THE LOCUST "Follow The Flock, Step In Shit"

“I Hung Around In Your Soundtrack” Part 39 by Justin Pearson

At some point, I had an idea to do something at the exact wrong time, when CDs were still relevant: to manufacture some of The Locust’s material that was released by Three One G on a digital format. There wasn’t a lot of Locust stuff affiliated with the label at the time, and since I paid for a session that was part of the out-of-print-and-probably-never-to-be-repressed split 5” picture disc with Jenny Piccolo. I figured it would be interesting to do a CD version of three of the songs that Three One G had the masters to. I also thought that since it was only a small amount of material, the logical thing would be to release a small CD. And what’s better than a small CD? A square one, I guess. So I looked into making Three One G’s first shaped CD, which seemed fitting for The Locust.

The main issue I faced was that there was a limit to the amount I had to manufacture and, well, I got duped. I still to this day have way too many of those damn CDs in storage, and I hope to someday be able to at least give them away. I love the packaging and even though people generally don’t care about CDs any more, and most can’t even play the square disc, it seems like an interesting artifact. I would certainly want to own one, like I own a Sex Pistols “Never Mind the Bollocks” 8-track (it’s just cool to have) — I just don’t want to own thousands of them, forever.

I was glad that the three songs were released on Three One G in both absurd formats. I think it was the formation of an aesthetic, which existed beyond just our musically artistic style. In my opinion, the session on this EP is the best material by the early incarnation of the band. “Red” is easily my favorite track of the three, and, in retrospect, seems to tie into the more recent Locust sounds that we were coming up with. Even with the lineup changes, it might have been a subconscious effort by the collective bunch of Locusts, or a natural progression from point A to point B and then back to A. Maybe it was more a parallel plane to where the band was going to eventually take itself, especially when considering what the departing Locusts over the years went on to do such as Tarantula Hawk, or even The Album Leaf.

Track Listing :
1. Follow The Flock, Step In Shit
2. Coffin Nails
3. Red