true sons of thunder - stop and smell your face

GET READY FOR THE LOUDEST, UNRULIEST, SLEAZIEST SLAB OF GARAGE PUNK YOU'LL HEAR ALL YEAR LONG!!!!!!!
LITTLE BIG CHIEF RECORDS has unleashed the second album from the super deranged memphis supergroup TRUE SONS OF THUNDER, entitled STOP AND SMELL YOUR FACE!!!!!!!!

nobody plays RnR like this anymore, a full force maelstrom of GUITAR STRANGLING and CAVESTOMP PUMMELING, ALL SLURRED TOGETHER LIKE YER FAVORITE DRUNK MEMORIES....... this ought to be the template for GARAGE PUNK, not what most purveyors of the genre play these days......  FULL ON RAW, RAGING ROCK N ROLL that'll leave you with bruises and hangovers for days......

it doesn't even matter that TRUE SONS OF THUNDER can count former OBLIVIANS, MANATEEES, SHARP BALLOONS, BAD TIMES and LEGS troublemakers as their members, cuz THIS RECORD NEEDS NO CONTEXT!!!!!   STOP AND SMELL YOUR FACE is the kinda record IGGY AND THE STOOGES were too afraid to make, THE CRAMPS were too grounded to try and record and too WILD for even CRYPT RECORDS to press up back in the day.......

STOP AND SMELL YOUR FACE might be difficult to track down, but this is one HELLUVA RnR RIDE you need to take.......
put it on yer motherfucking bucket list.....
cuz you need to hear how feral and absolutely crazy rock n roll can get before you die.....

ONE LISTEN IS ALL IT'LL TAKE TO GET YOU HOOKED!!!!!!!!


watch TRUE SONS OF THUNDER live below -

the tearjerkers - bad moon rising

BIG LEGAL MESS did us all a favor by reissuing some of JACK OBLIVIANS' various post OBLIVIANS, post COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS, side projects and solo lps.....most notably the killer southern friend bluesy garage punk lp by THE TEARJERKERS entitled BAD MOON RISING....... originally released on SYMPATHY FOR THE RECORD INDUSTRY in 2001, this lp might just be JACK OBLIVIANS best, most RnR effort outside those now legendary bands he's more famous for.....

i highly suggest picking up any of Jack O's albums....but you should start with BAD MOON RISING.....my favorite of all his albums..... totally scuzzy, bluesy and soul scorching all at the same time.....

just listen to a few tracks below...... and then surf over to BIG LEGAL MESS to grab a copy for yerself!!!!   a super classic album, that you can play over and over and over again!!!!!

oblivians - desperation

the wait was worth it........THE OBLIVIANS ARE FUCKING BACK !!!!!!!!!!   YES!!!!!!!!

not everyone is going to fall in love with the OBLIVIANS' new album DESPERATION, but those who don't are people who probably don't know what they're talking about anyway....and you should not take their musical advice.......ever!!!!!

eric, greg and jack have been busy pursuing their own bands since the OBLIVIANS called it a day back in '97, and none of those countless bands really strayed to far from what the oblivians were about in the first place, LOUD RAW ROCK N ROLL....CATCHY, DIRTY AND RAMBUNCTIOUS.AS FUCK.... be it REIGNING SOUND, COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS, THE LEGS, JACK-O AND THE TENNESSEE TEARJERKERS, TRUE SONS OF THUNDER and their solo projects recorded under their own names (or any of their other bands to plentiful to list here), ALL THREE OF THE OBLIVIANS never stopped creating a whirlwind of SOULFUL, INFECTIOUS SOUTHERN FRIED GARAGE ROCK CLASSICS that i've always jumped at the chance to grab..........  so it only made sense to get the band back together.....and in the studio......... 

gone are some of the rough edges and some of the youthful provocation / swearing on DESPERATION, but instead we get better songwriting, killer cover songs and a concise album overflowing with future smash hits.......... maybe DESPERATION isn't SOUL FOOD, but who else can jam together in the studio on a whim and write an album THIS FUCKING AWESOME?  yeah, that's just it, no one else can.  or there might be a few people that could, but none of them are around anymore.......   so stop yer whining, THIS LP IS BETTER THAN I COULD'VE EVEN EXPECTED!!!!!!!!!!   this isn't some tired reunion, or boring retread of past accomplishments, or an empty cash grab..... DESPERATION is three of my favorite musicians doing what they do best!!!!!!   and if you think this album falls flat, you might as well just throw out yer stereo cuz it's not doing you any good.......

i hope this is more than a one off from them,
but even if it is, their new lp just furthers their already legendary status.

thanks IN THE RED RECORDS for making this happen !!!!!!!!!!!!!

