Tag: Goner Records

Categories
Music Music Features

Spray Paint Live at the Hi-Tone

Austin, Texas, noise rockers will celebrate the release of their new album Feel the Clamps this Monday night in the Hi-Tone’s small room. Goner Records is releasing the album, and the vinyl was pressed at Memphis Record Pressing, making Spray Paint one of the newest out-of-town bands to take advantage of the pressing plant. After releasing records on notable underground labels like S-S, Upset the Rhythm, Homeless Records, and Monofonus Press, the Austin three-piece took their talents to Goner Records, a label that has already had a killer year with their release of the Angry Angles compilation. The show will serve as a release show for Feel the Clamps and for a single featuring songs that didn’t make the album. If post punk or noise rock is your thing, Spray Paint are certainly worth the price of admission.

Spray Paint

Rounding out the bill is Aquarian Blood, another Goner Records band who have been working on their new album for most of the year. The band features members of many notable local groups, but almost all the tracks the band plays were cooked up by singer/guitarist JB Horrell in his home studio/practice space. Goner Records has been staying true to releasing some of the best garage/punk the city has to offer, and many will be happy to hear a new LP from Memphis powerhouse NOTS is also coming sometime this year. As for the Hi-Tone, the venue has a stacked calendar throughout the summer, including shows from bands like Every Time I Die, the Black Lips, Chain and the Gang, and Goner alumni Guitar Wolf. Get to the Hi-Tone by 9 p.m. on Monday and start your week off with some noisy punk from two bands in their prime. What could possibly go wrong?

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Angry Angles

This Music Video Monday is moving at a breakneck pace. 

The late king of Memphis garage rock Jay Reatard was notoriously prolific—even his side bands had side bands. He formed the Angry Angles in 2005 with his then-girlfriend, rocker/model/DJ Alix Brown, and Ryan Roussau of Phoenix, Arizona psych rockers Destruction Unit. On May 20, Goner Records will release a compilation album with 17 songs recorded during the band’s 2-year tender. This video for the first single, a previously unreleased version of “Things Are Moving”, is by New Orleans video artist 9ris 9ris. It was created by combining footage shot at a pair of Angry Angles live shows with various gifs and video loops. Check out the crunchy video feedback action! 

Music Video Monday: Angry Angles

If you would like to see your video featured on Music VIdeo Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Music Music Features

Record Store Day 2016

CREDIT: Chris Shaw

For Shangri-La Records, prepping for Saturday’s 9th annual Record Store Day means opening a few hours early.

“We said 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., but usually we open a little earlier because of the big line of people. As soon as we’re ready, we let them in. I think last year we opened at 8:30 a.m.,” Shrangri-La Records owner Jared McStay says.

Bolstering the lot of official Record Store Day titles Shangri-La plans to have on hand Saturday will be a major increase in the rest of the store’s stock of new vinyl.

“We’ve done a lot of other ordering and will have more new inventory than we’ve ever had,” explains McStay.

“We ordered direct from Sundazed, Matador Records, Merge Records, a few one-stops, and a cool import wholesale house, to name a few distributors. I’m making a big bet on Record Store Day this year, as we pretty much over-ordered, but it’s usually a good day. I don’t know if you’d call it a store-wide sale, per se, like our ‘Purgefest’, but we’ll also be putting out bins of good discount records that we’ve never had out before.”

After “excuse me,” “can I squeeze in there?” and “sorry” have been politely uttered into an ambient drone for five or six hours, a veritable parking lot mini-festival will commence at 2 p.m. with Toy Trucks, followed by Fresh Flesh, and Jana Misener — formerly of the Memphis Dawls. Next up will be Tim Prudhomme’s recently conceived band, Dimplebones. Headlining the afternoon will be James and the Ultrasounds, the band’s first local appearance since returning from a European tour.

