Knoxville Girls - self titled

I was not hip to Knoxville Girls for the short time that they existed (1999-2001-ish) and, in fact, have only now discovered them through guitarist/vocalist Jerry Teel's terrific current New Orleans-based band, Chicken Snake. Back at the beginning of the century, vocalist/guitarist/ harmonica-man Jerry (ex Boss Hog/Little Porkchop/Honeymoon Killers/Chrome Cranks) was based in NYC and formed this "supergroup" with drummer Bob Bert (Sonic Youth/Pussy Galore), Kid Congo Powers (Gun Club/Cramps/Nick Cave/Congo Norvell), Jack Martin (Little Porkchop/ Blackstrap Molasses/Congo Norvell - guitar) and Barry London (Stab City - organ) and released two albums for In the Red Records before disbanding.

The sound is about what you would expect from this conglomeration - bluesy/noisy/primitive/ rock'n'roll filled with feedback, eerie slide guitar, simple, pulsating drums and pure coolness. From the instro opener "Sixty-Five Days Ago" to the rockabilly-slide-romp of "I Feel Better All Over" to the clamor'n'blare riding shotgun over the cool, finger-snappin' lick in "Soda Pop Girl" to the psycho country of "Have You Ever", the group shows their hip roots and stylish chops.

"Two Time Girl" is a short, organ-led garage rocker, the instrumental "Kung Pow Chicken Scratch" has an ominous low-end organ backing with bits of guitars detonating over it, Jerry blows some mean harp for the Dylan-ish jump-punk-blues of "NYC Briefcase Blues", there's a slip/slidin' groove for the bluesy/early rock'n'roller "Warm and Tender Love", a cooly greasy take on the Pretty Things "I Had a Dream", and another country tear-jerker in "He Stopped Loving Her Today".

Trashy garage rock'n'roll dominates "One Sided Love", they create a fairly straight forward instrumental, slide'n'harp blues number in "Armadillo Roadkill Blues", an upbeat'n'primitive harp-led blues rocker in "Truck Drivin' Man" (as far as I can tell, it's an original, not any of the other, older songs by the same name, although the vocals are pretty buried) and they close things out with the lascivious swampy blues of "Low Cut Apron/Sugar Fix" that ends with a clamorous psychotic rave up reaction.

Pretty damn great stuff overall - hip, swampy blues with some proper caterwauling, Cramps-ian touches and plenty of their own personalities showing through. Dig it a lot!