DESPERATION is hands down the ALBUM OF YEAR.  

A REPEAT LISTEN TIMES INFINITY.

CRANK UP THE VOLUME AND LISTEN BELOW -

new jams - oblivians - "i'll be gone"

holy shit, IN THE RED is set to release a new OBLIVIANS' album DESPERATION may
28th.....their first since 1997...... and after you listen to "I'LL BE GONE" below, you'll know it's been well worth the wait....... few bands play garage punk as classic as they do..... i never thought they'd get back together to record again, but sometimes life gives you what you want.....and from the sound of it, DESPERATION is just gonna be a snotty loud and fun as SOUL FOOD or POPULAR FAVORITES.......YES!!!!!!   

OBLIVIAN are one of my favorite bands, so you know i'm fucking excited to get my hands on this one.   thanks IN THE RED, for making it happen.

LISTEN TO "I'LL BE GONE" OFF DESPERATION HERE - 
   (and hit repeat, like i've been doing all morning)




and watch the OBLIVIANS play GONER RECORDS in 2011 here -

the legs - aaaa the new memphis legs

After the OBLIVIANS split ways to focus on their various projects (GONER RECORDS, REIGNING SOUND, JACK-O AND THE TENNESSEE TEARJERKERS to name a few of the many), ERIC FRIEDL was keeping his eyes out for his next raucous rock n roll adventure.  Luckily for him (and us), JAMES ARTHUR of FIREWORKS and NECESSARY EVILS fame decided to move to Eric's homewtown of Memphis, the erstwhile capital city of rock n roll, blues and southern soul.  Then looking to round out the new band, Eric and James probably found FORREST HEWES (of the recently disbanded NECKBONES) at a some local dive bar  and the rest is history as they say.  

THE LEGS gigged around town, gained a legendary status in an already notoriously rambunctious Memphis scene, recorded a few drunken demos, and then sadly vanished.  Probably the hangovers were too much to handle.  Or that bands this explosive can not last very long....But after all these years, Eric Oblivian decided to dig the tapes out of his closet and finally give AAAA THE NEW MEMPHIS LEGS a proper release (as well as reuniting The Legs one last time for Goner Fest this year)......I wasn't in Memphis to see the Legs in full force during their heyday, so you'll have to get the back story from GONER -

"Blood and beer-encrusted recordings from the epochal year 2000: Once mammoth Texas guitar noisemaker James Arthur moved from Los Angeles to Memphis and began hanging out with local roustabout Eric “Oblivian” Friedl, The Legs were inevitable. The two filled their days drinking whiskey and beer, searching for pinball machines, riding mountain bikes through broken glass and rabid-dog-filled uncharted alleys, and enjoying spontaneous dance parties which mostly consisted of wearing out copies of the “Quick Joey Small” 45.  When they could be bothered to actually play music, they jammed away on a chord or three. They thought they might be onto something, but couldn’t really tell what it was. Bassists were not consulted. All this time, drummer Forrest Hewes of Oxford, Mississippi’s Neckbones was quietly living a few blocks away from Friedl; once his massive drums were planted behind their wall of scuzz, The Legs knew they had truly arrived.  With a setlist of Australian garage thudders from the Ugly Things compilation, a mutant two-chord Doug Sahm song and simple, intense originals, The Legs were a short-lived, yet highly entertaining Memphis club favorite, playing alongside Reatards, Jeffrey Evans and other Memphis talents of the time. There were two recording sessions—one captured by Jeffrey Evans with Jay Reatard on organ that yielded the track “I’ve Been Raped (By the Pinball Machine)” for a Pinball song compilation, and the other done in Jody Hill’s living room, which is issued here in its entirety."

Fans of sweaty drunk garage damaged punk will ABSOLUTELY NEED "AAAA THE NEW MEMPHIS LEGS."  No LP this year has sounded so dirty loud and raw as this freshly pressed slab of rock n roll from Goner (a record label btw that's always worth keeping tabs on)....  

Those in need of an Oblivians, Reatards or 68 Comeback fix, this is gonna stay on your turntable for quite some time.   Even better than that BAD TIMES lp and just as wild as those classic GORIES records, The New Memphis Legs is the high octane blast of rock n roll you need RIGHT NOW.  

HIGHLY AND LOUDLY RECOMMENDED.  

Records this fun don't come out every week.

LISTEN TO THE FIRST TWO TRACKS 
OFF THE NEW LP BELOW.....




AND WATCH THE REUNITED LEGS PLAY 
GONER FEST THIS YEAR......

true sons of thunder - spoonful of seedy dudes

An elusive gang of misanthropic, beer-swilling noise mongering garage punks, The True Sons of Thunder are one of Memphis’s best-kept secrets. 


