King Khan & The Shrines - What Is?! (2007)

Finally able and willing to post something since by return from the great nation of Canada. Suitably in honor of Montreal I am sharing one of my favorite musicians from that glorious city, I'd murder for a metro like that. I've previously shared The King Khan and BBQ Show on the blog, and that is the most recent King Khan project. However, there is the band preceding that, King Kahn & The Shrines. Khan is one of those musicians that shows is control of the genre by being able to seamlessly blend in various influences and styles into his songs. What Is?! doubtlessly has the traditional garage rock inspirations like The Stooges and MC5, but also borrows from the sleazier 90s garage scene without mimicking. Overall, a very happy, mildy-psychedelic album about having a good time.

To be had here:
King Khan & The Shrines [192 VBR kbps]

Tandoori Knights - Curry Up It's the Tandoori Knights (2010)

It took me a minute to track this album down but luckily Teenage Lobotomy had it up on their best of 2010. Tandoori Knights is the latest of King Khan's musical venture, this time teaming up with another Canadian rockabilly musician, Bloodshot Bill. Working together each of them maintain their stripped down sound and theatrical style. Notably more absurd than The King Khan and BBQ Show or Bloodshot's solo work, but a pretty unique idea. For those unfamiliar with King Khan's biography, he is a Canadian of South Asian descent and has spent a good deal of time in Germany. The cultural crossing might have encouraged him in conceiving an Indian themed garage rock/rockabilly band. The played up accent that is employed at times jives remarkably well with the rockabilly delivery. Highly pleasurable if not taken seriously, but what is for reals is how well these guys know how to compose simple garage rock tunes. In the absence of a new King Khan and BBQ Show album, this is pretty fine.

To be had here:
Tandoori Knights - Curry Up It's the Tandoori Knights [224 VBR kbps]

King Khan & the Shrines - Mr. Supernatural (2004)

King Khan is coming to Detroit, well, technically his Indian themed duo with Bloodshot Bill, the Tandoori Knights are. However, I've posted the only album by that outfit so I have resorted to an album I've been playing at the coffee shop lately, Mr. Supernatural. With was an earlier phase of King Khan's ever-changing styles of lo-fi rock. This album nearly straight-up funk. Soulful singing, horns galore, and jangling guitars make for a funky sound that can easily summon memories of James Brown. Super exciting and wildly busy with instrumentation it is a great album for getting worked up. Sadly this digital version still has that horrible, disdainful hangover from the era of compact discs where there's a long blank spot to "conceal" an obvious "hidden track." Excepting that technologically outdated feature, it is a wonderful listen and grab up the later album, What Is?! if you haven't got it already.

To be had here:
King Khan & the Shrines - Mr. Supernatural [192 VBR kbps]

The King Khan and BBQ Show - Invisible Girl (2009)

More garage rock, although of another sort. While some garage rock is more punk influenced and raw, others kept the pop, blues and soul influences of earlier era closer. Flamboyancy is a prized quality in the performers of garage rock in general, and King Khan and BBQ surely have it in spades. Considerably more mellow than something like the Stripes or Ty Segall shared recently, it reminds me of something Jon Spencer would be involved in. A raunchiness akin to Pussy Galore but style closer to Heavy Trash, if you're familiar with Spencer's work. The King Khan and BBQ Show is a combination of two Montreal-based gentlemen that have has some previous experience in bands of the genre. Their experience and rhythm shines throughout. One of the better features is the amazing crooning on tracks like "I'll Be Loving You" and "Tryin" that leave me memorized. However, as with all garage rock it is something that enters one's listening orbit only to exit in due time, but like comets and planets it returns regularly.

To be had here:
The King Khan and BBQ Show - Invisible Girl [192 VBR kbps]

The Black Jaspers - The Black Jaspers (2009)

As I suggested I might, this is another project from one my favorites, King Khan. Instead of being with fellow Montreal musicians Mark Sultan or Bloodshot Bill, this is with Jasper Hood of Moorat Fingers. It is quintessentially what Khan is all about, punk made lo-fi as all fuck with silly lyrics. I'll be the first to admit though that this isn't nearly a catchy or well done as the King Khan & BBQ Show albums nor is it as conceptually curious as Tandoori Knights. However, all this is a bit more expected once informed that this album was actually recorded in 2001. Apparently King Khan just held on to without releasing the Black Jaspers for years but finally felt that 2009 was the year to do so. Thus the more primitive sound the reminds one of a very stripped down Spaceshits makes more sense. Boy howdy, did I ever go link heavy here. Anyhow, hope this tickles your fancy.