Wedged in between Prudhomme’s Dimplebones and the latter is the reunited original lineup of McStay’s primary musical endeavor, the Simpletones. One of the true gems to come out of the Memphis underground scene of the ’90s, the first incarnation of the trio featured McStay on guitar and vocals, Jim McDermott on bass, and Mark Miller on drums. This version released the Joe’s Cool Sign demo tape and a clutch of fidelity-challenged but fantastic 7″s between 1991 and 1994 before switching monikers to the less litigious “The Simple Ones.”

“We’ve been practicing most of what’s on the Joe’s Cool Sign demo tape and a lot of what’s on our three 7″s that came out before our Shangri-La releases for what will hopefully be a good 30-minute set,” McStay says. Last but not least, Shangri-La’s parking lot Record Store Day extravaganza is dubbed “Jughead Fest” due to its falling on McStay’s birthday (origins of the nickname are unclear).

Chris Shaw

It will be no sweat to split one’s afternoon between Shangri-La and what’s planned a mere 1.6 Midtown miles away at Goner Records. Timed with cross-rocking between the two destinations in mind, Goner will be presenting a three-band bill at the Cooper-Young Gazebo that kicks off at 1 p.m. with Austin, Texas’ Nameless Frames, a garage-y, post-punkish trio with a debut, self-titled full-length on Super Secret Records released this past February.

At 2 p.m. will be the live experience that is Aquarian Blood, the extra-Ex-Cult project of J.B. Horrell and his wife Laurel that not only debuted on vinyl with a 7″ that was Goner’s official Record Store Day 2015 release but, more importantly, had its first full-length scheduled for release on the label later this year.

Then, at 3 p.m., the venerable Tyler Keith & the Apostles will rock the Cooper-Young intersection an hour closer to its future Sunday morning hangover. Regarding the hours leading up to the music, Goner will be accenting their Record Store Day haul (which will in turn be YOUR haul, or part of it) with a bulking up of store stock, which means more of the best prices on great used vinyl that one could hope to find on a nationwide level.

Oxford, Mississippi’s participating venue, End of All Music, is giving goodie bags (of limited edition store-related swag) to customers who purchase records throughout the day and will certainly be stocking nearby Fat Possum Records’ three Record Store Day titles: the 10th anniversary edition of Jay Reatard’s amazing Blood Visions LP on white vinyl (also includes a 7″ of Blood Visions demos), a 12″ EP of a Daft Punk edit medley of five Junior Kimbrough songs into one 15-minute piece of music (the b-side is etched), and the Junior Kimbrough Tribute LP featuring Iggy Pop, the Black Keys, Spiritualized, and others (on clear vinyl). For other End of All Music-related Record Store Day news, make sure to check out the store’s blog.

For a list of all Record Store Day releases, visit www.recordstoreday.com

Record Store Day at Goner Records with Aquarian Blood, Nameless Frames, and Tyler Keith, Saturday, April 16th at 9 a.m. Free.

Record Store Day at Shangri-La Records with Fresh Flesh, Simpletones, Dimple Bones, and James and the Ultrasounds, Saturday, April 16th at 8:30 a.m. Free.

Categories
Music Music Features

Strong Come On

CREDIT: Jamie Harmon

Three garage rock titans take over the Highland Strip this Saturday when the Oblivians, Jack O and the Sheiks, and the Leather Uppers play Newby’s in celebration of Eric Friedl’s 50th birthday. As the founder of Goner Records and member of bands like Bad Times, True Sons of Thunder, the Dutch Masters, and the New Memphis Legs, Freidl has been an integral part of the Memphis garage-rock scene for decades. We caught up with Friedl the week before his 50th birthday party to find out more about Saturday’s blowout. — Chris Shaw

Memphis Flyer: How did the show come about and what made you want to host it at Newby’s?

Eric Friedl: We wanted to do something around my birthday and get a bunch of people in town to basically just have a good time. We looked around, and, by the time we had everything in order to book it, everywhere we’d normally play was unavailable. Jack had already been booked at Newby’s for that date, so we just decided to piggyback on his show.

The other thing that was attractive about Newby’s is that we’ve never played a show there, so it’s kind of new territory for us. I have no idea how many people they can fit in there or how many people will be able to get in. There are people driving in from Austin for this show and other places, so it should be pretty interesting.