Equal parts supergroup and secret society, the band is made up of guys who've been in  quite a few other bands... Joe Simpson (Rat Traps, Sharp Balloons), Eric Friedl (Oblivians, Goner Records), Abe White (Oscars, Manatees), Richard Martin (Four Johns), and Sambeaux (Mangina). 


Not since the BAD TIMES or 68 COMEBACK has there been such a meeting of the garage rock minds....


TRUE SONS OF THUNDER are an anarchic mess of heavy garage slop and deep-fried sludge that just may destroy rock n roll altogether, but in such an infectious way, none of us will care.....


and after gigging here and there for awhile, somebody finally shoved them in a studio with some alcohol, so we could all experience the mayhem that Memphis has kept to itself.......

so click here to grab 
the SPOONFUL OF SEEDY DUDES lp......
  out now on JETH-ROW records.......

  and go to GONER FEST this fall.....
likely the only time you'll get the chance to see THE TRUE SONS OF THUNDER in person.......

watch the chaos of their live show below...
            and pretend you were there...

reigning sound - abdication ep

twice this month, scion has brought us brand new eps by bands much loved by tiny grooves...... first there was the king khan experience ep and now there's a new mini album by the REIGNING SOUND......

more soulful rock n roll from greg cartwright and his band of garage rock stalwarts......  every song sounds like a classic.....bursting with that punk energy that greg honed in the oblivians and catchy lyrics that make you wish that ABDICATION was a follow up to 2009's LOVE AND CURSES lp and not just eight songs long....

i just keep the ep on repeat.....its that good.

so click here for the ABDICATION ep 

listen to LYIN' GIRL from the ep below.....

jack oblivian - rat city

you may know from reading this blog that the oblivians are one of my favorite bands and the various projects they've been involved with since demise of the great garage punk band have also been a huge influence on my musical leanings.......  greg has been keeping busy with REIGNING SOUND, eric with GONER RECORDS and JACK OBLIVIAN with his awesome solo records........

and JACK OBLIVIAN has a new rock n roller of an lp "RAT CITY" just out on BIG LEGAL MESS.....

the garage punk swagger is still there, but on his new album, jack oblivian mixes MEMPHIS rock and soul with post punk, classic rock boogie, fuzzed out psych and drunken blues together in one big fun late night mess.........

this is good rock n roll, at a time when way too many people stay confined within their small subgenres..... if you like anything i post on TINY GROOVES, you need to check out JACK OBLIVIAN, he's way too under-appreciated for such an awesome musician....

so click here to grab RAT CITY

and click here to go to PUNKS MAKE YOUR DAY for some older JACK OBLIVIAN lps....

and listen to a couple of tracks off the new lp below......

CRYPT RECORDS CHEAPO SAMPLER

if you wanna know where my heart lies, its mostly with the garage punk bands
        on CRYPT RECORDS in the 90s.......

kind of forgotten by some, i never get tired of listening to any of these bands.  THE OBLIVIANS, THE GORIES, BILLY CHILDISH's two bands THE HEADCOATS and THEE MIGHTY CAESARS, TEENGENERATE, LYRES, early JON SPENCER and FIREWORKS........  

every band on this comp is worth digging for........


maybe this is a bit of a time warp, but this is garage punk at its best.........

click here to download 
the CHEAPO CRYPT RECORDS SAMPLER from 1995

the tracklist........

1. Introduction: Ol' Pal Joe :: Ol' Pal Joe
2. Long Gone Sister :: New Bomb Turks
3. Back in the City :: The Devil Dogs
4. Get Me Back :: Teengenerate
5. Because Just Because :: Thee Mighty Caesars
6. I Got Eyes for You :: The Gories
7. Back Slider :: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
8. The Screaming Rummy :: Beguiled
9. Blubber Nellie :: Raunch Hands
10. Feelin' Kinda Froggy :: Nine Pound Hammer
11. Every Day :: Thee Headcoats
12. Murdered Model :: Fireworks
13. Frustration, Tragedy and Lies :: Lazy Cowgirls
14. What's This Shit Called Love? :: The Pagans
15. Sunday You Need Love :: Oblivians
16. Tail Crush :: New Bomb Turks
17. Go on Girl :: The Devil Dogs
18. Loathsome & Wild :: Thee Mighty Caesars
19. Nitroglycerine :: The Gories
20. Runaway Train :: Nine Pound Hammer
21. Naked, Naked, Naked :: Raunch Hands
22. The Feeling of Love :: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
23. Youngblood :: Thee Headcoats
24. She-Devil Rock :: Beguiled
25. Thunder Road :: Fireworks
26. Give Till It Hurts :: The Pagans
27. Pink House Club :: Pleasure Fuckers
28. Hosebag :: The Devil Dogs
29. Why Don't You Try My Love :: Thee Mighty Caesars
30. I Think I've Had It :: The Gories
31. Green Room :: Raunch Hands
32. The Way I Feel About You :: Lyres

scion a/v club GARAGE/PUNK SEVEN INCH SERIES

scion may or may not be encroaching on our beloved garage rock scene, but free music from our favorite bands is never a terrible thing.  


