Excavation: 1995-1998

2004's Excavation: 1995-1998 is a two-disc set collecting various out of print releases from Florida's ultraquirky Cream Abdul Babar. Long-winded of name, but relatively short of lifespan, the Tallahassee natives injected an unusually goofy sense of humor (see their name, for starters) into that state's thriving post-hardcore, post-metal, post-sludge (heck, post-everything!) scenes — none of which they could be safely pigeonholed into, actually. That's to their credit, but although certainly solid and entertaining in many ways (songs like "Splashing in Afterbirth" and "Jennifer Aniston's Pussy" come immediately to mind), their first album, The Backwater of Masculine Ethics (originally issued in 1997 and featured here in its entirety), falls somewhat short of a groundbreaking achievement. Disc two of Excavation combines three tracks from 1998's decidedly rougher Buried in Broken Glass EP, with two songs originally featured on a 1996 split 7" with even more strangely named colleagues I Guard the Sheep, and two additional versions — one live, one remixed — of fan favorite "Dirty Minutes." In short, this is a very handy release for devoted Cream Abdul Babar fans looking to replace those deleted items in their discography — more of a curiosity for fans of nontraditional punk and metal.