When the band was more active, did you guys ever play the Highland Strip?

Oblivians never did, but my other band True Sons of Thunder made it over there a couple times. We played the Rally Point, and I’m pretty sure we played the side room in Newby’s one time. The Rally Point may have been the worst venue I’ve ever played in or been in. That place was bizarre; it was unbelievable.

Is this the only local show currently booked for the Oblivians?

I think this is it as far as local shows go, at least for now. We are playing the In the Red birthday party in Los Angeles in July, and doing some European dates in July as well. Jack (Yarber) and Greg (Cartwright) have their own things going on, so we just fit the Oblivians in when it makes sense for everyone to do it. It’ll be a good mix because the Oblivians kind of know what we’re doing, but Jack’s band is incredible right now. They have been killing it lately.

Let’s talk about the Leather Uppers. They’ve been around about as long as the Oblivians right?

They started in the mid ’90s, and they released a bunch of 45s that were later compiled into an LP by this guy Ryan Richardson. He’s basically like an archivist or a librarian when it comes to collecting.

The Leather Uppers were just this really raw and funny three piece. They existed in their own world, and they were one of those bands who, when we first started doing Gonerfest, we knew we had to have them play. It was kind of like “We will probably never get to see them otherwise, so let’s just ask and see if they’ll come down.” They said yes, and they’re just a great, ridiculously fun band. Saturday’s show will be their only U.S. appearance.

What is the Leather Uppers relationship with Goner like?

After Ryan released the singles compilation on his label, we released their follow-up album. By the time our record came out, the band had kind of moved on, but Ryan still had all those copies of the record he released, so we bought them from him and repackaged it as a Goner release.

How’d they get on the bill?

I already had the Gories play my wedding, so I wasn’t going to ask them again. I started thinking about who I’d like to see, and I thought “I’ll ask the Leather Uppers,” and they said yes again. They are a two piece now, but they agreed to do it.

At this level, they aren’t doing it to make a bunch of money or anything like that. They are basically just interested in coming down and spending a weekend in Memphis in between playing crazy rock-and-roll. They are both living in Canada, so I think they are excited about coming down.

50 is a pretty major milestone in terms of being a touring musician. You’ve been playing with this band longer than some of your fans have been alive.

The Oblivians has been a great opportunity to make noise that turned into an opportunity to travel and meet new people. We’re playing Finland in July, and I’ve never been to Finland. That’s not a place I could just go by myself. As long as we are having fun and it makes sense to do the band, we’re going to do it.

We’re not out to change the world, but writing a new record a few years ago was a kick in the pants and kept us from playing the same songs that are almost 30 years old at this point. We never set out to do much with the band, and we’ve exceeded all our expectations, so there’s no reason not to keep it going. If it gets to the point where we feel like geezers up there, we will stop playing, or other people will tell us to stop playing.

The Oblivians, Leather Uppers, and Jack Oblivian and the Sheiks, Saturday, April 2nd at Newby’s. 8 p.m. $15 admission.

Categories
Music Music Features

You Call it Love

CREDIT: Josh Miller

Angry Angles were one of the best-kept secrets of the mid-’00s Memphis garage-rock movement. The band featured the late Jay Reatard and Alix Brown, a couple that joined forces to start the record label Shattered Records and make some noise of their own in the process. While Shattered released some of the best records of the time period from bands like Carbonas, Final Solutions, and Useless Eaters, the duo’s greatest project was arguably the off-kilter, Devo-influenced punk they created as Angry Angles. After releasing three singles and a few brief tours with bands like Final Solutions and the Lids (the duo’s other groups), the Angles broke up, and Jimmy Lee Lindsey started to work on his first releases as the solo artist Jay Reatard.

While the band’s singles are still floating around out there somewhere, collectors of all kinds know the value of Jay Reatard’s limited records, making them almost impossible to track down. That’s where Goner Records comes in. Just as they have given the Reatards and the Lost Sounds deluxe reissues over the years, the first Angry Angles LP will see the light of day this year.

