Don’t Know – Chili With Beans

Don’t Know
Chili With Beans
1994 Morphine Records
Seattle, Washington, USA

Dan Henry – Vocals
Ed Carrigan – Guitar, BGV
Paul Henry – Bass, BGV
Matt Johnson – Tubs, plates

Downside:

1. Too Much to Think
2. Find Time
3. 50 Pound Bible
4. Jeffries Makin’ Breakfast

Upside:

1. Complacent Tea
2. Power Tool Pete
3. I Buy Rug

This suddenly appeared on BandCamp, and even though I own the tape itself, I decided to grab it because the sound quality was better than my tape rip. Don’t Know was a funk/punk/spazzcore band from the Seattle are with ties to Blenderhead (several members were in both bands). But I believe Don’t Know was the first band of the two. As you can tell by the song titles, a sense of humor was a major component of this band. This was actually their second release – Fearless Donkey Records released a tape called Pre-Release Advance Cassette in 1993 that had earlier versions of “Too Much to Think,” “50 Pound Bible,” and “Complacent Tea.” The other song on that tape was “Big Bang Recipe,” which was included on the Songs From the Rain Factory compilation from Fearless Donkey. This tape is sometimes called “For Great Homemade Chili, Turn Here” because that is written on the spine. The band obviously meant for it to be called Chili With Beans. After this, the band signed with Tooth & Nail Records and released Coodly P. Ramaswami Memorial Cheesecake in 1995. “50 Pound Bible” was also re-recorded for that release, but was only included on the cassette version in place of “Josh’s Ditty.” The only thing missing from the BandCamp download is a short outro that is basically a clip from Airplane – probably left off either due to language or copyright concerns.