Anal Trump Release The First 100 Songs on Election Day 2018 via Joyful Noise; Decibel Talks with Rob Trump, Previews Music ​ 

Oct. 31, 2018, San Diego – Anal Trump, the San Diego-based “niche grindcore” (San Diego City Beat) outfit featuring Rob and Travis Trump, release The First 100 Songs via Joyful Noise Recordings on Election Day (Nov. 6).

Rob Trump spoke with Decibel Magazine (https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2018/10/31/track-premiere-interview-anal-trump-on-the-first-100-songs/) about the upcoming release, and offered a preview of the new tracks, saying “protest music is boring and usually created by folks that actually want people to pay attention to THEM instead of the problem. That’s why I created this thing from the point of view of the asshole…” There’s an obvious deferential tone to Anal Trump’s grindcore roots and satirical song titles, nodding heavily in the direction of forerunners Anal Cunt and that outfit’s founder, Seth Putnam.

The First 100 Songs was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Rob Trump, with the album boasting a hundred songs in eleven minutes. The pair previously released seven EPs via Bandcamp, including That Makes Me Smart! and Make America Say Merry Christmas Again, donating 100% of the proceeds from those EPs to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and RAINN. The First 100 Songs includes those previously released EPs as well as an additional 30 songs. Tracks include titles coined by the man himself including “I Like The Soldiers Who DON’T Get Captured” to creative interpretations such as “My Cabinet Is Nuanced As Shit” and onward to Putnam-esque bon mots like “Renewable Resources Are Gay”, there’s a smorgasbord of Trumpiliciousness! According to Rob, their material has a universal appeal: “One of the things about this stuff is that, since most of it is taken right from his mouth or ideology, a Trumpster should be fine with it as much as a Bernie person would enjoy laughing at it. It’s just a mirror and that, in itself, is terrifying.”

The true identities of Rob and Travis Trump remain shrouded in mystery. Are they the unwanted bastard children of the Philanderer-in-Chief? Regular citizens transformed into angry mutants by the deluge of toxic waste spewing from the 45^th President’s mouth? Or simply two dudes from high-profile San Diego musical acts who decided to pay tribute to grindcore pioneers Anal Cunt through the words of a man who embodies that band’s name? Whatever the origin of these mystery men, they found only one way to deal with the insanity happening in the political world: they became Anal Trump. As Rob puts it, “Protest music is boring, and once I got the idea, the potential seemed bottomless.”

Anal Trump come from a rich tradition of politically-motivated extreme music. Grindcore’s origins date back to Margaret Thatcher’s Britain when a collective of teenage anarcho-punks decided to call themselves Napalm Death and throw thrash metal and hardcore punk in a blender set to “loudest” and “fastest.” Featuring songs as short as one second long and angry anti-corporate, anti-fascist messages, Napalm Death were the perfect marriage of subject and sound. Anal Cunt (commonly known as A.C. and AxCx), formed by the late Seth Putnam in 1988, took grind to the next level by reducing it to the lowest common denominator.

A.C. pushed the boundaries of good taste, from their music (which often resembled nothing of the sort) to their logo (which resembled the orifices in their name) to juvenile song titles like “Hitler was a Sensitive Man,” “I Lit Your Baby on Fire,” and “Recycling is Gay.” It’s long been a source of debate whether they were serious or just being offensive for the shock value. Rob feels their appeal lies in that gray area. “They took hate so far beyond everything that all meaning seemed to invert at some point and back again so often that it became impossible to take seriously.” Whatever the intent, they succeeded in horrifying parents everywhere. Anal Trump have one distinct advantage over Seth Putnam’s trailblazing act: whereas Putnam and his collaborators had to come up with their own sleazy subject matter, Rob and Travis have a ready-made supply of parent-offending quotes straight from the Oval Office.

The First 100 Songs pays tribute to classic AxCx album titles like The 110 Song CD and 5643 Song EP. Produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Rob Trump, this boasts a hundred songs in eleven minutes — their entire recorded output to date. From 2016’s pre-election That Makes Me Smart! EP all the way through the newer material contained in Thoughts, Prayers, and The Golden Age of Willful Ignorance, this truly exhaustive overview covers all the bases. With songs based on actual quotes by the man (“I Like The Soldiers Who DON’T Get Captured”) to creative interpretations (“My Cabinet Is Nuanced As Shit”) to Putnam-esque bon mots (“Renewable Resources Are Gay”), there’s a smorgasbord of Trumpiliciousness! According to Rob, their material has a universal appeal: “One of the things about this stuff is that, since most of it is taken right from his mouth or ideology, a Trumpster should be fine with it as much as a Bernie person would enjoy laughing at it. It’s just a mirror and that, in itself, is terrifying.”

Rob and Travis Trump aren’t gonna fill your ears with talk of universal healthcare or equal voting rights or any of that socialist stuff — although they donated 100% of the proceeds from their EPs to non-profit organizations like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. They just want to point out that the most powerful man in the world is a hate-mongering clown, using shrieks and micro-riffs as their chosen vehicle. Anal Trump will soon take this show on the road with help from Justin Trump on bass and John Putin on drums, but as for their future plans? “I just want this ugly chapter of human history to finally be over.”