“When I started going back through the stuff that I had pulled from [Lindsey’s] place, I came back across those [Angry Angles] tracks that I had found last spring,” says Zac Ives, co-owner of Goner Records.

“I couldn’t listen to those songs before because I was filled with so much grief, but the last time I listened to the recordings I was listening to them with fresh ears, and I began to get excited about the music, just as I had been when the band was still around. At first there was a lot of me trying to figure out what we had with those recordings, what was available, and what we could actually use. I talked to Ryan [Rousseau, the band’s drummer], and Alix, and his manager Adam Shore, and we’ve been working on it together for about nine months now.”

The fact that just about every Jay Reatard project from the past has gotten a reissue — or in this case, a compilation LP — is a testament to how important the noise that Lindsey made really was to his fans. And not just his fans in Memphis. The Reatard’s Teenage Hate album that Goner reissued in 2011 received the coveted Best New Reissue from Pitchfork, and the Lost Sounds’ Lost Lost LP was also extremely well-received on a national scale. While Lost Sounds and the Reatards will always be the bands in bold when perusing the Jay Reatard discography, Angry Angles marks a significant change in how Lindsey would write, record, and perform for the rest of his life.

“Angry Angles was like a perfect time for Jay. It’s the beginning of him realizing he can do stuff all on his own, except it’s not as perfect as some of the solo stuff is,” Ives says.

“There is still this piece he’s working around, which is Alix being a new bass player. That’s the last time anyone worked with him. After [Angry Angles], he wrote everything himself.”

“I had only been in one band before Angry Angles, and I was still a pretty new bass player,” Brown says.

“Jay knew that I played bass, and he basically just made me play more. We wrote songs together, but he always played the drum parts first when it came time to record them. He could play an entire song on drums without listening to anything else, and I’d record the bass over the drums after that.”

With the abrupt ending of Angry Angles happening after the two broke up, Lindsey had plenty of half-baked songwriting ideas to pick and choose from, and many Angry Angles riffs or song parts wound up on his first solo album, Blood Visions.

“It’s cool, but it still is kind of haunting because the Angry Angles have always been a missing piece of the puzzle, there was always supposed to be an album from them,” Ives says.

“The shattered single they put out was around for a while, but I never even got a copy of the third single, and a lot of people never even got the second single.”

While gathering all the Angry Angles odds and ends they could find, Ives said they came across a WFMU session from the Terre T show The Cherry Blossom Clinic and a live recording from a show in Kalamazoo.

“There’s a bunch of stuff that never came out that was done around 2005 or 2006 when he started figuring out that he could create pop songs like no one else had heard before,” Ives says.

“When you listen to those live recordings, you realize that Jay was playing three to five songs from the album Blood Visions. Songs like “Nightmares” and “Blood Visions” are songs that people now think of as Jay’s solo songs, but he was playing them back then with this band, and we didn’t even notice.”

As for the release date of the Angry Angles LP, the details are still being finalized, but Ives did confirm that Brown will be doing the artwork and that the label is pushing for a mid-year release.

“I guess I still get bummed out when I listen to the band. It’s still hard,” Brown says.

“I’m really excited that people will get a chance to hear the music we made together, though. I think his fans will really like it.”

Categories
Music Music Blog

Goner Records Swap and Hop at Bar DKDC

Goner Records.

The first annual Goner Records Swap and Hop is tomorrow night (Wednesday, November 18) at Bar DKDC. The premise of the Swap and Hop is simple: Goner is clearing out their back room for the holidays, and will be spinning the oddities they find. Throughout the night, those in attendance will be able to buy all the records played, for $5 or less (with few exceptions). It’s Goner Records’ way of giving back, and apparently they’ll have “mopers, punkers, jams and sleazers, all priced to please.” The event is free and starts at 9 p.m., so if you’re looking to score some cheap vinyl, DKDC is the place to be. Check out the Goner Records soundcloud to get you pumped for tomorrow night.  Oh yeah, and check out that Carbonas YouTube playlist, cuz it rules. 

