A best of DVD compilation from years 2 and 3 of the Makeshift Music co-produced concert/festival benefiting the Church Health Center.  The film features exclusive live performances from Snowglobe, The Magic Kids, John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives, River City Tanlines, Antenna Shoes, Al Kapone, Lord T and Eloise, The Coach and Four, J.D. Reager, Two Way Radio, Jason Freeman, Jeffrey... read more

Re-issue of the classic LP by Jay Reatard’s original band, The Reatards.  Also includes 21 bonus songs that were previously only available on long out-of-print cassettes.  Released by our friends at Goner Records. Tracklist: 1. I’m So Gone 2. Stacye 3. I Love Living 4. When I Get Mad 5. C’mon Over 6. Out Of My Head Into My Bed 7. You Fucked Up My Dreams 8. It Ain’t... read more

East Coast rockers from Queens, New York, the Vagrants are as OG as they come. Admired from across the Forest Hills High School cafeteria by future members of the Ramones, they ripped across the city and state with ecstatic abandon and an explosive stage show. They pissed off Bill Graham on a mini West Coast tour and were told they’d never play there again. Full of damage and pure... read more

Ten More Years: Shangri-la Records cd spans the time of 1989 through 1999, documenting the first ten years of naïve Shangri-la Projects madness. The collection features the greatest hits of the 1990s by bands as diverse as 611, the Grifters, the Simple Ones, Strapping Fieldhands, the Memphis Goons, Citizens’ Utilities, Doug Easley, and even the legendary Mr. Will Roy Sanders. A great... read more

Two Cups for a Tale, the Simple Ones’ second cd, was produced at Rakapolis Studios under the production guise of legendary drummer Roy Berry, now in Lucero.  While studying under their friends the Grifters, the Simple Ones pop crafted their own niche of ’90s guitar rock that will leave your headphones wanting more.  Currently lead guitarist/singer Jared McStay can be found... read more

The first Simple Ones cd Worth the Weight combines many of their great early singles plus some new heavy hits to sway your head.  Important safety tip for Lucero fans:  Roy Berry drums for this band! Tracklist: 1. Hubba Hubba 2. Rift City 3. The Wrath of God 4. Drunken Kiss 5. Pen 6. Left in Space 7. Disco Infernal 8. On My Nerves 9. Watch This Sucker (Come On, Let’s Go!) 10. Jim’s... read more

A full-grown mouth of a meal of great Memphis bands rocking the sweat shops and apartments of the ‘90s. Many of these folks you have heard of — the Oblivians, ’68 Comeback, & Impala — and others you gotta hear.  17 tracks in all and not a clunker in the bunch.  A great period of Memphis music represented here! Tracklist 1. Gibson Bros. “Emulsified” 2. Monsieur Jeffrey Evans... read more

All Music Guide sez: Lucero’s Nobody’s Darlings is the sound of the Replacements, 20 years later, a little more sober, and from Memphis instead of Minneapolis. In other words, the band’s occasional feints toward country music and electric blues come off with a lot more credibility and just as much enthusiasm. Just like the Replacements’ Pleased to Meet Me,... read more

All Music Guide sez: 1372 Overton Park might be Lucero’s major-label debut, but the Memphis-based band retains all of their rough-and-tumble indie charms. Gruff-voiced frontman Ben Nichols still sings about people with dead-end lives: the type of characters whose “heroes are the losing kind.” But Nichols definitely finds ways to make these troubled souls... read more

Prefix sez: Matador Singles ’08 may be Reatard’s most complete album-length accomplishment to date. It eschews the “same song over and over” criticism that’s been lobbed at Reatard by people only familiar with his latest works. (When I saw him open for the Black Keys in Minneapolis this spring, one particularly drunk guy kept yelling “Same song!” during every break. I think the... read more

The Memphis Flyer sez: This collection of singles from Memphis punk savant Jay Reatard is essentially a bit of housecleaning from his old label (garage-rock-identified indie In the Red) — a way of emptying the vault before an upcoming singles collection from Reatard’s new label (indie-rock behemoth Matador) ushers in a higher-profile phase of Reatard’s rocketing career. The 17... read more

All Music Guide sez: Blood Visions is considerably more listenable in terms of fidelity: R. Stevie Moore’s ’70s and ’80s albums would be a reasonable home-recording touchstone. Musically, it’s also a big step up, as well as a step into the past. Blood Visions has the antic, jumpy quality of many now-obscure new wave records of the early ’80s, from the era when... read more

The Memphis Flyer sez: In Spin’s list of 2009′s best albums, it’s no accident that Watch Me Fall lands at #13. Nor is it a surprise that 65 of the 75 assigned words are reserved to attack Reatard’s character. The favored alternate-reality of the press is that Watch Me Fall magically appeared while Reatard spent the entire year inserting the F-word into his Twitter.... read more

All Music Guide sez: Yarber’s honesty and delivery, not to mention his appreciation of a well-written song, somehow make this scattered collection of songs sound timeless and essential. Tracklist: 1. White Lie, Black Eye 2. Stupid Cupid 3. Wire Tapper Calling 4. Dollar to Death 5. Teeny Weeny Little Bit 6. Make it Hard 7. Bank, Gun, Jail 8. Head of the Class Clowns 9. Earthquake... read more

The Memphis Flyer sez: From the chugging chords that open “Flipside Kid” to the snarling, swinging lyrics of “I Want You,” Jack Yarber, aka Jack Oblivian, lays down yet another incredible rock record. “I don’t care what they say,” he growls on “Golden Age,” playing both guitar and drums and pushing “record” on the four-track... read more

Los Angeles Examiner sez: Jack Oblivian clearly has a nose for good music, a fact that has never been more evident than on his latest record with the Tennessee Tearjerkers, “Disco Outlaw.” Released by Goner Records in May, it’s probably his most well-wrought, completely realized and – dare I say? — poetic effort to date. Each song is like a cut diamond, a small story, a display of... read more