so i guess we owe a thanks to scion for this singles series.......

as far a i can tell this is every release 
in the scion a/v club garage/punk 7 inch collection......
              (they have also released a few other rock, metal and hiphop singles, but that's less interesting....)



so click here to grab the first ELEVEN singles in the series......
     (all grouped as one easy to download .zip file)


black lips / pierced arrows
cola freaks / digital leather

king tuff / hex dispensers

human eye / sex beet

jack oblivian / mannequin men

oblivians / andre ethier

reigning sound / last year's men

dirtbombs / davila 666

the strange boys / natural child

kid congo & the pink monkey birds / 
            hunx & his punx

nobunny / jacuzzi boys

and  here to grab THE SPITS two 7 inches

(grouped as another .zip
    so the spits fans can just grab these two releases.....)
      
the spits "haunted fang castle" ep 
(which is quite weird)  & the spits / dan melchior split

and   
click here to grab the 
CHEAP TIME / BAD SPORTS
7 INCH......

some of these singles are no longer available 
for download at scion....... 


      
so this might be the only place to grab these 7 inches.....

JACK OBLIVIAN tonight at REGGIES

jack oblivian plays reggies tonight @ 10pm. don't miss this.

the hipshakes - shake their hips lp

the UK response to the OBLIVIANS....or the new ministers of the gospel of dirty fast garage punk...... the HIPSHAKES have been on repeat the tiny grooves' HQ for a while now......can't stop listening......i think you might feel the same....

here's what slovenly records had to say "Fourteen blistering tracks of teenage angst from the UK. These three young chaps are sure to make the likes GG ALLIN, GUITAR WOLF, THE REATARDS, and even THE STONES very proud. Eric of OBLIVANS recently showed his approval with a release on his fine GONER RECORDS label. Excruciatingly loud trash punk straight from the garage that blares so loud that we applied a warning label for your speakers. Don't miss this one!"

grab their lp "shake their hips" here..... (and plz buy it if yr local store has it, it's worth the hard earned cash......)

bad times- s/t lp

FORGOTTEN JAMS--->

"The legend, as recounted in the liner notes, is that the BAD TIMES album was recorded in New Orleans in 1999 in one all-day session after a single day's writing and rehearsal byEric Oblivian (Oblivians, Goner Records mogul), Jay Reatard, and King Louie (King Louie One Man Band), all of whom were looking to purge some personal demons more than they were planning on releasing the results.

Originally issued as a limited-edition LP before the CD version (same songs, different running order) came out on Sympathy for the Record Industry in 2003, BAD TIMES is more of a curio for fans of the kids' main projects than it is a proper album. The four-track cassette recorder used to document the sessions is stretched well beyond its capacity, to the point where songs like "You're So Lewd" are just barely visible behind the wall of distortion. Despite the supposedly dismal circumstances of its recording, ...BAD TIMES is what it is: a punk jam session by three friends made for their own amusement. It's a mistake to expect more out of this album than it can offer, but it's a great loud fun listen on its own merits." ---ALLMUSIC entry (slight re-edit from tiny grooves)

CLICK HERE TO GRAB THIS LP.....it's out of print on cd and vinyl...but maybe goner records will reissue it someday....

jack-o and the tennessee tearjerkers - disco outlaw

the new LP disco outlaw by
jack-o and the tennessee tearjerkers is more of the southern fried garage rock that you'd expect from a member of the oblivians and the compulsive gamblers.

two or three of the tracks are in high rotation in my itunes, but the whole LP is worth grabbing......

which you should do by clicking the link..........

greg cartwright on the radio

greg cartwright (reigning sound, oblivians) playing over two hours of his personal 45 collection, yeah its awesome. jump with this link to another blog where you can download the whole thing...obscure garage, amercana, country and r&b.....so totally worth the space on yr hard drive.......

garage punk classics - the oblivians

garage punk might not have been invented until the OBLIVIANS formed..... the memphis trio released nothing but the best loud catchy soulful garage punk ever recorded....... i love every album, single and ep they made......  to say i'm obsessed with this band is an understatement...

if you don't have any of their music, now is yr chance to change that.......

click below to grab some of my favorite albums of all time.......

popular favorites

soul food

six of the best ep

sympathy sessions

play nine songs w/ mr. quintron

never enough ep

best of the worst