Goner Records Swap and Hop at Bar DKDC

Categories
Music Music Blog

Cheater Slicks at Murphy’s

Cheater Slicks.

Columbus Ohio’s Cheater Slicks play Murphy’s Wednesday night, along with Toy Trucks (Memphis) and Mr. Airplane Man (Boston.) You can read my preview of their show in an article published last week here. Cheater Slicks don’t play Memphis too often, so if loud garage rock is your thing, I’d make plans to be at Murphy’s tomorrow night. The show starts at 9 p.m. and advance $5 tickets are available at Goner Records, otherwise the gig is $8 at the door. Check out music from all of the bands playing below. 

Cheater Slicks at Murphy’s

Cheater Slicks at Murphy’s (2)

Cheater Slicks at Murphy’s (3)

Categories
Music Music Blog

Gonerfest 12 Recap

CREDIT: Chris McCoy

Chris McCoy

Hi-Tone, 3 AM, Saturday night after Gonerfest.

Gonerfest is not the biggest music festival in the world, or in Tennessee, or even in Memphis. In its twelve years of existence, it’s evolved from an ironic name for a small gathering of like minded musicians and fans into a full fledged cultural event, a permanent entry on the calendar that says “clear this weekend, it’s rock time.”

Chris McCoy

A floatilla of Gonerfester skateboards.

For the last nine years, I have found myself filming some or all of Gonerfest, first for the sorely missed Live From Memphis, and now for the Rocket Science Audio live stream. From my perspective, it’s been a strange mix of progression and regression. For LFM, we filmed with then state-of-the-art DV and HD cameras. On Saturday I recalled wading into an aggressive crowd outside Murphy’s for the New Orleans metal band Tire Fire, protecting a $1,000 new Sony HD camera while the band threw firecrackers at me. I don’t think that video has ever seen the light of day. This year, during the same time slot, I wielded a hopelessly obsolete Sony Handicam wired into a broadcast system that was state-of-the-art in 1990. But that system was feeding into the internet, and people were watching live from all over the U.S., as well as in Germany, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, and even one in India. Last Saturday afternoon, as Australia woke up, our homebrew crashed under the weight of too many simultaneous viewers. This year’s festival was extremely well attended—Saturday night at the Hi-Tone was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen at Gonerfest, or at the Hi-Tone for that matter—but a tipping point is approaching where there will be more people watching on the web than dancing in Memphis.

Chris McCoy

Rocket Science Audio’s Kyle Johnson at the controls.

I love running a camera at Gonerfest, because it lets me focus on the music, and puts me in a position to watch and listen. Memphis was well represented, and the natives made a big impression on the out-of-towners. Ex-Cult opened the festival at the Cooper-Young Gazebo with a ruthless precision that eventually loosened up the crowd. That night, the Sheiks proved they’re one of the city’s best outfits by opening the show as a three piece and closing it down backing up Jack Oblivian, who spiked a set full of his contributions to the garage rock canon with a ferocious cover of Television’s “See No Evil”. Aquarian Blood, led by Ex-Cult guitar mastermind JB Horrell, brought the crowd a blast of Source Family psychedelia tinged with the hardcore punk he was weaned on.

Chris McCoy

Jack Oblivian through the Rocket Science Audio viewfinder.

I heard more than one person comment on the increased number of women at Gonerfest this year, both on the stage and in the audience, and nowhere was that more visible than in the Memphis bands. Nots took a victory lap on Friday night after an explosive debut last year. The coveted sundown Saturday slot went to Sweet Knives, the reincarnated Lost Sounds fronted by Alicija Trout. The Sweet Knives’ ferocious performance highlighted the strength and endurance of Trout’s songwriting. As I staggered away from the stage, a female friend grabbed me and yelled “How could you NOT bang your head to that?”

I’m always eager to see the bands from Australia and New Zealand, and this year’s batch included my biggest discovery of the festival, Pink Tiles from Melbourne, whose three-woman front line charmed the crowd with pop hooks on Thursday night. Afterwards, I heard a Memphian tell one of their singers “Y’all make me want to move to Melbourne.” To which she replied “We want to move to Memphis.”

