Four days of my favorite music festival in BBQ Land and I am stuffed and fried… but not at all ready to leave C-Boy’s sweet guest-cabana / man-cave. Since 2005*, Goner Records has brought together most of the best international rock’n’roll acts (punk, garage, power pop all included) plus occasional gospel/blues, metal or other weirdness. Nearly every Jay Reatard, King Louie or Oblivians-related band has played; and just about every year Eric Friedl (Oblivians/Goner Records) and Zac Ives’ (Final Solutions/Goner) solid lineups have convinced a six hour car ride out of me. And this year has to be in the top 2 or 3.
Japan’s #1 leather boys Guitar Wolf (whose first LP was also Goner’s first release in 1993) was a brilliant way to kickstart this extended weekend— rocking, rumbling and sweating under a gazebo on a sunny Thursday afternoon for a Goner record store block party (don’t miss them October 18th at Siberia). And so my daily routine began: eat, look for Memphis rap cassettes in storage unit, eat again, fight off food-coma, drink and enjoy the rock show, pass out til it was time to eat again. I must recommend my two favorite food spots for your next visit to Memphis: Cozy Corner (BBQ) and Ellen’s (soul food).
Quintron & Miss Pussycat headlined Thursday night’s show with a manic set: excellent, catchy tunes as always and lots of screaming, dancing and maraca-shaking all around to christen the Hi-Tone’s new location. Memphis’ latest UK thug punk band Ex-Cult played next to last and I was impressed with how much tighter they were since last year. A refreshing new Goner band for me, as I don’t really care for their previous flavors-of-the- month, like Cali’s NoBunny and Ty Segall. The South does it best. Seiji (of Guitar Wolf) MC’d this event like no one else could.
Cute Swedish friends the Martin Savage Gang played Friday’s outdoor thing at the Buccaneer, a vaguely pirate-themed watering hole and the best place to see a punk (or whatever) show in Memphis. Martin and the boys played their infectious power pop/rock’n’roll in a tent outside. It sounded great in that tent! I skipped seeing Florida’s Gino & The Goons (new 45 on Pelican Pow Wow) to go eat and investigate South Memphis’ GoodTimes shop for old DJ Paul tapes. Got them tapes! Don’t go looking cuz they’re all gone now. See ya on eBay.
Friday night was the best night with my junior high/high school faves Mudhoney, plus Human Eye, Cheap Time and the best band of the festival/best band in the world, Head from Seattle—veteran ‘90s Ramones poppy punk unlike any other ‘90s Ramones poppy punk. Every song was a singalong hit, with a choir of Head fans all around me. Get with the program.
I was on time for this show because four-guitar supergroup (plus Abe’ateee on drums and Sam’gina on bass) True Sons of Thunder opened the show. TSOT were easily the next best thing to Head: wild man punkers and Flipper-like sludge. Mudhoney were great almost the whole way through. They got a little silly toward the end of their set, but made up for it with Fang and Black Flag covers (update: they got way too silly for me at their October 1st New Orleans gig when Clint Maedgen (of Morning 40, Bingo! Show, Preservation Hall Jazz Band) joined in on saxophone for some encores; Mudhoney made up for it again with a repeat of said covers). But nothing else really mattered to me after Head.
The Saturday indoor/outdoor daytime show of GonerFest is always a good time; the standouts this year were New Orleans’ Heavy Lids and Buck Biloxi & The Fucks (which featured Andy Rotz in a jheri curl wig and Buck Biloxi trying to play guitar with black vinyl gloves). After storytime with Stiff Records’ legend Wreckless Eric, Babes—also from here—set up on the hill across the street and played a 15 minute set of Reatards/Spits synth- punk ragers, stealing electricity from the closed-for-renovations chicken-tenders-n-burgers outlet Tucker’s. That was a tasty treat.
Unfortunately, Saturday night was a blur. I remember that the re-vamped Wizzard Sleeve were killah. The Onyas were like a fat, Australian Motörhead meets Cosmic Psychos—the Australians I was there to see. ‘80s/’90s metal-punk farm boys Cosmic Psychos (featuring one Onya) were, I’m sure, amazing… just as sure as the after-party at the Buc with Gary Wrong and Evil Army was. But I couldn’t tell ya if I was there or indisposed. Too much of everything overload, I guess.
We revisited the Goner gazebo on Sunday for King Louie & Julien Fried’s (Missing Monuments) two-man band G-Fest closeout, a perfectly frazzled set of originals and covers. One Louie-penned ballad even brought a tear to my eye… a nice way to say farewell to the great folks in Memphis and friends from all over, until next year. I’ll be checking in next time with a more sober account of the Housecore Horror Fest in Austin. Bye!
*There were two GonerFests in 2005 (January and September) if you’re confused how 2013 got them to 10.
