Monday, April 2, 2007

Big Man In Texas:



The band Jon Wayne (not to be confused with the drunken star of the previous "Celebrities At Their Worst" posting on this site) delivers some of the most crudest and demented skuzz rock that you are likely to hear. "Two Graduated Jiggers" (their second album) was recorded over random periods of 7 years and consists of some very drunk Texas cowboy rednecks stumbling in and out of tune and churning out some strange barroom ruckus. There are moments of musical competence on display here (at times they manage to channel a certain Tom Waits vibe to their sound)...but those moments of clarity are quickly lost in the shuffle of random noises and the singer's constant rambling to the producer and engineers in the studio.

With songs like "I Do Drive Truck", "Time To Drink Whiskey", and one of my favorites "I Caught Me A Squirrel" (which contains the immortal words "Caught me a squirrel, cut off it's head, put into a pot and the family was fed"), the redneck way of life is not merely addressed, but glorified in such an absurd and preposterous manner, that one can't help but wonder if this recording is the work of a joke band made up of indie rock kids or the art of a sincere outsider unit. Either way, it's a hilarious and fun tobacco-spittin', mule-kickin', whiskey-fueled mess.

yeee-haw

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These guys don't sound like legitimate hicks -- kind of comes across more like a Butthole Surfers kinda thing. Doesn't make it any less odd though. I think Jimbo's Clown Room may be the "hit" of the album.

Anonymous said...

An old boyfriend of mine was the drummer in the band (Jimbo) and I can honestly say that the members consisted of musicians who's names you might recognize, hence the use of "fake" names...and yes, it was all done with tongue firmly in cheek!!