Ended up catching Liquor Store and Natural Child over the weekend at Union Pool for their split 7" release on Almost Ready...and I almost got one...
Guys let me give you some advice...if you see a split single of your dreams out there on the table and no one is there selling merch you have to WAIT...stand there all night, because when you come back after a set or two, they're going to be sold out. If you have to physically pick it up with your bare hands and just stand there holding it like an idiot...then YOU DO IT. I learned my lesson when Seth told me they sold the last two on the table. What a sad beginning of Halloween. Very scary.
But the show was awesome, Liquor Store, yea buddied all kinds of punk, got to hang out with a bunch of good friends and Natural Child are so damn fun live with that classic rock stoner massive groove sound, they're just fun to watch. Having the best time, fucking around with the lyrics, changing them to Monster Mash, and just the sweet southern harmony from this sludge blues. I don't care who's done it before them, no one has ever taken it as not seriously as these three. Don't miss them, they will win you over by being simultaneously nice and out of their minds in the best way.
That's why the photo on the sleeve of the single I did end up picking up last night is so perfect. They genuinely want to hang out together and have the best attitude on stage. Liquor Store and Natural Child seem to go about writing the same way, take primal, hilarious points of view, in Liquor Store's case, it's with more of a hardcore punk sound about being an American man or eating a trash sandwich, while Natural Child sings a lot about weed and getting 'strange'... but they don't ever sound like they're selling it. On paper they're both impossible.
This single is green marble vinyl from Infinity Cat, who Billboard Magazine just named the 10th best indie label! I mean Billboard Magazine? That's like Nirvana winning a grammy....completely irrelevant, but still crazy that some big dumb institution like that actually noticed something like these guys....now that I think about it, it's kind of scary.
I thought the A-Side to this one "White Man's Burden", might be an alternate version of "White People" from 1971 but no... it's another take on the tongue in cheek idea of what exactly are white dudes blues?... surely some kind of oxymoron to begin with and maybe that's why they have the blues in the first place? Their lack of actual problems? It's sort of this ridiculous feel-bad-for-me track that's also saying they know exactly how dumb that sounds, but it can still rock as long and deep as Thin Lizzy.
The B-Side's " Ray Thompson's Blues" is another less than serious blues track about wanting to be in Miami, drunk on the beach, quitting your job, proving your girlfriend wrong with a pocketful of weed....see what I mean, these are troubles that more responsible people would be pissed off about, but it's up to guys like this to sincerely not give a fuck and make you love them for it. It comes off as an adult Beach Boys, the alternate Stones verision of the Jacuzzi Boys. Dreaming of the beach instead of sounding like one.
"Bang my Head" can't help but sound like 'Do wah ditty" to me, that rhythm and even melody keeps popping in my head, but the harmony lyric delivery from Seth and Wes thankfully takes it somewhere else, the way they're yelling to each other. I forget half of their songs, and it's like I'm hearing them for the first time again but I still catch every ridiculous honest truth:
"I can live my life like a maniac." ...or be forced to have sex with someone you didn't want to have sex with or smoke crack....all of which they make sound pretty funny...definitely guys.
Oh shit, but both of their singles on Infinity Cat are actually sold out! Or are they? No surprise there I guess. Go see them and get these from the merch table AFTER you grabbed them and waited patiently. That's your burden...those are your blues.
I'm so sad for you.
Write a freaking song about it.
cool
ReplyDelete