Chris McCoy

The Pink TIles from Australia, seen through the Rocket Science Audio viewfinder.

There were just too many awesome acts to mention here. Obnox’s Bim Thomas was probably my favorite vocalist of the entire festival, and worked the crowd with charisma to spare. Blind Shake from Minneapolis rocked the baritone guitar like I’ve never seen it before. Nobunny stripped down to his underwear and turned on the disco lights for an explosive Saturday night. Timmy’s Organism was another show-stopper on Friday.

Perhaps the most anticipated set of the fest was Ty Rex, in which garage rock’s current leading light Ty Segall started out to reinterpret Marc Bolan songs, but ended up leading an insane party. I was yelling for “Mambo Sun”, but his twisted yet faithful cover of “Cosmic Dancer” ended up being exactly the song I didn’t know I wanted to hear. And when Ex-Cult frontman and Memphis Flyer music editor Chris Shaw joined him for an unlikely punked up take on The Doors’ “Break On Through”…well, you had to hear it to believe it.

Chris McCoy

Quintron taking ’em to church.

But if one musician at Gonerfest 2015 outshone all the others, it was Quintron. He opened Saturday night with an all-female band called First which debuted some new guitar driven punk compositions and then he and Miss Pussycat closed it down with with a transcendent shower of balloons and swampy organ funk. His last Gonerfest headlining set is on the short list for the best thing that ever happened at the Hi-Tone, but this year’s set just might have topped it.

I’ve had the privelege of watching him evolve over the years from the possessed madman of The Amazing Spellcaster and The Oblivians Play Nine Songs With Mr. Quinton to a more controlled, Prince-ly musical mastermind, He seems to have bounced back from recent health problems, and his post-treatment noise work with Weather Warlock has seeped into his mainline show, which leant it a, dare I say, spiritual grounding. It was a unique experience that personified the best of Gonerfest, and made me hopeful for the future of the music. 

Categories
Music Music Features

The Flyer Guide to Gonerfest 12

CREDIT: Denee Petracek

We are once again staring down an installment of Goner Records’ annual throw-down, and this one is packed with 35 bands (from far corners of the globe to local heavy hitters) and spread across four days and five venues (the Hi-Tone, Murphy’s, the Buccaneer, Cooper-Young Gazebo, and Crosstown Arts, who will host the accompanying “The Art of Graceland Too” exhibit).

Thursday, September 24th

Since their last Gonerfest bill two years ago, Ex-Cult has toured extensively behind their great Midnight Passenger sophomore album and follow-up 12-inch EP Cigarette Machine, making for the well-oiled band that will ring Gonerfest 12’s proverbial opening bell at the Cooper-Young Gazebo at 5:30 p.m., Thursday afternoon. That evening, the Hi-Tone features locals the Sheiks (whose latest 7-inch “I’m Broke” b/w “I’m Gonna Make It in My Mind” was just released). Up next is the ragged and scrappy pop of Australia’s the Pink Tiles, the foreboding urban psych of Ex-Cult’s J.B. Horrell and wife Laurel Ferdon (ex-NOTS) as Aquarian Blood, and an accurate purveyor of the oft-misused “dark punk” tag via New Orleans’ Gary Wrong Group. New York’s Pampers and Jack Oblivian close out night one.

 

Friday, September 25th

Friday afternoon’s 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. parking lot show at the Buccaneer features Birmingham’s Nowhere Squares, Melbourne, Australia’s Kit Convict & Thee Terrible Two, the Bay Area’s Pookie & the Poodlez, and Manhunt from Austin.

A short break later, and it’s the heavy and mean psych-noise-punk of Oakland’s Musk, who open the evening at the Hi-Tone and whose self-titled album (released last year by the Holy Mountain label) comes recommended. Then Cuntz bring their decidedly Australian blunt-force punk-noise back to Gonerfest in the wake of a great third LP Here Come the Real Boys (released last year by Chunklet Industries). These asterisk-obligating Aussies will be followed by Memphis’ own NOTS.

