Bad Times - Bad Times

  by Andrew Carver

published: 24 / 3 / 2003

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Review

It starts with a train-whistle guitar squeal and ends with a  shout of "That’s the wrong way to love!” In between, three of the foremost practitioners of sloppy lo-fi rock and roll concoct a twisted collision of Memphis trash and Japanese noise, welded together with gobs of bile,  treble and reverb. Eric Oblivion, Jay Reatard and King Louie Bankston each bring a ... er ... distinguished resume to this musical car crash: Oblivion has put his name to many an eponymous platter of lo-fi soul rock;  Reatard has helmed his namesake band through a sea of punk rock snot and chipped in to the synth punk of the Lost Sounds, and King Louie has frugged his way through the Royal Pendletons’ frat rock sleaze and as a solo performer. In the wake of a fractured romantic and familial relationships, the three gathered in New Orleans assuage the pain of their poor broken hearts the only way they know: By beating the living daylights out of two guitars and a drum kit. The 14-song album kicks off with 'Streets of Iron', a howling tribute to urban paranoia that nods toward the Pagans’ 'Eyes of Satan' with a chorus of “You can’t push me around! Satan! Satan!”. It also acknowledges the triumphs, confusion and failure of romance with 'You’re So Lewd', 'Sometimes She Wants It' (an extremely mutated version of a  tune by Japanese punkers the Texaco Leathermen), '“Over You' and '“Wrong Way To Love'. There’s also piss-take glam in 'Glitter Boys'and a cover of 'Crazy Dream' by Tokyo punk veterans Friction. With fourteen songs in just short of half a hour, 'Bad Times'is a work of bashing, crashing distorted genius from beginning to end.

Track Listing:-

1 Streets Of Iron
2 Over You
3 Momma Told Me So
4 The Jim Miller Bounce
5 Glitter Boys
6 You're So Lewd
7 Sometimes She Wants It
8 Listen To The Band
9 Trapped In The City
10 Bad Time
11 Crazy Dream
12 Before We're Dead And Gone
13 Vaccination
14 Wrong Way To Love