southern records

This isn’t so much a review as a plea. A plea to all you good, record buying folks. I know you’re out there, somewhere, skulking probably in some musty, indie shop, rifling through old vinyl and the umpteenth experimental Stephen O’Malley release. It’s a plea to anyone who’s ever indulged Jon Spencer or bought something from Fat Possum; to anyone who’s ever wondered what the bastard musical offspring of an unholy communion between ZZ Top and Shellac would sound like; to anyone who’s ever found themselves alone and drunk on too much whisky at three in the morning wondering just what in the hell is going on; to anyone who’d love to see what a James Ellroy musical would be like. This plea is to all of you, to stop whatever pointless activity you’re indulging in, and go buy some of P.W. Long’s records, to go see him play live, maybe even to just send him a nice letter, a shiny gift or some money; anything that’ll keep him making his records and singing his goddamn songs!

I’ve been listening to Preston Wright Longs’ yowling bluster for (an alarming) 14 years in one form or another, from Mule to Reelfoot to P.W. Long to Young James Long and I can, in all honesty, say this is the ultimate flawless distillation of his musical talents into one thirteen-track 30 minute slab of polyvinylchloride and/or polycarbonate plastic. Then again, I would say that about any of his albums, so maybe I’m not to be trusted.

God Bless The Drunkard's Dog was the first release for Black Diamond, Southern’s tasty vinyl-only imprint. It’s now out on CD via Southern Records. It almost entirely consists of P.W. and Taylor Young (who also drums with those eponymous rowdies Young James Long) and it sounds like they’re locked in some metallic, guitar-mangling, skin-hammering rhythmic drunken brawl. A bit like Mule but slightly more restrained, slightly less chaotic. A bit like Leadbelly’s corpse fed through a power station. It’s an album that set its stall out from the get-go, with “Jackie Lake” fairly rattling along. The album only pauses for breath a few times along the way with a couple of fuzzy slow burners, “Bog”, “Histrionica” and the crooning indulgent misery of “Saskatune”.

“Crazy Tonight” is full of bad-ass bluesy tribal drumming, scat singing, and a clammy sense of some uneasy, dangerous fun, climbing up the walls, face-down on cold tiles kinda’ vibe – “I’m fighting back and I know I’ll win but I just don’t know when”. It’s one of thirteen highlights on the album.

“Owed (To The Next Life)” is the best song the White Stripes never recorded. “Shake” has the cocksure, sleazy, greasy vibe of a cheap strip club. “Worst Baby” indulges in some undulating bass and hysterical rock.

“(Let ‘Em) Roll” takes the genius essence of Billy Gibbons’ guitar work and does things to it that Queens Of The Stone Age can only dream of. All nicely polished off with Toby Pipes’ excellent keys. And in only three of your shiny new minutes.

When not howling and growling Long’s usually slurring and mumbling about something or other. The lyrics sheet enclosed is in fact reinterpretations of reinterpretations of what various acquaintances, academics and accomplices think he’s singing. Certainly makes for interesting reading. If you have the time, listen closely to the songs and you can get the bones, work it out (make it up?) from there, translating, digging out those dark little stories from the vicious electricity of his six-string. It’s a typically amusing obtuse move from this wandering minstrel. So if you can decipher “Nogales Rose” and the butcher knife girl tale, or the muffled howls buried underneath the clattering percussive ‘”10AM” then you’re some kind of cunning linguist. Actually “10AM” might be about waiting for the liquor store to open…

When all’s said and done, it’s music’s primal urges, played with heart and guts and balls and if that’s not enough to sway you goddamn people I don’t know what is.

God Bless The Drunkard's Dog is available to buy now from the Southern webshop.

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