It’s confusing as to why folks persist in celebrating group’s like Dinosaur Jr. and the Butthole Surfers. Stripping away the most noisome elements of any song penned by either group, you’re left with nothing other than middle of the road hard rock. Of course, each song has that noisy element. And while an occasional excursion into noise for art’s sake is a laudable endeavor, it’s really not enough to formulate a band around. Yet, even the reconstituted formations of group’s like these continue to pull in new fans and a good deal of loot to boot.

But Dino Jr. and the B Surfers, along with Sonic Youth can’t be said to be too much more than the logical extension to the gains made by the punk crowd during the years just prior to the formation of these groups. What’s interesting, though, is that Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label, continuing on in varied forms over the last few decades, had a part in issuing a spate of forgettable works during the eighties. Just like SST, this latter imprint, perhaps, fairing a bit better.

Either way, one of the culprits disseminating rock music somewhere between punk and plain rock stuffs was Das Damen. Yeah, in German in means the women, apparently. With its sound coming somewhere between all the aforementioned bands and whatever would soon become the norm in Seattle, the band issued a good number of discs during the eighties. Something like five long players were released in that time. But the tandem of Jupiter Eye and its follow up Triskaidekaphobe are generally considered the group’s crowning achievements. There might be a note worthy tune or two on each, but really, those efforts wind up sounding like people waiting for Pear Jam’s noisier cousin – or Saccharine Trust to write a pop song.

There’s noting god awful about Jupiter Eye, apart from its art work. But spinning out tracks to the five minute mark without any good justification is nothing but overkill and indulgence. The band always had a taste for a bit of psychedelia – its guitar solos are ample proof and frequently pretty interesting to listen to. The instrumental “Quarter After Eight” includes a few of those, but mostly concerns itself with the nexus of melodic Brit punk and a strikingly strong sense of rhythm.

Triskaidekaphobe, generally considered the stronger effort of the two, offers up only inconsistent thrills and doesn’t include anything as engaging as “Quarter After Eight.” So while Das Damen was appreciated by the right people at the right time, it’s inability to write a catchy tune devoid of hard rock cheese relegated it to being another forgotten band that issued work on a few forgotten labels.