If you’re throwing a shindig any time soon, this pioneering 26-year New Orleans country-punk trio led by Bill Davis (the sole original member) wants to be invited. They might get drunk, pass out, and throw up in your bathtub instead of the toilet next to it (as one guest did at a party my missus and I threw some years ago, to our amusement). But until then, theirs is the sort of attitude that makes sure a party stays “wild,” their favorite word on this album. The gonzo DDR fan would have 12-18 of their albums on their shelf going back to 1987, but Davis is no more tamed after so long, and so many songs, than the icons he namechecks in his songs, dead or alive—from George Jones and Jerry Lee Lewis to long-gone-daddies Hank Williams , Keith Moon , and even loser of the ‘70s Sid Vicious . (What, no Lemmy?) As was the case with the original outbreak of this stuff in the early‘80s (Rank & File, Jason & the Scorchers, Lone Justice, Beat Farmers, etc), right through to heavier contemporary practitioners such as Supersuckers, the group still tends more toward R&B/rockabilly-accented rock than any straight-ahead C&W, but like all good roots rockers, they keep it more ornery and impolite than fastidious. This is one party that’s going to end after the bars close, too, and may be still raging after sunup. (alternativetentacles.com)
