(Photo: Jim Cole)
There’s an ideal rock ‘n’ roll that has been achieved by few. For everybody that touches The Stooges, there’s a million pretenders. Jay Reatard was never a pretender, and "You Build Me Up Just To Bust Me Back Down," from his pre-solo band The Reatards, shows a man that knows how to go all-out. This is the sort of song that created mosh pits. Its concise and distorted guitar, bass, drums and melodies are made for throwing glass and punches. Grab this one and 38 others on The Reatards’ retrospective comp Teenage Hate/Fuck Elvis Here’s The Reatards available now on Goner Records.
In the Red’s profile may have risen in recent years through releases by King Khan & BBQ, Vivian Girls and Jay Reatard, but for years the L.A. label’s been buttering your croissant with permanently cool, stylishly unfashionable garage-rawk like what this here Reigning Sound band makes.
I’ve been singing Jay Reatard all day. Easily one of my favourite sets of all time, Jay Reatard catapulted through a lightning speed set of songs mixed from his back catalog, although unfortunately seemed to pay less attention to my personal favourite, Blood Visions. Like the other crazy sweaty messes up the front I too was left hankering and hollering for Blood Visions, the title track. We were at least blessed with Greed, Money, Useless Children from the same album, a highlight song for me. Living up to his rep, the incredibly hairy Reatard simply yelled out the song title of the next song between each sweat-soaked rollercoaster track. Come to think of it, listening to Blood Visions now, you can almost hear him doing the same on the record, between Greed, Money… and It’s So Easy! The band had one of the best stage presences I’ve ever seen, EVER. His bass player was like Gene Simmons (but less creepy), pulling epic poses with his flying V that matched Jay’s, waving his head around loosely with his mouth agape so that his sweat and spit sprayed a metre in diametre. The quiet drummer was poised and perfectly fast. An incredibly talented and fun band, it was always going to be a hard one to beat.
The rapid ascension of Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls was an interesting thing to witness in 2008. In that short time they quickly earned the respect of critics and their peers, but have had an up-and-down relationship with some fans. They’ve already played shows with a long list of all-stars and up-and-comers : Yo La Tengo, Deerhunter, Times New Viking, King Khan, Love Is All and Jay Reatard - just to name a few. Early on, of course, fans responded well. The Girls self-released their vinyl-only debut in a limited 500 press quantity and sold out before they finished their first three-week U.S. tour. In The Red Records picked up their debut and re-released it this past October for all to enjoy.
Hmm. Tonight Alvin Stardust is playing…..verrrrrrrrrrrrrry tempting…but i think maybe Telepathe/Pens/chew Lips are a good bet too…hmmm. hmmm. hmml
pick n mix your own pops…
Telepathe!
Photos from a recent FOE gig - a friend of our friends Hold Your Horse Is - she’s gonna be big!!! Read the gig review after the jump.
Shots of North Carolina’s folk-rocking Avett Brothers’ stop in Glasgow - 22.08.11
Read the review of the gig here.
Take a look at the acts and art on offer at this year’s Latitude Festival in Suffolk. Included are the likes of Fight Like Apes, Lykke Li, Sea of Bees and Seasick Steve. Photos from our own...
Good time with Bad Guys. Photos from the May 29th gig at the Old Blue Last. Read the review by the Bad Guy himself, Stuart London after the jump.
Artrocker.com exclusive: for fans of White Lies and Crocodiles we’ve got some fresh pictures from their UK show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire earlier this month, courtesy of Alessandro...
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