To be had here:
The Black Jaspers - The Black Jaspers [192 kbps]

The Almighty Defenders - The Almighty Defenders (2009)

Earlier this month I shared King Khan & the Shrines, so I won't give the story on who he is again. I will tell you that he and his current bandmate, Mark Sultan who is BBQ in the King Khan and BBQ Show, have been up to some collaborating. In this case with the members of the Black Lips while holing up with Khan in Berlin. Basically a garage rock jam session branded as a band. Though I think it was fully recorded it the studio, it has the roughness of a live recording. This is made all the better in that a main source of inspiration seems to be gospel, which is naturally meant to be preformed live. It certainly possesses a feeling of nostalgic reflection on the earlier period of rock music, when the influence of soul and gospel were readily apparent. This album isn't as fast-paced and jazzy as Khan's work with the shrines, but does feel very close to the most recent album with BBQ.

To be had here:
The Almighty Defenders - The Almighty Defenders [192 kbps]

King Cayman - Dream (2014)

Another album from Spain,  this time a very different sort of lo-fi record from Madrid's King Cayman from what I've been writing up lately, but a style I am so very familiar with. King Cayman is a moniker for a one-man band of very trashy, bluesy garage punk and with nothing more than that description it already can summon references to Jeans Wilder, King Tuff and BBQ, which of course was name used by Mark Sultan's early name on his early albums and still does use when teamed with King Khan. Musically I find it hard to imagine that this Spaniard doesn't listen to all of these musicians and dozens more that could be dug up from the beer-soaked barrooms they tend to play in. 

The songs you'll hear on Dream are oscillate between heavier and trashier blues punk along the lines of a stripped down Jon Spencer project like Heavy Trash or Pussy Galore, yet other times he gets quirkily creative and offbeat in a way that reminds me of Jeffrey Novak's solo work. King Cayman's tunes are incredibly seeped in the DIY philosophy of punk; the album was done on a low budget as you can imagine, so low that real drums were out of the picture so a drum machine is substituted. Nevertheless, this guy clearly isn't any old fool playing rock music as he has an remarkable prowess for forging some energetic bursts of garage rock majesty. The songs became immediately stuck in my head and required a re-listening, all the while digging for whatever it was that compelled to me heard it again and again.

Not every album I hear and like causes me to want to hear the music, not even some albums I that've become favorites of mine and others I want to hear repeatedly sometimes burn me out and I don't wanna return for prolonged times. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to which albums take hold of me in these ways, but I'm fairly confident this could become a garage classic for me. King Cayman has captured a feeling of irreverence and bravado that I have a supreme longing and might only exist in works of art, in which case I might have to settle for imagining it to songs like these.

Should you desire to hear more of this fella's music he had a demo album released on the UK label Foxbourne Tapes.

To be had here:

King Cayman - Dream

Mark Sultan - Whatever I Want (2011) & Whenever I Want (2011)

Last year I got the good fortune to meet Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin and King Khan all here in Detroit, and if there was only one musician I could add to that list it'd undoubtedly be Mark Sultan. Couldn't think of a man I'd rather here belt out garage rock, in the King Khan and BBQ Show, Les Sexareenos, the Spaceshits, or solo. I've been sitting on these albums for no good reason, but realizing I'm a fool and need to correct my erroneous ways. Moreover, I'm gonna suggest you're a madman if you don't snatch up these twin LPs right away. The albums are each fantastically charming, being both retro and modern by combining contemporary garage rock and older styles of rock, doo wop and gospel. He even ends Whenever I Want with want I can best describe as a free jazz number. Whatever I Want naturally has all the jangled, distorted guitar Sultan excels at, and features a remarkably neat cover of Ultravox's "For Just a Moment" that if anything is too brief. This man is a true wizard of lo-fi rock and roll.

To be had here:




Whatever I Want [320 kbps]











Whenever I Want [320 kbps]

The Spaceshits

Although likely well known to fans of King Khan and Mark Sultan, for the benefit of the rest the Spaceshits was the group from which that pair of modern garage rock nobility cut their teeth. Before the Shrines, BBQ, or the Almighty Defenders the were making raunchy, loud, distorted and wild music in Montreal venues earning quite the reputation. These three offerings are there 2 full-lengths and an double 7" release. While I am certain there are several singles and obscure collections out there I can't find them for the time being. The sound of these albums is much more like King Khan and the Shrines than Mark Sultan's solo work if I had to pick, but really it is far more rough and unfocused. However, with this lies a large part of the charm of these songs: the pure barbarous rock spilling from them. If you've liked any of the later groups or projects of the members of this band I must insist that you take the time you hear these albums if you have already.

