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Mk sheville, NC's Reigning Sound, famously and originally of
Memphis, TN, will stop through to garner attention for
vl its upcoming album, Love and Curses, out Aug. 11. The
album is the band's first batch of new songs since 2004's Too
Much Guitar. But that doesn't mean singer/guitarist/songwriter
and mainstay Greg Cartwright has been twiddling his thumbs.
Reigning Sound served as the backing band for Shangri-La Mary
Weiss' solo album Dangerous Game, a job that took them to 30
Rockefeller Plaza, performing for millions on "Late Night with
Conan O'Brien." Then Cartwright's '90s garage-trash outfit, The
Oblivians, reunited in June for several shows around the U.S.
before jetting to Europe for a sold-out tour of seven countries.
If advance tracks of Love and Curses are any indication, it
bears many similarities to 2002's Time Bomb High School. That
is, the album features soulful, well-written garage-rock with
clean production, and in some cases, ballads that are neither
rote nor boring. Cartwright recently told the blog Turn It Down
that "There are happy songs that are about being glad for what
you got and songs about being sad for what you don't have."
Cartwright is well known as an oldies, soul and classic
garage-record collector, and Reigning Sound has always had
a penchant for covering obscurities on its albums, bringing a
fresh sound and new life to some forgotten classics. Past selec
tions have included tracks by Sam & Dave, The Gentrys and The
Beach Boys. Love and Curses is sure to include several tracks of
re-envisioned nuggets, lost to the platters of time.
Reigning Sound is bringing along an excellent new combo
to open the show: Huntsville, AL's Thomas Function. This four
some (none named Thomas) turned many heads last year with
its debut album, Celebration. The Alabamians have a hooky,
keyboard-driven pop-rock sound not unlike The Kinks, The
Voidoids or, even more recently, The Strokes, if any of those
bands sang with disarmingly Southern accents. The band dif
fers from many others in that its lyrics, crafted by singer/
guitarist Joshua Macero, are acid-fueled surrealistic adventures
fraught with paranoia and debauchery. Barely home from a
spring tour of Europe, Thomas Function, too, will celebrate the
release of a new album this fall. In the Valley of Sickness is due
Oct. 13 on Mississippi's Fat Possum label. Advance tracks of
this album also show similarities to the band's previous work,
but will presumably feature better production values than
Celebration's DIY genesis.
Thomas Function is adept at making a certain lewd
ness seem fun and sing-songy: Celebration's "Peanut Butter
and Paranoia Jam" featured the psychotic refrain "We don't
just laugh last/ we hope you die." Likewise, In the Valley of
Sickness' "ADP" features the happy, catchy chorus "The only
good cop is a dead cop."
If you haven't seen Athens' Vincas yet, you're missing
out, friend. The trio does a mean wailing guitar, psychedelic-
drenched punk, much like Mudhoney did in previous decades.
Vincas would've released innumerable seven-inch singles on
labels like Estrus or Sympathy for the Record Industry 15 years
ago.
If it's unadulterated madness you're looking for, these
performances are gonna put the fervor of solid, Southern rock
and roll back into you. Be like others and experience an event
Friday night that will leave you speaking in tongues.
Scott Reid
( \
WHO. Reigning Sound, Thomas Function, Vincas,
DJ Kurt Wood &DI Grrtch
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, Aug. 7
HOW MUCH: $10
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