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by: Matt Pence |
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Denton,
TX's Baptist Generals make music for people who hate to be asked,
"What kind of music do you listen to?" They are as
difficult to categorize as the tastes of any real music lover.
The band recorded their latest album, No Silver/No Gold, in
a garage, but they are by no means your typical garage band.
Chris Flemmons writes and sings heartfelt, poetic lyrics and
plays the acoustic guitar, but The Baptist Generals are a far
cry from folk music. He plays the acoustic guitar the way it
was meant to be played: like a motherfuckin' drum. Their music
is often bitter, aggressive, even frightening, yet at times
completely spiritual. Flemmons' lyrics are marked by a profound,
often dirge-like sadness, but this isn't fucking emo, folks.
And he might sing, with a distinctively Southern accent -- songs
that mention someone getting his "head cut off on the barbed
wire" or someone "shooting and drinking" (in
that order) --but The Baptist Generals sure as fuck ain't country.
Or alt-country. Or any of that stupid shit.
Yet their style is distinctively Southern. His haunting, imagistic
lyrics are as steeped in the Southern gothic tradition as anything
Barry Hannah or Flannery O'Connor ever committed to print. Flemmons'
voice sounds like every great Southern singer from Doc Boggs
to Wayne Coyne, but at the same time nothing like either of
them, or anyone else for that matter.
He's thirty-three years old, but sings with all the world-weary
crankiness of someone who's seen at least ninety. The guitar
and the percussion are so tightly in sync with one another that
it's hard to tell which one is which. This may be because Flemmons
and drummer Steve Hill have been playing together for over eleven
years now, ever since Flemmons moved to Denton from his native
Ft. Worth.
The two began as The Poor Bastard Sons, playing on front porches
for beer money, and have been performing as The Baptist Generals
since 1998. Their lineup now includes Ryan Williams on bass
(who plays a mariachi bass) and -- following the recording of
No Silver/No Gold -- multi-instrumentalist Jason Reimer, whose
electric piano, slide guitar, and Theremin (among other instruments)
add whole new dimensions to the band's music.
The Baptist Generals are from Texas, damn it, a state that gave
us everyone from Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt to Roky Erickson
and The Butthole Surfers, so they sure as hell ain't gonna sound
like anyone else. It's good old American indie rock, and you
better just go out and buy all their music -- and see them live
as soon as you can -- so you can say to yourself that you knew
about them before anyone else did. Also, they need money for
a new transmission. It broke on the first day of their first
American tour (with the Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice,
no less.) No, you're already too late to be the first to know
about The Baptist Generals. They are the favorite sons of their
native Denton and the first band mentioned in the Dallas/Ft.
Worth music scene.
And, as it happens with far too many great American bands, even
those people over there in Europe found out about them before
you did. They've toured Europe without incident and to great
acclaim. No Silver/No Gold and their previous album Dog have
been released by reputable Dutch indie label, Munich Records.
But let's reclaim them for the good old U. S. of A. They're
ours, and they are about the most utterly American band out
there, as long as you will agree that Texas is a part of the
United States. |
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No
Silver/No Gold
Sub Pop Records
2003 |
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