To had to here:




Winter Dance Party (1997) [192 kbps]












Misbehavin' (1999) [224 VBR kbps]













Fullfisted Action! (1996) [224 kbps]

Random Singles part two

Took a bit of a break cause it was my birthday and I wanted to drink beer and listen to music without thinking about how to write it up. However, isolation can get real boring as well. I have some singles and EPs sitting about that I feel like putting up today.

To be had here:

The Dirtbombs - Kick Me 7" (2010) [256 kbps]

Naturally awesome as most everything Mick Collins touches is. "Kick Me" and the b-side "The Crunch" as lo-fi rock and roll of the sorts that made me really come to love the Dirtbombs in the first place.

The Potential Johns - The Potential Johns 7" (2007) [256 VBR kbps]

This is largely because somebody complained that I was putting up a bunch of garage rock and lo-fi shit and their favorite band, the Potential Johns, wasn't among what I'd picked. Well, truth be told they're not the easiest band to find but they are good garage punk.

Brut Choir - Barest Bones (2011)

I was given the heads up on this act by the fella from Liquid Skulls. While I've enjoyed the times I listened through it I have been lazy about posting it up. Eerie, droning, post-punk that both gives me joy and the willies. This EP is available for free or name your price on bandcamp.

King Khan - The Velvet Monobrow (2007) [128 kbps]

Apologies for the shitty bitrate, but this single gets me all worked up. I've seen this tagged all sorts of ways, but I am pretty sure this is a solo single by King Khan. Despite the title of the release, the songs are "Ain't It Sad" and "Never Enough," with the former being the sappiest song may have ever done. Reminds me intensely of Lou Reed and that is about the best thing I can ever say about anything.

King Cayman - Mirror's Carnival (2015)

As promised the return of another artist that I highly, and I still believe rightly, praised. This time the Madrid-based extreme lo-fi garage rocker known a King Cayman. Although he's got more work out there, the only other album I've written up by this dude was last years Dream. The core of King Cayman's style has carried over into Mirror's Carnival, which specifically is an very intense lo-fi punk sound complete with harsh, growling vocals. Although those vocals bear an adorable Spanish accent. But truly, it is fast, loud and trashy in a way that makes me think of the King Khan & BBQ Show, Ty Segall or Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion in overdrive, even perhaps Jon Spencer's work with Pussy Galore mightn't measure up to quite how blown up King Cayman is aiming for. That said, it isn't all off the rails, he does take time to make more drawn out, though no less fuzzy and weird, tracks such as "Hole."

Also, when you download the whole album from the bandcamp it comes with a series of bonus tracks. Six in all, two of which were recorded in Venice and four from a basement of some place called Pad Pend's basement. These songs are all fucking totally great and worth your trouble.

To be had here:
King Cayman - Mirror's Carnival

Mark Sultan - $ (2010)

Might seem like I've become a broken record by recommending that you get the music of the same handful of musicians, but I know there will be some readers on here upset if I don't share this album. Mark Sultan is, as you might suspect, BBQ of the King Khan & BBQ Show and a frequent collaborator of Khan's from previous bands and the recently posted Almighty Defenders. This is the second full-length release that Sultan has done solo (at least under this name), but the style isn't terrible distant from the stuff he's made in bands. If anything it is slowed down and subdued in tone. In fact, there is a different version of one of my favorite tracks from Invisible Girl, the upbeat "I'll Be Lovin' You" that is slower and more whimsical. I should make it clear that I got this album from the most excellently maintained Know Your Conjurer blog. It has been that most of my most recent listening has been taken from other blogs, so it might be a few days before I've gotten something I haven't seen floating around all over to share, but hold in there and maybe we'll get lucky and one of the many less active posters have something they'd like to spout off about.

To be had here:
Mark Sultan - $ [256 kbps]

Bicycle Day - I Had A Place To Be (2014)

Ever feel like you volunteered yourself for too much work to get done reasonably quickly? I have done that at my job, as I had decided that several decades worth of unsaleable computer books need to be dumped out of the store so I can make way for good stock. Easier said than done, I've packed and hauled them all day today and I am not even half done. My day is aching and I've only myself to blame but at least there are remedies to be had. And sitting down to a good lo-fi album is always one of them for me. That and good measure of beer my boss discourages me from buying with I read novels I bought from his store.