Next up, Detroit’s tireless Timmy Lampinen performs as Timmy’s Organism before Ty Segall performs his first and only live show under the T. Rex-rendering musical persona “Ty-Rex” (to celebrate Goner Records’ November release of the Ty-Rex discography full-length). Headlining Friday is the legendary Sonny Vincent, best known for founding the criminally underrated first-wave punk rock band The Testors.

Saturday, September 26th

Saturday at Gonerfest means the “nine-band blowout” portion of the festival at Murphy’s, when said number of bands blaze by between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. thanks to the clockwork alternation between the indoor and outdoor stages that allows for back-to-back sets. The New Orleans trio of Rob Watson Craig III (of Giorgio Murderer/Buck Biloxi fame), Sarah Mason (proprietor of Pelican Pow Wow Records), and ex-NOTS member Carly Greenwell is Black Abba, who, along with the recent Goner Records roster additions, kick off the afternoon on the indoor stage. Craig III will then pop over to the outdoor stage to draw from his bottomless well of personalities as Lord High Panther, which will precede his headlining set as Giorgio Murderer (indoor stage) by several hours. Also anticipated is Christchurch, New Zealand’s Salad Boys with the most infectious and generally well-crafted version of New Zealand’s Flying Nun “sound” since that label’s late-’80s/early-’90s heyday. Up next is Shadow in the Cracks, the new side project of the Blind Shake’s Jim and Mike Blaha. The sibling duo has an upcoming self-titled debut on Goner, out this October.

Headlining the outdoor stage is Memphis’ Sweet Knives ­— essentially the reformed Lost Sounds (one of the more important players in the modern garage-punk movement’s evolution) with the obvious exception of Jay Reatard, who co-led the band with Alicja Trout (Sweet Knives is the vehicle for her Lost Sounds compositions). And let’s not forget sets by Cleveland’s extremely prolific Obnox (ex-This Moment in Black History, ex-Bassholes), Kansas City’s Wet Ones, and the U.K.’s Ultimate Painting.

New Orleans’ First open Saturday night at the Hi-Tone and feature (spoiler alert!) headliner Quintron plus other NOLA notables. As for the concept, the band’s name is derived from the rule that they only occupy an evening’s first time slot. Richmond, Virginia’s Ar-Kaics will then do a fine frozen-in-time re-creation of the most minimal of ’60s cave-punk before an altogether different take on punk by Hank Wood and the Hammerheads, who, despite a name that suggests low-level mafia muscle moonlighting as particularly antagonistic rockabilly revivalists, do bring the antagonism and apply it in generous quantities to the timeless catchiness of the New Bomb Turks mixed with the intensity of Damaged-era Black Flag. Following the aggression of Hank Wood is the mayor of Rabbithole, U.S.A., aka NOBUNNY, to charm the pants off of everyone else in the room with his first Gonerfest appearance in four years. Words don’t do the Blind Shake’s live show justice (as will be confirmed by anyone who saw their Gonerfest 10 appearance), and Jim and Mike Blaha’s (plus co-founder Dave Roper on drums) culmination of updated ’90s noise rock and visceral garage-punk (perfected on last year’s Goner release, Breakfast of Failures) is absolutely not to be missed. As per the earlier mention, the can’t-go-wrong proposition of Quintron will headline.

Sunday, September 27th

For Sunday afternoon’s closing ceremonies (Cooper-Young Gazebo), it’s King Louie’s Katrina Memories — Louie Bankston’s one-man band with monologues based on the storm that annihilated the hometown that defines Bankston and many others who will be performing and attending Gonerfest. Alicja Trout’s excellent power-trio River City Tanlines will shut the whole thing down.

For more information on Gonerfest 12 including information on Golden Passes and single event tickets, visit gonerfest.com.

