Noise for Zeros

Delving deeper into the legend of Los Marauders, the Nehring brothers (aka Nobody and Edward T. Action) streamlined their rockabilly sound with the more conventional and cleaned up band The Roughhousers. And while the aggro trash punk elements of the Marauders were removed, the Roughhousers could still tear it up and were one of the funnest live bands to see in the mid-90s, serving up loads of entertaining stage banter and hopped up, sweaty, roadhouse rhythm and blues. Unfortunately, they rarely made it out of Iowa City and even more unfortunately, very few recordings of the band exist. In fact, I believe these two tracks from a pair of local scene compilations are the only releases this should-be legendary group put out.

DOWNLOAD:

The Rough Housers – “Hit Da Floor”
from Herd Mentality compilation CD, Feedlot Records, 1997

The Rough Housers – “The Feet You’re Standing On”
from Land of Dirt compilation CD, Feedlot Records, 1996

Every Fuckin’ Song We Know CD
Teenbeat Records, 1996

In every independent music scene across the country, there seems to be at least one band that plays some variation of old school rockabilly. Whether they have the standup bass, 1950s greaser style, or some reverbed hollowbody guitar action, there’s always a token group that looks to the primitive R&B past for inspiration. Groups like the Kingpins, The Crows, The Rev. Horton Heat, and countless others fill this niche, but only a few really stand apart from the pack and add something to the mix that keeps them from being a tired retread of the past. Iowa City’s Los Marauders took the rockabilly template and fucked it up enough to create an entirely different beast. Just as The Cramps mutated rockabilly into psychobilly with the rawness of punk, Los Marauders kicked up the tempo and aggression and pushed it into the hardcore realm. Singer Nobody’s throaty vocals (achieved by chain-smoking cigars) aren’t too far removed from the hoarse barks of Negative Approach, and Johnny Aztec’s ultra-revved up guitar kept their sound miles above the mundane. They could kick out some fairly conventional rockabilly too, but they always had an edge that kept them at the top of the rockabilly heap.

DOWNLOAD:

Los Marauders – “Wild Women”
Los Marauders – “Got A Rock”
Los Marauders – “Green Martians from Mars”
Los Marauders – “Wreckin’ Machine”

LINKS:

Los Marauders on YouTube
Los Marauders on Teenbeat Records

The Lights Are Getting Dim LP
Fat Possum Records, 1999

Goddamn I love summer. Even when that nasty midwestern humidity sets in with that thick, earthy, weedish smell that permeates everything outside air conditioned safety zones, when you can literally sit in a chair, do nothing and work up a major sweat. I understand not liking it — it can be quite unpleasant after all — buy hey, I’ll take this over frigid cold anyday, and that’s what I love about the Neckbones. Hailing from Oxford, Mississippi, the Neckbones know about hot, stanky heat and they’ve captured that heat perfectly in their sultry blues punk. Like most jaded fucks, I cringe at most bands trying to do the “punk blues” thing, since there are few that have hit that mark well and tons of retread garage punk bands that attempt to ape some classic blues and R&B elements and end up sounding like tedious facsimiles of the real deal without any heart. Cooking up some righteously bluesy riffs and vocals, plus some maracas, organ, piano, and even some sax courtesy of Jack Oblivian, the Neckbones are as real as it gets when you’re needing some down home, hot ass, greasy Southern-fried blues punk. A Boston Phoenix review called them “a cross between the early Rolling Stones and The Dead Boys,” which I agree with wholeheartedly if you add The Stooges as a midpoint reference to their lineage, since the Neckbones pack an Asheton-sized guitar whallop into their songs. Just sample the 3 tracks below from their classic The Lights Are Getting Dim album and get ready to have a new soundtrack for summer.

DOWNLOAD:

The Neckbones – “Cardiac Suture”
The Neckbones – “Goodbye Ramona”
The Neckbones – “You’re All Winners”

LINKS:

The Neckbones on MySpace
The Neckbones on Fat Possum Records

Loser / Cooking With Gas 7″
Sub-Pop, 1989

Talking with a friend this weekend, we recalled a time when the term “grunge” didn’t conjure up images of ridiculous designer flannel and lame ’90s-style hard rock, before the gnarlier aspects of the term were sanitized and rationalized for mass consumption. For us, Seattle’s Tad embodied what grunge was really about: loud, burly, heavy dirtpunk for weirdos — in short, ugly music for ugly people. Long before every mall in America was teeming with teenagers sporting Doc Martens and flannel shirts, flipping their locks and blathering about Pearl Jam, Tad was punishing eardrums with gut-rumbling dirges that mainlined the colossal buzz of the Melvins and late-period Black Flag (they released a single featuring covers of Flag’s “Damaged I” and “Damaged II”) into a backwoods freakshow that made grunge scary. Their God’s Balls and Salt Lick 12-inchers are essential noise rock classics and this, one of many classic Tad singles on Sub-Pop, showcases the true grit of grunge.

DOWNLOAD:

Tad – “Loser”
Tad – “Cooking With Gas”