Thee Michelle Gun Elephant – Rodeo Tandem Beat Specter – Review

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant

Rodeo Tandem Beat Specter (Alive)
by Craig Regala

I didn’t get this one until I strapped on the headphones and hit the tanning bed. I suggest you all take T.M.G.E. nude (and I mean naked – no nail polish, no jewelry, no sunscreen, totally fucking buck), and sweaty, with full concentration. The name references the never famous but fantastic bummer psych-rock-spazz Texas unit The Mike Gunn, the sound abstracts the wasted anarchy hippie rock of the live MC5 and their Brit cousins The Pink Fairies/Deviants into a pure stream of notes, bashing and chords-soaking up tension and attack from the last thirty years of hard-ass indie stuff. I mean, cool stuff: The Wipers, Halo of Flies, Rocket from the Crypt’s non horn-driven stuff, At The Drive-In (minus any emo-sociation), The Outskirts of Infinity, their Japanese Compatriots – High Rise, White Heaven, and the wonderful PSF Label. Let it all roil and boil down, stretch it out accordingly to let it breath, drone, kick in, and come back home. Recorded in clean and natural sound, there seems to be no reason the next time you win the lottery you shouldn’t fund these guys, Acid Ape, Volume, and Dead Meadow for a month in the ole U.S. of A.
(PO Box 7112 Burbank, CA 91510)