The all-powerful Reigning Sound roared out of Memphis with the realest soulful rock ‘n’ roll since the Flamin Groovies, the Real Kids and Esquerita all ruled the earth together. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Greg Cartwright makes ‘em scream, shriek, cry and weep and he visits California far too seldom, so don’t miss these shows at Alex’s Bar this weekend! (With the Strange Boys opening!? How will we ever go back to normal?) Win tickets here, and then read this interview by Chris Ziegler.

Your dad was a record collector—was record collecting your destiny?
It was a leg up! Having a parent who’s a music fan and a record collector can really point you in the right direction—it gets you to listen to a lot of different stuff early on, so you can decide what it is you like. Not everything my dad liked was something I liked, but I heard it all. And some things really helped me define the way I wanted to write. The genre doesn’t matter. You’re looking for the songs, and the artist who can deliver the good songs. Maybe the lyrics do it, or there’s an incredible hook and the lyrics are just total bubblegum. It’s gotta be aces in one of those departments.
You’ve spoken about the pre-Internet era, when you’d find a record by Andre Williams in a bucket at a flea market and have absolutely no idea who Andre Williams was and how his record got there—but that was the fun of it.
That was so great! When I first started collecting—I guess I am a collector, but I don’t think of myself as a record collector. It’s more from a practical framework. I buy them because I like to listen to them! I tend to think of record collectors as people who need a stone mint copy wrapped in plastic, and it goes on the shelf. And they want it to stay pristine til they die! They’re not gonna play it. I understand that, but it’s a different thing to me. The beauty for me is finding something I’ve never heard before, and I put it on and it’s amazing and I want to play it til the grooves are gone.
Where’s the most unexpected place you found a record you love?
I went to this restaurant supply place when I was working in Memphis—they had cooking gear and all kinds of accoutrements for kitchen workers, and at the counter was a little box with ten singles with a Doug Stone 45 and two Charlie Feathers 45s. It was bizarre! But when I lived in Memphis, those things happened surprisingly often. Those records were there! There’d been so many of them, and so many never left town, so they’d show up in the most bizarre places. I was spoiled growing up there. My wife teases me jokingly that I’m some kind of savant. I can only focus on a couple things, records being one of them. I can remember the numbers etched in the dead wax, but I can’t remember to wash the clothes!
Looking back at your time in the Oblivians and the Compulsive Gamblers, you said you were always ‘serious about making good art.’ What makes a band like Oblivians art?
Art is like a dirty word in rock, but it’s one of those things people take out of context. They think of art as being something pretentious. But it doesn’t have to be! If you define ‘art’ that way, you’re not looking at it the way I look at it. Art transcends reality—it allows you to look at things in a whole new way and be enlightened and maybe have some kind of epiphany. To me, that’s the motivation to make art—to have those experiences. I’m not pretentious, but even rock ‘n’ roll—even the dumbest boneheaded punk rock song, if it transcends just three chords and speaks to you and blows your mind … that’s art! That’s more than just what the other bands are doing. It’s heads above! Like a good two-and-a-half-minute pop song—listen to the radio and you’ll hear a million bad ones! Creating one that’s something more than it just seems to be on the surface is not easy, and the people who can accomplish it are craftsmen. I don’t care if they’re like illiterate or … it doesn’t matter! You’re a craftsman or a shaman or something if you can transform something into something more than just the bones of what it is!
How did you learn how to do that?
Trial and error. Watching other people. Seeing a lot of rock bands when I was young. I saw bands who were good and some who were bad and some that defied both! I saw Tav Falco and it was a terrible mess, and at the same time it was enlightening! I think that’s what we all want.
Why is it better to be interesting than perfect?
Character is the most important thing. The world has plenty of pitch-perfect singers and whizbang guitar platers. But the other thing can’t be learned, and that’s what makes it special. I don’t know why that is and I don’t know what brings people to … the truth? The way you were brought up? Your experience in life? How one thing leads to another?
What’s it like when you write for someone else—like Mary Weiss? When you have to step out of yourself?
With a person like Mary—you know their music before you know them. She’s a legendary figure in rock ‘n’ roll. I knew her voice and I knew the songs, and all that spoke to me before I knew her personally. People change over time, too. You can’t jump to conclusions with Mary, like try and sit down to knock out songs about teenage love affairs. Mary Weiss is not a teenager anymore! That fifteen-year-old melodrama is what makes the Shangri-Las so fantastic, but you can’t just look for that one piece. You gotta examine who the person is now.
Where did the songs on the new EP come from? Is this like Return to The Home For Orphans? There’s a re-done Tip-Tops song I spotted.
Five of the songs we cut recently with Dan Auerbach in Nashville. Three of them are earlier outtakes—‘Watching My Baby,’ ‘Lyin’ Girl’ … I’ll probably use the five songs with Dan further down the road to make a full LP and ditch the other tracks, so I wanted to make them available to fans in kind of a limited form.
So there’s a new Reigning Sound LP on the horizon?
Absolutely!
What do you think of ‘garage rock’ becoming this kinda-powerful cultural thing? As presented by Scion?
I never saw it coming! I never would have guessed in a million years we’d be in the situation we are now. I’m not judging—I just try and navigate the situation. It’s definitely strange. In 1992 or whenever we made records, the Internet wasn’t what it was now, and the fact that commercial entities are starting to see value in kinda odd little subcultures like garage music … in some ways it’s perplexing, but in other ways it’s kind of smart!
Greg Shaw wrote about this in an old Bomp!—wondering what would happen if people could access a bottomless database of good music instantly, and find out everything about anyone as soon as they heard a name.
Like everything else, there’s positives and negatives. The good things—people get any music they want, anytime and anywhere. On their phone! That’s great because people get turned on to really amazing things at the speed of light. But you don’t have the thrill of the chase and the hunt anymore. You don’t have to spend Saturday morning at some fuckign flea market at 7 AM looking for a record some crusty old guy told you about. You miss out on that experience! But you do get overwhelmed now—I think sometimes it’s hard for kids to distinguish what is truly great from what is merely mediocre but sounds mildly like something they like. It’s harder to make the call when you’re so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of music.
When you did the very first Reigning Sound 7”, you said you wanted to make sure you didn’t give your fans exactly what they wanted. Why?
I do believe that—never give people exactly what they want! People want a donut! They want something sugary to satisfy them instantaneously! They don’t wanna have to listen hard, and especially in this modern culture they don’t wanna do the legwork. If you just make what people want, there’s a catch. If you don’t, they’re like, ‘Ah, man—he’s not making what he used to make!’ But if you bow to that and do the same record you made ten years ago, then they’re like, ‘Ah, man—this guy’s like a broken record! He keeps making the same fucking thing!’ That way lies madness! You just have to please yourself!