Categories
Music Music Features

More Reatards Reissues

After years of being out of print, Goner Records has just reissued the Reatards’ sophomore full-length, Grown Up, Fucked Up, on vinyl. Almost two decades ago, Jay “Reatard” Lindsey first made home recordings under the Reatards moniker after being blindsided with a “Wait a minute … I can do that!” moment of clarity when he witnessed the Oblivians open for Rocket from the Crypt at the New Daisy. But by the time the Reatards’ second album saw release at the end of 1999 through Empty Records, the band had three 7″ EPs and a debut full-length (the previous year’s Teenage Hate was the 10th release by Goner) to its credit. The first Reatards 7″ EP (the eighth Goner title) had surfaced as recently as 1997 and speaks to an impressive pace and work ethic, but the remarkable fact is that the “grown-up” in the album’s title referenced Lindsey’s then-recent 19th birthday.

Additionally, the Reatards’ live show had graduated into an incendiary and often chaotic experience. Going way beyond the venue ban notices and local-level trash talk from an underground scene that hated anything it didn’t understand (and it didn’t understand A LOT), the Reatards’ live show was exported to Europe, which exported it back when the tour culminated with an audience member in Germany jumping onstage and opening up Lindsey’s arm with a broken bottle.

The classic Reatards lineup, or lineups, had Lindsey backed by second guitarist Sean “Albundy” Redd (his nom de performance should silence anyone who might accuse the band of lacking a sense of humor) and Ryan “Wong” Rousseau on drums (now better known as the founder/ringleader of the still active and crushing Destruction Unit). At some point between the recording of Teenage Hate and Grown Up, Rousseau was replaced by Mississippi transplant Rich Crook. One of contemporary underground rock’s most underrated/underused rock-solid drummers, Crook would subsequently provide the backbone for Lindsey’s next primary musical endeavor, the Lost Sounds.

Grown Up, Fucked Up, despite the age of its primary creator, displays a marked advance over Teenage Hate when it comes to Lindsey’s songwriting and guitar playing (economic but impressive leads that pop up all over this record). Teenage Hate was wholly unhinged punk fury against the backdrop of a waning 1990s garage-rock underground, daring the target audience to ignore it. Grown Up could be the Reatards putting ’90s garage rock to bed by creating its perfect last word, as this song cycle feels like a reimaging or corrective exercise rather than an attempt to erase the subgenre from the earth’s surface.

But as Eric Friedl’s updated liner notes point out, there was some innovation here. Grown Up was either the first, or a very early effort, to mix garage rock with the late-’70s/early-’80s outlier/private-label punk, power pop, post-punk, and proto-hardcore associated with the soon to be highly influential Killed by Death and Bloodstains Across… compilations. The two excellent covers, King Louie Bankston’s (via his band the Persuaders) “Heart of Chrome” and “I Want Sex” by the Reactors, couldn’t have fit more seamlessly with the original material.

Revisiting theme and mood, Grown Up differs from previous Reatards material by showcasing more menace and break-up pain/anger, plus a touch of the dark worldview that would come closer to fruition in Lindsey’s next band.

Something else that distances Grown Up from the rest of the original-run discography is a notch up in production quality. Not quite the blown-out, in-the-red affair that is Teenage Hate, the recordings were done on analog 8-track at a home-studio setup by Lindsey and a partner in crime who would become the most important collaborator of Lindsey’s career, Alicja Trout.

It is with Trout that Jay would embark upon his first and last experience splitting all creative duties with another songwriter in the aforementioned Lost Sounds from 1999 to 2005, but the pioneers of modern dark-wave/synth-punk-meets-garage punk remained relegated to side-project status until late-00.

This reissue of Grown Up, Fucked Up comes as a single 150-gram LP (on white vinyl if you act fast) with a download version that includes the three-song “You’re So Lewd” 7″ EP, also originally released in 1999 and the title that inaugurated the Reatards’ move to Empty Records.

One side of the inner sleeve features the album’s original liner notes and credits, and, though brief, the opposite side is essential reading in the form of remembrances by Friedl and Empty Records’ co-founder Meghan Smith, along with a solitary comment by former collaborator, colleague, and close friend, Goner co-owner Zac Ives.