Thursday, February 02, 2006

these things will slay you every time

i thought about doing an entry looking back at the Grifters, one of the great, quickly forgotten garage-psych hybrid bands of the nineties. then i sort of took a sidetrack and pulled out a Those Bastard Souls record, a group that began as a solo sideproject of the Grifter's Dave Shouse. solo that is until he was tapped as an opening act for a Seabadoh tour in 1996 and recruited members of the Dambuilders, Red Red Meat, Shudder to Think and Jeff Buckley's backing band to bring a full band out on the road. (some interesting inter-connectability there as Shouse did some musical mentoring for Buckley, who was reportedly dating Joan Wasser of the Dambuilders/TBS before his untimely death). i managed to catch that tour and while already a Grifters fan, became moreso a fan of Shouse when in an interview i once read he was asked if there were any musicians or artists that shared a simular vision and he name-dropped one of my favorite film directors, Hal Hartley. i still haven't made the correlation, but thought it was pretty cool. the debut album, 21st Century Chemical on Darla, hinted at the bluesy influences of the Memphis-based musicians other band, but the delivery was a lot cleaner. by 1999 the Grifters were put on permanent hiatus (and i should mention in lie of my abandoned original idea, as far as final albums, the Grifter's Full Blown Possession is really good) and while it seemed Shouse would switch focus to TBS, then recently signed to V2, they had infact only one last album in them, Debut & Departure. critics panned the album, noting it's mainstream ambitions. that valid observation was made even more curious when Those Bastard Soulds toured off the album alongside lo-fi legends Guided by Voices. anyway, this is my favorite tune of the first album.

Those Bastard Souls"These Things Will Slay You Every Time"

4 Comments:

At 10:35 AM, Blogger jonder said...

Thanks for posting this song! I have recently gotten into the Grifters and TBS. Dave Shouse is a great songwriter, and I wonder if he will ever make another record.

 
At 5:24 PM, Blogger jonder said...

Sorry, I asked a dumb question. I googled Dave Shouse and discovered the Bloodthirsty Lovers.

 
At 1:02 AM, Blogger Jason said...

the Grifters were an amazing band. i'm glad people are still discovering them

 
At 7:36 PM, Blogger josh Mueller said...

I have a Bloodthirsty Lovers album. Don't like it.

 

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