L.A. RECORD AND BLUNDERTOWN PRESENT REIGNING SOUND WITH THE STRANGE BOYS AND SPECIAL GUESTS ON FRI., JAN. 27, AND SAT., JAN. 28, AT ALEX’S BAR’S 12TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION AT ALEX’S BAR, 2913 E. ANAHEIM ST., LONG BEACH. 9 PM / $15 ADVANCE / $17 DAY OF / 21+. ALEXSBAR.COM. REIGNING SOUNDS’ ABDICATION… FOR YOUR LOVE EP IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM SCION A/V. VISIT REIGNING SOUND AT FACEBOOK.COM/REIGNINGSOUND.

 Rowland S. Howard – Pop Crimes (R.I.P. my favorite waif!!!)

 The Dutchess and the Duke – She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke

 Gestapo Khazi – Gestapo Khazi

V/A – Girl Group Sounds: Lost And Found

 Flaming Stars – Ginmill Perfume

Starlite Desperation – Take It Personally

Reigning Sound – Time Bomb High School

V/A – Let’s Get Rid Of L.A.

Gutter Twins – Saturnalia

A 3 way tie: Bruce Springsteen – Magic, The Hunches – Yes. No. Shut It., and Central City Transmission – Incommunicado

-Gabriel Hart

Download: The Strange Boys “To Turn a Tune or Two”

(from The Strange Boys and Girls Club on In The Red Records)

Texas made them strange and Beerland made them men and now Austin’s Strange Boys are one of the realest rock ‘n’ roll bands currently prowling the American interstate system. They play tonight at the Smell and tomorrow at the Echo and will eradicate years of listless go-nowhere-ism with only 25 minutes and access to electricity. This interview by Dan Collins.