A debut album by the Oakland, California band, Bicycle Day. They play a very distorted and fuzzy garage rock. They nailed those vocals, by which I mean I can't understand the vocals whatsoever. Then there's the music that's fucking awesome. Basically everything is washed out but the songs still have a very west coast surf undertone. It is like sunshine dragged through a sea of mud and making awesome sounds the whole way. The songs on I Had A Place To Be almost seem catered to me, as I have been listening to a bunch of Yelephants, King Cayman and King Khan & BBQ Show lately just because I find that the most naturally productive sort of music for me to hear. Like I get shit done with that sort of lo-fi pulsing in my eardrums. I found I Had A Place To Be to be a most excellent addition to this rotation and a superb effort for a debut. Left me wanting to hear more songs immediately. Luckily there was their Vandals EP to hear as well that bears the same characteristics that I adored in the full-length.

You can get in now on their bandcamp page but I was told they are soon gonna be released via Lolipop Records too, maybe even so by this time. 

To be had here:
Bicycle Day -  I Had A Place To Be

Les Sexareenos - 14 Frenzied Shakers (2001)

It was only a matter of time until I got to throwing up Les Sexareenos. This was Mark Sultan's band after the Spaceshits but before his solo albums under the moniker BBQ and rejoining his former bandmate in the King Khan & BBQ Show. As one might suspect, Les Sexareenos does sound like a chain in the evolution of that sound. Toward a more rockabilly, bluesy garage rock that became stronger in later projects and the heavily punk style of the Spaceshits. This is the second of two albums, but the one I'm more familiar with. It is naturally enough loud and distorted, to such a degree that the lyrics are muddled and drums like droning beats throughout. Mark Sultan, even when incomprehensible, is one of my favorite singers. My bread and butter sort of rock and roll.

To be had here:
Les Sexareenos - 14 Frenzied Shakers [192 kbps]

The Drunken Draculas - Start Sucking! (2011)

This is a submitted EP from San Diego band the Drunken Draculas. When I saw this show up in my inbox I thought that it'd be some really fast and raw rock and roll, which I do thoroughly delight in. However, it wasn't as fast but rather has a more subtle garage rock sound that reminds me of King Khan and BBQ Show where the fits of shouts are concentrated in the songs tastefully. Sweetly lo-fidelity and cutely funny lyrically I was happy to have received Start Sucking! The track "Apeman in the Big City" brought a smile to my face and if they're capable of producing more songs of that merit I'd be eager to hear any follow up releases these fellas make.

To be had here:
The Drunken Draculas - Start Sucking!

Bloodshot Bill - Trash Addict (2003) & Rockabilly Trash (2004)

Bloodshot Bill is a Canadian musician that specializes in greasy and gritty rockabilly. As mentioned in an earlier post, he is half of the new group Tandoori Knights with King Khan. Additionally, he was on the Our Boy Roy tribute compilation. Therefore, I'm likely overdue in sharing something from his main body of work. Trash Addict and Rockabilly Trash are two of his full-lengths but not the only ones, just what I've got on hand for the time being. As you might have pieced together from the titles of the albums, trashiness is integral to his interpretation of rockabilly music very much like Jon Spencer with his band Heavy Trash. This sleazy yet sleek style is expressed in both the wildly sung lyrics and prominent guitar work. Almost makes you want to put some DW-40 in your hair and roll some cigarettes up in your sleeve. Bloodshot Bill is certainly considerably more pure to the rockabilly sound that the garage rock I've posted before, again another similarity to Heavy Trash. Quite worthwhile if you're a fan of lo-fi rock and roll in most any form.

To be had here:




Trash Addict [192 kbps]










Rockabilly Trash [320 kbps]

EP Grab Bag vol. 76

The latest batch of EPs from the inbox, all of them top-notch, some of them will inevitably become beloved if you give them a chance. Listen and relax, it is a recreational activity after all, pilgrims.

