NO TREND's "More" is the album the band originally submitted to Touch & Go as its follow-up album to "Tritonian Nash-Vegas Polyester Complex".
"More" was immediately rejected for not sounding anything like its predecessor & didn’t see the light of day for 14 years, when in 2001 Morphius saw fit to finally release it [as the launch of] its MORPHIUS ARCHIVES " imprint [which would go on to reissue the [Austrialian] X's critically acclaimed "At Home With You" album as well as reintroduce the world to the UK DIY art-punk band "The Homosexuals" with its co-release of their s/t album.
To say more about More would probably be redundant or at least difficult to say anything effectively beyond the exhaustive context given in Ugly Dwarf: The Story of No Trend BY MICHAEL H. LITTLE | APRIL 25, 2013.
Here is an excerpt of his incisive analysis of the band and this album.
"As for Mentges, he says in the More liner notes that the band didn’t intend for More to sound completely out of kilter compared to the band’s previous work: “I want to emphasize we didn’t intend it that way. It was a progression without effort. We did what came natural. If we’d only had a few chances after that, we could have been better appreciated. Unfortunately, we were cut short.”
More to its record company, Touch and Go. The execs at Touch and Go gave it one listen, returned it to the band holding it gingerly by the edges with their fingertips as if it were something unspeakable like a radioactive monkey head, and in effect told the band, “Won’t touch. Please go.”
Their reaction was understandable. Given No Trend’s previous record they must have expected strange, but this was madness; with songs including the bizarre funk-schlock pastiche “Last on Right, Second Row,” the inexplicable disco-funk romp “Spank Me (With Your Love Monkey, Baby),” and the utterly indescribable 17:53″ rock opera “No Hopus Opus,” More is the kind of album that causes dogs to howl. And I mean while it’s still in its sleeve.
And so appropriately ended, not with a bang but with one final confused scratch of the head, the career of No Trend, one of the most exasperating, brilliant, and willfully perverse bands ever to come out of the hardcore scene.
Ashton, MD.’s No Trend and its vocalist/resident genius Jeff Mentges (aka Jefferson Scott, aka Cliff “Babe” Ontego) engaged in one of the oddest, most nihilistic quests in the annals of modern music, or so it can be argued: namely, to systematically alienate, disaffect, and piss off its own fan base, one exasperated fan at a time. Plenty of musicians have taken stylistic left turns that left their fans befuddled and even angry, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who seemed to do so on purpose. {...}
More opens with a hilarious “Intro” by “Cliff Ontego, your friend, vocalist and host,” who in a friendly voice delivers such howlers as “It [More] falls into a category of music rarely heard–it’s called honest” and “While listening to this album your favorite chair gets softer, the hearth is warmer, and life and memories become much sweeter.” “Intro” is followed by the kickass ska-rock number “Fuzzy Dice” and “Sorry I Asked,” which starts out slow and sweet with a beautiful bells and trumpet passage only to take a rabid turn with a bitter Mentges singing “Just another grave to be filled/ Just another counterculture/ Just another waste of time.”
(Michael's history of the band continues at
www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/2013/04/ugly-dwarf-the-story-of-no-trend/ )
released April 1, 2001