Duh - “Spaghetti and Red Wine” from 1991’s Blowhard.

Sub Pop may have had Tad, Nirvana, Mudhoney, and many other sludgey sounding rock bands.

Amphetamine Reptile in Minneapolis was fierce competition, having Helmet, Cows, Hammerhead, Halo Of Flies, etc.

Then there was Boner Records in the California Bay Area, having Melvins, Steel Pole Bathtub, Plainfield, Star Pimp, and the all-star Boner Records band, Duh.

This lineup of the band only released one album called Blowhard. It’s all incredibly silly and thick with nauseous guitars, an effluent bass sound, and an inebriated (or seemingly so) lead singer. Duh would have made all members of Flipper proud.

Then things got strange. I refuse to refer to the facts when referring to the legend of Duh, because the retold version is far, far more entertaining than what is likely the more boring truth. Here goes..

So, Alternative Tentacles, the highly influential independent label in San Francisco, had a series of releases in the early 90s that were collaborations with its captain Jello Biafra. There was the Jello Biafra & D.O.A. album, there was the Jello Biafra & Mojo Nixon album, the Jello Biafra vs. NoMeansNo album, Tumor Circus aka Jello Biafra with Steel Pool Bathtub. Outside Alternative Tentacles, Jello led the Ministry-related Lard.  Perhaps as way to tell the world “Hey, I’m still around” after the exhausting 1987 Dead Kennedys lawsuit, Jello went on a collaboration marathon. A lot of fun records resulted from it. Unsurprisingly, some people sought some satire at Jello’s expense for what may have come across as a vanity marathon.

Without much ado, circa 1992, a Jello Biafra & Plainfield collaboration came out. No surprise. This was just another in the series on Alternative Tentacles.

Except it wasn’t an Alternative Tentacles release. It wasn’t even Jello Biafra on this Jello Biafra & Plainfield album. It was a poor imitator on the phone making fun of Jello’s voice over a bunch of Plainfield outtakes.  Apparently, Plainfield had approached Jello on doing a funny collaboration album. Jello politely declined. So Plainfield and Boner Records crew decided to pull a prank, and put out a completely fake Alternative Tentacles “Jello Biafra with” release. The liner notes were even more over the top, containing fake testimonials from “Jello” commenting on the inspiration of the lyrics on each song. “I was really far out on this one” was a paraphrased example of these abstracts.

That wasn’t the end. Alternative Tentacles wanted some fun too.  Years after Duh’s Blowhard was released, without much ado, a second Duh album was released on Alternative Tentacles records.. The Unholy Handjob. The cover art looked very consistent with the first Duh album, and it had an incredible(y hilarious) album title. The members of the band were practically anonymous, with only the grossest Photoshop effects applied to their insert picture.

Compared to Blowhard, The Unholy Handjob had no musical similarity whatsoever, besides being loud rock music. The hundreds of fans of the first record (apologies if I’m understating the Duh fanbase) must have been horrified or disappointed in this record. What the hell happened to Duh?

Well, Alternative Tentacles decided to create their own version of Duh as vengeance for the Jello Biafra & Plainfield prank. Hence The Unholy Handjob.

Ultimately, the score is even. And I gather this was all fun & games between two great Bay Area labels, as it all should be.