a sociopath of some kind, sure, but despite his supposedly genuine hatred of humanity, he still set the worst notions one can dream of to the worst music imaginable. That says something to me. If he set his twisted lyrics to listenable, catchy, or even beautiful music, then it'd be easier to dismiss him as an evil human being. But because the ugliness of his words match the wretched ugliness of the sound he produces, it gives the effect of him being..well... an honest musician. It's like he's an extreme chameleon, just blithely matching his words and music on instinct, and that's exactly what he does on Picnic of Love. It's the work that proves he had aspects of artistic genius. The music on this record is dandy folk, but instead of spewing his typical hate poetry as one might expect, his words just blend perfectly with the atmosphere, all without sacrificing his extreme wordplay. It'd be one thing if he had generic folk pop lyrics, but the lyrics on Picnic of Love are anything but. They're the work of somebody with an incredibly vivid imagination who had the ability to translate it into needlepoint comedy. It's a record that justifies his entire catalog, and the man himself. It doesn't matter if he really was a horrible human being who hated everybody and really wished ill will on all people, because artistically, he proved his point through the consistency and truthfulness of his aim. The unique wit displayed on this record allows you to appreciate the lyrics of his most abominable songs, because beyond their obvious horribleness, lies hilariously cutting word play. I know I've just described the typical avaunt gaurd argument for Anal Cunt's existence that's been repeated a thousand times, and I know its the argument the band has personally disavowed and hated, but the passing of Seth Putnam genuinely made me sad. When I was 16 and first heard them in my friends basement, we couldn't stop laughing because we never heard music like this. First he played me their grindcore stuff, and then played me tracks from Picnic of Love; it was just the perfect punchline. I've never needed to ever listen to them since because, honestly, what's there to listen to, but I never forgot how much fun I had that day, and the strange perspective it gave me on the infinity of music that exists.
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