The Final Solutions

There must be something in the water down in Memphis...So much good music over the years (think about it, really). Another in a long line of Jay Reatard projects is The Final Solutions. For this band of merry men, Mr. Reatard bashes away behind the kit instead of up at the front of the stage. Handling vocal duties for The Final Solutions is a fela by the name of Zac Ives. Their new album, produced by Jay himself, is titled Songs By Solutions, and recently came out on Goner Records. These guys really rock, and some of the songs are insanely catchy. A lot of them straddle the line between arty punk, Pebbles garage, and more power-pop punk. All of this is done with a lot of distortion and snottiness. I could waste your time coming up with lots of comparisons, but lets allow the music to do the talking here:

Tammy
Brown Panther

Here's their myspace page

The Dilletantes

Joel Gion is back. The ex tambourine man for The Brian Jonestown Massacre has a new band, The Dilettantes. Musically, they don't stray too far from his former band. Perhaps there's a slight leaning towards the rockier side of the BJM stuff. Unfortunately, Gion doesn't have the prettiest voice, but it works for this kind of stuff. Gotta love the tambourine.
check it:
Like Crazy


Here's their myspace page

iPod on Random

1. The Reigning Sound - Straight Shooter ; Live At Maxwell's
2. The Singing Loins - Honest Man ; Songs To Hear Before You Die
3. Les Fleur De Lys - Mud In Your Eye ; Nuggets II Box Set
4. Wire - Strange ; Pink Flag
5. Drive-By Truckers - Your Daddy Hates Me ; Decoration Day
6. Link Wray - Friday Night Dance Party ; Missing Links Vol. 4
7. The Handsome Family - Down In The Ground ; Through The Trees
8. Radio Birdman - Anglo Girl Desire ; Live in Sydney '76
9. The Rolling Stones - Factory Girl ; Beggars Banquet
10. Loli & The Chones - I Hate Your Guts ; P.S. We Hate You

Teengenerate

This band kicked so much ass in the mid 90s. How did I not know they were back??????


Teengenerate Live at The Tote, Melbourne, Australia
12/29/06

Miss Alex White And The Red Orchestra

This is some of the best rocknroll being made right now. Miss Alex White has a great Patti Smith-esque (yes.) voice, and it is the perfect accompaniment to the Red Orchestra's brand of Fuzz. Space and Time is the new album on In The Red Records, and it fuckin rocks.

Checkit:
She Wanna

Turbo Fruits

A few weeks ago, I saw The Black Lips play at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. Needless to say it was one of the better concerts I'd been to in quite some time. The show solidified their place near the top of my favorite current bands list. However, tonight, I wanna discuss the band that played right before them, Turbo Fruits. Turbo Fruits are a three piece from Nashville, TN who also blew me away. I rarely give a crap about stuff like this, but they even looked cool. They had a bluesy take on the typical 3 chord garage/rocknroll. I think what most impressed me though was how loud and explosive they sounded. (A drummer who loves to pound makes a huge difference). Singer/guitarist Jonas Stein has a great laid back drawl of a voice, and I was honestly dissapointed when their set was over. I think they won over a good chunk of the crowd that night. Unfortunately, I missed them a few days later when they were part of another equally cool bill at the Bowery Ballroom (along with Jay Reatard and The Ponys). Their self titled record is out on Ecstatic Peace Records, and here's a track:
Murder
You can stream the album on their website

These guys are also apperantly huge stoners, for whatever that's worth

iPod on Random

1. Ween - I'm Dancing In The Show Tonight ; The Mollusk (hell yeah wspn circa '00-'01)
2. The Cramps - TV Set (live at Max's Kansas City 1977) ; How To Make A Monster
3. Calexico/Iron & Wine - Red Dust
4. Neko Case - Brown Eyed Handsome Man ; V/A: Hard-Headed Woman
5. Aretha Franklin - Don't Let Me Lose This Dream ; I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You
6. The Clash - Clash City ROckers ; Clash On Broadway
7. Hawkwind - 7 By 7 ; Space Ritual
8. Husker Du - The Baby Song ; Flip Your Wig
9. Spacemen 3 - Mary Anne ; Live In Europe 1989
10. The Makers - Waste Of Flesh ; The Makers

Harlan T Bobo - I'm Your Man

A few weeks ago, Goner Records released I'm Your Man by Harlan T Bobo. Like a lot of the musicians on Goner, Bobo is from Memphis, and has an impressive resume including Viva l'American Death Ray Music, Jack Oblivian and the Tearjerkers, and a member of King Louie's band. Stylistically, Bobo is all over the map, similarl to the various musical projects of Howe Gelb. Some of the songs are superb hushed-voice Americana that wouldn't sound out of place on a Giant Sand record. Elsewhere, the honky tonk comes even more to the forefront, and on other songs he embraces the bar-rock sound somewhat like The Band in there more badass moments. Sometimes, these changes take place within the same song. Although there are moments where he digs in and unveils some crunchy fuzz-rock, from what I've previously heard on Goner, this overall sound is quite a departure from their usual garage/trash mainstays. This is a welcome addition the roster though, and a nice change of pace.
Check him out:
Pragmatic Woman
Last Step

King Khan & His Shrines - What Is?!

First off, sorry for being such a dingus and being lazy about posts the last few months. I have a whole bunch of current releases I want to write about, so hopefully we can kickstart this thing again. Post. (discount beverages)


What Is?! is the new album from Perrenial Hendo fave King Khan. He's back to his old tricks with his backing band The Shrines. Imagine the most badass soul/r&b group you can think of, and make the frontman a shriekeing, shouting lunatic with an affinity for punk rock, and you've got some fine rocknroll my friend. This new one may be my favorite of his records at this point. It's some killer r&b grooves and skronky Sun Ra freakouts coupled with some raunchy garage. I didn't realize this earlier, but apperantly, KK and some other cool bands like Black Lips, and The Spits did the soundtrack for some German film (??). Khan lives in Germany, so I guess it makes sense, but still, thats pretty cool.
Here's some stuff from the new record:
No Regrets
Le Fils de Jacques Dutronc