I just read this MSN poll that said your hometown of Austin was one of the most ‘livable’ cities in the U.S.
Ryan Sambol (guitar/vocals): They haven’t been there in August, then!
And Portland got voted the worst! Do you think Austin is the polar opposite of Portland?
Ryan: That just means more people from Portland are going to move to Austin.
You’ve said in interviews that Austin was a great place musically because it was geographically in the middle of so many things. Like it was a great melting pot for blues, jazz, country and rock, and not so heavy-handed with any one thing. Can you tell me your favorite year for each of those genres?
Matt Hammer (drums): 1945 for jazz.
Ryan: It’s really hard to say! We can’t answer that question!
What’s a question you were hoping I would ask?
Ryan: ‘Do you want me to give you a million dollars?’
I was going to ask if you have crazy dreams on tour.
Ryan: Oh man, you’re asking great guys! Philip [Sambol, bass] has something called ‘night terrors.’ It’s where the person all of a sudden wakes up, out of nowhere, totally out of the blue, screaming as loud as he possibly can. Sometimes he’s just screaming, like ‘Aaaaaaaaaghgg! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaghgg!’ And sometimes he’s like, ‘Aaaaaagh, look over there, look over there, aaaaah!’ Sometimes it’s like a really quick ‘aaah.’ But once Philip has the night terror, he freaks everybody else out in the room so much where they can’t go to sleep, and their hearts are pounding! But Philip immediately goes back to sleep. Philip sleeps soundly while everyone else is at the end of their wits.
Are you excited to play in Los Angeles again?
Ryan: We’re really excited, especially to play with Mika Miko in their hometown.
What are your favorite bands in L.A. right now?
Ryan: Darker My Love, we’ve always liked a lot. Mika Miko, of course. Anasazis. There’s probably a lot… Motley Crue! Guns ‘n’ Roses!
What’s the weirdest band you’ve ever played with?
Ryan: One time we played with this guy—he’s called Captured by Robots! We started out as enemies, but now we’re friends. We saw him in Arkansas, and we didn’t get along very well at first. And then we traded off some emails discussing our viewpoints about each other’s music. And now he checks in with us every year, and he’s like, ‘How you doing?’ But he got hit by a car a few months back! He’s better now.
I’ve seen him many times back in the day. He’s like a one-man Man… or Astroman? And you guys started off as a duo yourselves, you and Matt.
Ryan: We were called ‘The Waves.’
On days like today, do you ever look around and go, ‘Fuck, this van could be so much more spacious if we kicked these other guys out?’
Ryan: Oh yeah, Matt and I think about that every day. If we were still a duo, we’d be making way more money. We’d be touring in a Civic or something, where we wouldn’t have to worry about it. We constantly talk about kicking out Philip and Greg [Enlow, guitar]!
You guys are all pretty young, but you and Greg are total total baby faces! Has that been a problem for you? Are bouncers like, ‘You’re not 21!’
Ryan: It’s not a problem now that our IDs actually say we are 21. They always say, ‘Oh, you look 14!’ I dunno. I would say most fourteen-year-olds are still cooler than the adults we meet.
Is it a problem when you meet lady folk because they think you’re jailbait?
Ryan: I think it helps!
One of things I like about your band is that despite being young, your sound has a really solid foundation in a lot of older music. Sometimes you sound a bit like something obscure from the sixties, though with a very genuine love of blues and Americana. What are your influences?
Ryan: Oh, so many. How about you ask each of us one band that has influenced us?
Okay, but don’t quote the bands you listed on your MySpace page.
Greg: I’d say Gino Washington.
Matt: I’ve been listening to a lot of Fela Kuti lately.
Philip: I’d say that the first Oh Sees record is what I was listening to the most before we went on tour. It has awesome bass on it, and just a really unique sound.
Ryan: Joe South! That guy doesn’t get a lot of props.
I think you’re just proving my point—you have a blues influence, but so much else is mixed in. And you’ve said in interviews that Texas is a great melting pot of sounds. Would you say Texas is a better state to make music in than other places?
Ryan: Being in Austin, everyone comes through, and there’s a lot of history in that sense. But it really doesn’t matter where you’re writing or recording.
Ryan, the lyrics you write are pretty intense sometimes, though I have to say I can’t always make them out on the recordings. But I pick out some stuff. Your song, ‘When,’ has parts that remind me of Woody Guthrie’s songwriting. Like, you talk about the World Trade Center bombing. Can you recite me that lyric?
Ryan: Um, let me think. It’s, uh, um…
You have to sing this somewhere tonight! You’d better know this one!
Ryan: Ha ha… it’s, um, ‘Always been proud of doing what’s right/ Always thought your government was on the same side/ And then they blew up some buildings in New York City/ And with it your trust, and what you thought was right.’ It’s about September 11th. I believe the U.S. government blew up those buildings, like a terrorist attack. But the whole song in general is not just about that, it’s about change. The first verse is about how I was looking at pictures of the band and stuff, and I never smiled. So I decided I was going to smile, and show my teeth more! And the next two verses are about being disinformed by the media, and September 11th, and the conspiracies about it, and you’re thinking about all this worldly New World Order humongous idea of conspiracies. And then suddenly you meet this girl, and she doesn’t know anything about that, and then some sort of love affair happens. And it doesn’t have anything to do with real life at all, and then the end is just, um… uh… I don’t remember what the last verse is!