To be had here:

Jibóia - Jibóia EP (2013)

I lost track of exactly how I ended up with this EP, but I know why someone sent it in, as it is, I believe, a Portuguese band that is connected to my love affair with the city of Porto that I expressed in one of the Scenes of a City posts, again from Lovers & Lollypops. The EP itself is an instrumental electronic effect and guitar laden swirling of various rock and world music styles into a stunningly loud and mesmerizing amalgamation. Nears prog at moments only to come back with Mid-Eastern tunes and then to thumping bass. Really something rather unique and worth checking out.

C. M. Slenko - Moonlight Veneration (2014)

Hopefully you still remember who this is from the post last week of his new full-length, Rented Rooms. While it seems he had more in him than that one album could handle, so here is the EP that was released at the same time. Upon listening to Moonlight Veneration it is easy to see why it was issued separately, as it is not the more traditional folk of the other, but noisy and lo-fi experimental anti-folk. They're not even comparable, in fact there's no vocals even on this until the final track. I found my first listen to be mind-blowing and I'm getting addicted to replaying it. Released for free via Sioux Trails.

The Ha-RAng!# - SHE WANTS PRETTY (2014)

Something that's been missing on the blog since the last Grab Bag, some fucking garage rock. Here's a band from Charlottesville, VA that makes playful garage that conjures memories of the King Khan and BBQ Show. The songs are catchy, loud and fast but not too sloppy to enjoy. Plus they threw in some audio from Back to the Future for jollies I suppose. Certainly worth the three smackers they're asking for this EP.

Two Skies - STAY / OCEAN (2014)

An English psychedelic band with a double single, but they run over 10 minutes so I think it is qualifies for the EPs. Loud, fuzzed guitars and very 70s psych sound, including the higher pitched vocals the seared over the top of the druggy soundscapes of those days. The seven minute plus opus that is "Ocean" is pretty wild and worth spending the time to hear all of its meandering varieties of trippy-ness.

Shannon and the Clams - Sleep Talk (2011)

Jazzed as all fuck when I caught sight of this album on the Aggregatibacter blog. Even though it is posted up there, I feel compelled to do so over here as well, if simple to stress its majesty. Shannon and the Clams' first album I Wanna Go Home was a wonderful bunch of lo-fi garage punk tracks with deep soulful vocals. Sleep Talk takes that base and works a considerable degree of nostalgia and retro-vibes so as to make the band very Spector-esque or to cite a more modern comparison, very much like the King Khan & BBQ Show. Howling, shouting and crooning are all given a place in the hectic and brassy songs. Where the similarities to something Mark Sultan might record is strongest are in the slower numbers such as "The Woodsman" and "Done With You" which feature an intense throwback style. The softer trilling songs are paired with heavier, distortion-laden retro punk tracks to ensure a fast-paced listen, making the album feel much shorter than it is in reality. This is really topnotch and even though it is well-trodden ground, Shannon and the Clams keep it fresh, lively and most importantly irresistibly appealing.

To be had here:
Shannon and the Clams - Sleep Talk [192 VBR kbps]

The Ding-Dongs - The Ding-Dongs (2010)

I am almost embarrassed that I just found out about this band several days ago. The Ding-Dongs, besides sharing a name with the track I enjoyed from Thee Knights of Trashe by the Milkshakes, is a collaborative effort of Montreal's Bloodshot Bill and Mark Sultan. Perhaps this is sounding familiar to regular readers, as Bloodshot Bill paired with Sultan's most frequent bandmate, King Khan, to make Tandoori Knights. It's like they're pairing off in a round robin fashion for our pleasure. The Ding-Dongs are exactly what you'd imagine coming from a project with a garage rock wizard and a rockabilly genie, very soulful and exciting music with boisterous singing about any manner of thing like female police officers and jiggling the handle in the washroom. I'm a fan for sure, and hope you're because their are other albums and collaborations from these Montreal musicians I'm hankering to share.

To be had here:
The Ding-Dongs - The Ding-Dongs [320 kbps]

Dead Ghosts - Dead Ghosts (2010)

Dead Ghosts were recommended to me from a route I have already forgotten. Notwithstanding, they're an obvious fit for the style of music I've been embracing lately. Dead Ghosts are a Vancouver band that reminds me an awful lot of their fellow Canadians King Khan and Mark Sultan. They've got the sweet sounding garage rock that is infused with just the right about of country jangle and distorted vocals. In a nutshell, the music is damned catchy and I've been spending my meal breaks at work listening to it in my increasingly cold parked car. If you fancy to give them a try do yourself a service and make sure to give them a re-listen, as I've found they've grown on me with repetition.

To be had here:
Dead Ghosts - Dead Ghosts