What I'm Listening To: Reigning Sound

I have to admit that I pretty much missed the 90s garage rock revival. Now, I did have a couple of friends who were a bit more knowledgeable and the other part of that is that it was a pretty underground phenomenon. I am talking that (mostly) late 90s (mostly) Memphis based garage punk scene that was on labels like Crypt and Sympathy for the Record Company, whose only real means of advertising were word of mouth and zines. Bands that come to my mind are the Oblivians, New Bomb Turks, the Reatards, Nine Pound Hammer, the Dirtbombs, and the Gories and then you could (depending on how you want to define the scene) broaden it out to what became the early 00s garage rock scene and eventually broke through in terms of bands like the White Stripes and Black Keys. (Bands like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Supersuckers and Rocket from the Crypt with larger label support and audiences generally don’t get grouped in but aren’t that much different) So I missed a lot of the scene at the time and to a certain extent, didn’t really find the bands that would come out of it until much later- King Khan, the Detroit Cobras, Black Lips and so on I didn’t even revisit the Oblivains until the year 2000 album Crystal Gazing Luck Amazing by the Compulsive Gamblers- a band formed by two thirds of the Oblivians - Greg and Jack (and actually predating the Oblivians) Whereas the Oblivians were primal frantic rock n roll birthed of the Stooges and Cramps, the Compulsive Gamblers were certainly less wild, but retained some of the same elements and sort of skipped around elements of the Nuggets style garage bands Greg “Oblivian” Cartwright went on to from Reigning Sound. Upon releasing the live album “Memphis in June” last year, Greg announced the bands break up I was bummed as I really enjoyed 2021s “A Little More Time with”. I was consoled by the fact that I doubt Cartwright will go idle. In a vein of the Gamblers, the Reigning Sound is a mix of garage rock with a bit of soul and Americana. On the “A Little More Time” album, they slow it into Flying Burrito Brothers territory at times. It almost sounds radio friendly but Americana stations seem to be few and far between. “Memphis in June” is of course being a live album- strongly focused on the most recent albums with a couple of greatest hits thrown in. It is missing probably their finest moment - a fast paced cover of the Gants “Stormy Weather”- the original from an underappreciated lost mid-1960s Beatles influenced Mississippi garage band, and you have to go to the band's excellent second album, 2002's Time Bomb High School 

2002 - In the Red Records