It will give our readers some mystery, so they’ll go buy the album and find out!
Ryan: ‘If you’ve got three, give two to someone else/ if you’ve got two, give the other two a mouth/ if you’ve got one, give that other one away…’
Sounds kind of Biblical! Has religion played a role in your sound?
Ryan: It’s just whatever’s going on. Religion isn’t part of the music really at all. It’s broader thoughts, higher thoughts, thinking more. It’s spirituality that’s incorruptible.
In ‘No Way for a Slave to Behave,’ you have these cool ‘whoo hoos’ in the background. It’s a little more poppy than some of your other songs.
Ryan: My friend, Shane Retro, had that beginning riff. I met him two and a half years ago, and he played me this riff, and he didn’t have any lyrics to it. And I said to him at the very beginning, ‘I’m going to steal that riff, and I’m going to write a song to it.’ And I wanted more songs for the record, so I took the riff and added the lyrics to it and the other parts to it. And the poppiness just went with it, I suppose. Shane Retro isn’t really in a band or anything. He just is.
Have you given any song ideas to other bands?
Ryan: No. I think I could write an awesome song for Jarvis Cocker! Actually I have one that I don’t think I could sing right, and I think I could.
Charlyne Yi, this comedian in L.A., writes songs for other bands for that exact same reason! Would you cover a song by Charlyne Yi if you could sing it better than she can?
Ryan: Yeah, sure, if it’s good!
What about bands from the sixties? Like Back from the Grave garage bands—when you listen to those bands, are you like, ‘Oh yeah, I see where they’re coming from?’
Ryan: We dig a lot of those bands, but I don’t know. People make such a big deal about sixties music, and it was just a lot of people, and that’s what made it cool. There were so many scenes all around the world. But it’s just rock and roll, right? It’s either the real deal, or it’s some white kids trying to do it, and either way, it’s cool, you know?
But maybe people like me, unfortunately, want to be able to describe your sound, and they don’t know what else to say, so they just write ‘It’s garage-y!’
Ryan: People compare us to Nuggets. And it’s a four-disc box set! They compare one band to a four disc box set, which is 85, 90 percent filled with horrible, horrible things. Stupid, stupid lyrics that mean nothing and were written by these people just to make a quick buck, riding some sort of craze, you know? I mean, there’s some great stuff on there as well, but they’re just ridiculous. That song, ‘Sugar and Spice’—what the hell is that? That is stupid. We don’t like that.
As a bubblegum motherfucker, I beg to disagree. But you’re right—that sounds nothing like you at all.
Ryan: Just to clear up with you, we don’t care at all what other people compare us to. I don’t want it to be where someone says ,’Hey, you sound like Nuggets,’ and I say, ‘Well, I don’t want to be compared to Nuggets,’ and you write ‘Yeah, man, they’re trying to fight against labels by other people.’ If anything, just say, ‘Man, who gives a shit?’
Well, your ‘Sugar and Spice’ quote was pretty awesome, so I’m going to have to keep that in! In fact, you said something in an interview once about garage rock that I thought was really apt: someone asked if you were part of the garage rock revival, and you said, ‘There is no revival. People have been doing this kind of stuff since 1989.’ Are there some bands that are roughly in this same genre that you’ve looked up to as heroes, who formed more recently than the sixties?
Ryan: Oh, for sure! People like the Oblivians, the Reigning Sound, anything Greg Cartwright was involved with. The Cramps, the Gun Club: these were all bands that were doing awesome, awesome stuff, before it was ‘garage rock.’
Were you mortified when you heard Lux Interior had died?
Ryan: When he died, he went somewhere else. I don’t think it’s that bad of a deal. I never knew him. People gonna die.
I hear snippets of the early Rolling Stones and the early Velvet Underground in your sound, too.
Ryan: Compared to a lot of other bands, the Stones did justice to a lot of the covers they did. And then Beggars Banquet, the slide on that record, and the country aspect of that, they took it and did something else with it. The Velvet Underground for sure—you can’t even say much about it. There’s nothing cooler than being 16 and driving around listening to the Velvet Underground. I started to get guitar lessons when I was fourteen or fifteen. And one of the first times I went in to get the lessons, I brought in White Light/White Heat, and said I wanted to learn the whole record. And the teacher was like, ‘There must be alternate tunings, because I can’t figure out what they’re really playing.’ I think I quit the next lesson after that. It seemed kind of useless if he couldn’t teach me to do that.

THE STRANGE BOYS WITH MIKA MIKO, CEREBRAL BALZY AND PROTECT ME ON MON., JUNE 29, AT THE SMELL, 247 S. MAIN ST., LOS ANGELES. 9 PM / $5 / ALL AGES. THESMELL.ORG. AND WITH THE SHIRLEY ROLLS AND THE GROWLERS ON TUE., JUNE 30, AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30 PM / $7 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. THE STRANGE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB IS OUT NOW ON IN THE RED. VISIT THE STRANGE BOYS AT INTHEREDRECORDS.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/THESTRANGEBOYS.