The King Khan & BBQ Show: Invisible girl (2009), In the Red Records

The King Khan & BBQ Show: Invisible girl (2009), In the Red Records

El dúo canadiense The King Khan & BBQ Show resulta de la unión de dos antiguos colegas de banda: Mark Sultan, alias BBQ y Blacksnake, alias King Khan, antiguos miembros de The Spaceshits. Tras la ruptura del grupo, sobreviene la reunión de la pareja y formar este dúo rompedor, que edita ya su tercer larga duración: Invisible girl (In the Red, 2009). Su formato no puede ser más simple: dos tipos en directo interpretando a todo trapo sus temas demoledores, acompañados de guitarras, baterías rudimentarias, panderetas y una energía desbordante. El sonido del disco es el mismo que ha ido acompañando al dúo desde 2002: ingeniosa mezcla de Garaje, Noise, Doo-Woop, Rock cincuentero, Rockabilly, y Soul (Mark Sultan tiene unos registros vocales que en ocasiones nos lo asimilan a gentes como Sam Cook o Big Booper, y ello se refleja en los temas con dejes Soul); si bien la onda más palpable en todo el disco es la del Garage, y es ahí donde encontramos las huellas índelebles de The Sonics, 13th Floor Elevators, Sam the Sham and The Faraons, Stooges, o si queremos irnos a tiempos más cercanos a la Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, con quienes comparten un concepto sonoro más que cercano. Para este último disco, el sonido de algunos temas se ha edulcorado algo, acercándoles a algo así como un Garage-Pop. El sonido del dúo, sin ofrecernos nada absolutamente nuevo, sí que toma de aquí y de allá una serie de elementos por todos conocidos para darles una dimensión un tanto actualizada y desconocida, enérgica y absolutamente arrebatadora. Como decíamos, sus actuaciones en directo parece que son igual de electrizantes que su sonido, y pese a presentarse sólo dos tipos en escena, sus directos merecen la pena. Para conmemorar la salida de su disco, se han embarcado por una extensa gira norteamericana, que seguro que extenderán a Europa, pues Mark Sultan reside con frecuencia en Alemania.
“It’s easy to become taken in by opener “Anala”, what with Khan’s ooh-mow-mows and Sultan’s surprisingly sweet croon. The somewhat curious but nevertheless successful title track comes next; eschewing the chug’n’thwomp for which they’re both noted in favor of a straightahead shimmer that suggests both the Byrds and the La’s, it’s a lovingly crafted tune and perhaps a hint at a new direction, only slightly out of step with the other material here. From there, it’s throwback time, as Khan and Sultan navigate the divide between Little Anthony and the Seeds. Throughout, it’s Sultan’s voice that stands out– particularly on the slow-burning, “Still of the Night”-like “Third Ave.”– among everything, sweet and shape-shifting next to Khan’s gruntier style. The Sultan-led tunes tend to be less aggressive than Khan’s, which is odd; not for Sultan, who handles himself admirably as a singer and player throughout Invisible Girl, but for Khan, whose does best when he’s got a little more space to work with. Among the sharp shocks of “Truth or Dare” or “Lonely Boy”, he sounds perfunctory, rushed.
Something you might say about even the best stuff on Invisible Girl. Khan and Sultan move between the trappings of doo-wop to skid rock so fitfully it’s easy to miss that some of these tunes aren’t all there lyrically. Once the guffaws stop, it can get a little predictable; “Spin the Bottle” contains the phrase “I’m in love with you/ You’re in love with me”, and just guess what the central line in “I’ll Be Loving You” (not two songs later) turns out to be. They’re indebted to a period in music that was by and large not its most fertile poetically, but for all their reverence, they’re obviously irreverent cats; remember “Tastebuds”? It’s just too bad, for every “Animal Party” or ill-fated game of “Spin the Bottle” and well-placed anatomical guffaw there’s one too many tunes that just go through the motions, and old ones at that. Still, the tunes on Invisible Girl work, because Khan and Sultan’s love of the music they’re ripping off is obvious and infectious, and because they’ve got a knack for capturing the feel of the records they’re taking cues from most throwbacks can’t quite muster. Sam the Sham would be proud; that is, if he’s cool with dick jokes” (pitchfork.com)
“Now, I could tell you about Mark Sultan, I mean, BBQ’s past in bands like Les Sexareenos or The Spaceshits. I could tell you about King Khan’s pseudo-celebrity in Europe, or his own past in The Spaceshits, or his solo work. But you probably wouldn’t give a shit. So let’s talk about the real nitty gritty – The King Khan & BBQ Show. First, I must say that these guys are fuckin blood brothers, man. Real tight. They always maintained that they would lay waste to this miserable world. And so they began in 2002. BBQ visiting my man King Khan, and jamming out their black magick in his Nazi-bunker rehearsal space. Songs flowed endlessly like blood from a cancerous abcess. They took it easy, honing their craft, playing sporadically to crowds outraged by their incredible sound and nasty live show. Orgiastic, anarchic, hypnotic and personal are the shows to this day. I’ve seen the blow-jobs and blood, the pick-ups and puke, the dancing and the laughing. Two guys. One smashing snare, bass drum and tambourine with his bare feet, molesting his guitar and singing like a possessed angel. The other spinning and howling like a freak while belting it out on his guitar like a real gone savage. What does it all sound like? It sounds like five men. People throw the typical suspects into their descriptions as a defense against the real sound: The Velvet Underground, 13th Floor Elevators, Black Flag, The Falcons, Sam Cooke, The Users, The Sonics, The Cramps, Bo, Jerry Lee, The Gonn… Their sound is all of this and more, but all of their own. The show? A mess. Love songs, punkers, improvised riot-starters, dance-floor shakers, sing-along stompers, wild rockers – you name it. They always drench the crowd in raw energy, and they’re always the last ones dancing and drinking at the bar. They’ve toured the US, Europe and South America. They are international antiheroes and ambassadors. After a sold-out 7-week tour of the USA this past autumn, championed heavily by the American media, The King Khan & BBQ Show are ready to conquer Australia, Israel and Europe to make clear what so many music fanatics already know – they are easily one of the top, most highly regarded rock’n’roll bands in the world. They are coming to support Los Angeles’ In The Red Records reissue of their ‘classic, mind-blowing’ debut album, originally released in 2005, as well as a new, instantly sold-out EP on the highly revered Crypt Records. The band is at the top of their game, covered by bands like The Black Lips and Jon Spencer’s Heavy Trash and cited as ‘one of the best live shows in the world’ right now. They are an awesomely surreal site to behold; a stunning garage rock machine of the highest calibre, playing incredible original hits that never end. From youngsters to oldsters alike, their crowds sing along incessantly and let their freak-flags fly in joyous solidarity when The King Khan & BBQ Show hit the stage, clamouring like entranced dervishes to be a part of a growing phenomenon. Give into their spell and live forever” (Nota de su MySpace)

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The King Khan & BBQ Show: Invisible girl (2009), In the Red Records

Con un sonido algo más aligerado de la carga de Garage, Rockabilly y Soul de antaño, acercándose algo más a posiciones más Pop, nos presenta este dúo canadiense su tercer larga duración: Invisible Girl. Más información en The JangleBox.