Poke It With A Stick

Poke it with a Stick - the only record by Louisville legends Your Food - is a sui generis gem of the American underground, now faithfully reissued for the first time by Drag City. Recorded in 1983 by four scarecrows from Kentucky subsisting largely on cheap beer and baked beans, the album is a burbling burgoo of hypnotic rhythm, uncoiling tension, and sharp invective - a proud bastard of post-punk royalty.

In the fall of 1981, the residents of 1069, Louisville's original punk house, began to spy two teenagers lurking outside the decrepit environs. Eventually the teens grew bold enough to approach, and soon John Bailey and Wolf Knapp, were learning guitar and bass in the trashed rehearsal space within. Charles Schultz, who had been the drummer for Louisville's recently defunct Dickbrains (a band described by the Village Voice as freaky weirdos who couldn't fit in if they tried) started playing with John and Wolf. Douglas Maxson, the Dickbrains male singer, was lured back from New York with the promise of beer and cigarettes, and soon Your Food was playing weekly shows at the local Beat Club, mostly for free beer.