Cornpone Release Final Recordings
Music available on trio of split 7-inch singles with friends
Texas-based label Australian Cattle God Records has released previously unheard recordings from Texas noise-punk legends Cornpone alongside fellow Austin rock bands Suckling, Pocket Fishermen and Ed Hall.
Recorded at Sweatbox Studio between late 1996 and early 1997, the sessions capture Cornpone at the height of their powers, which were cut short following the sudden death of their guitarist David “Spanky” Morrow.
“Cornpone was more than just a band to me,” says original drummer Jared Brown, who helped found the band with the only other OG in the group’s final lineup, bassist Craig Merritt, who is also Jared’s cousin. “It was a lifestyle, a family, a creative outlet and a health risk. It augmented me into the odd person that I am today. I’m thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to subject the public to this mayhem. May God have mercy on your soul.”
Guitarist Anthony Pedone, meanwhile, offers us a deeper dive into how these final recordings came together and the nearly 30 years that have transpired since they were first put to tape.
“In 96/97 we and many of our friends and fellow bands in Austin were at the height of their arcs creatively, and also at the lowest in their health and wellness,” Pedone tells Rock & Roll Globe. “Lots of stuff evaporated. Grunge had killed punk and thrash, which triggered a whole new level of reactionary intensity in the community creatively. Lots of cool music came out of the ’90s in Austin and the scene was so alive and vibrant and there was a lot of support coming from other bands that were feeling the same way. Many people were creating labels to support other local bands. You had Man’s Ruin, Trance Syndicate etc… and there were also studios like Mike and Bryan’s Sweatbox and Cris Burns of Pocket Fishermen had his spot and lots of the music was saved from then because of these guys.
“I joined Cornpone after they stole my amp. A band I was in at the time played with them at Mercado Caribe. After the show I had found out they had stolen it and showed up at 3a to retrieve it and ended up staying the night, and joined the band the following week, and moved in three months later. It was that kind of world.
“The house (they called it the Corn Pound) was full of cow bones, specifically spines and hip bones hanging from the ceiling, horror movie posters and fliers covered every inch of wall space, deer corn was spilled all over the floor in every room and there were lots of things in jars. There was a parasitic twin from a lab in Formaldehyde , as well as, a shark, a mouse, and pretty sure Coby had a bunch of toenails in a jar, too. Eventually those items all begin to reflect the state of us as well. They all were leaking the fluid out of them, and had to be tossed out.
“When I was released from prison in 2006. I had lost everything. I had no record of any of the music I had recorded with my bands, all of that stuff had been confiscated by the cops and destroyed. So in 2016 when I was first approached with one of the sets of master tapes, I went to work mixing it the best I could with the tools I had. It sucked (more precisely I sucked at using the tools), but it was nice to hear the music again. I moved on from it then because it also brought up a lot of regret and sadness around Spanky’s death — how we all handled it, or more specifically mishandled it.
“It got me thinking about lots of broken promises, but also brought me back to a time when Cornpone was our chosen family, and we lived and behaved like one. I also reflected a lot on how we all were incapable of handling the loss we had suffered when Spanky passed, and no one had the tools to keep the pone family together. We lost touch with each other, and all just buried his death in our brains, and moved on best we could. Through all this I was reminded that I had promised Spanky’s mom that if she gave me Spanky’s pawn slip for his Mesa Boogie I would get it out and sell it and release the record…..I didn’t. I sold the head and got high. I laid awake a lot in prison thinking about that.
“I wanted to finish what we started. I needed to honor my promise to Spanky’s mom to release the record, and I wanted to reconnect in a positive way with my band, and for us to be able to celebrate that time, and share it with the one’s that supported us despite our sicknesses. I was so grateful to learn as this began to catch momentum that there were so many people that remembered us and wanted to celebrate the concept, and share songs on these records with us.”
Formed in the late 1980s in Hewitt, Texas, Cornpone began as a garage project before evolving into one of Austin’s most unpredictable noise-punk acts, drawing inspiration from the raw energy of underground pioneers including Big Boys, Scratch Acid, The Dicks and Butthole Surfers. Through years of lineup changes and experimentation, the band’s defining lineup came together with Anthony Pedone (guitar, vocals), Craig Merritt (bass), David “Spanky” Morrow (guitar), Jarred Brown (drums), Coby Cardosa (drums, keys), and Jennie Armour (vocals).
Check out these singles, which serve as a preview of Cornpone’s upcoming full-length archival project called Cornpone’s Last Stand — a 20-song double LP mixed by Paul Leary and scheduled for release in spring 2027.
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