For those of us that reside north of the Mason-Dixon Line, southern slang has always been a fascination. Most of us, at one time or the other, have even adopted it for sole purpose of entertainment, referring to a group of people as “y'all” or emphatically posing the age-old contemplation “duh' hell?!” This weekend marks the commencement of the first annual Rurnt Festival in Jackson, Mississippi. The term “rurnt” is the past-tense form of “ruin” in southern slang. A person might say: “King Louie Bankston has done rurnt his liver a long time ago,” or “The bar floor is rurnt.” With a weekend packed full of baneful rock'n'roll focusing entirely on acts from all over the southern United States, You can bet something this weekend will get “rurnt.”
This Friday at W.C. Don's the line up features the Jackson, Miss. sleazy pop/metal spume Tuff Luvs, Nasty Habits, Mobile Alabama's Hibachi Stranglers, and the River City Tanlines. The stand out of the evening will be the newest incarnation of King Louie's Dixie slum powerpop, Black Rose Band. Louie's indisputable knack for brilliantly contagious hooks laced through cleverly euphonic song writing never misses its target. He'll also play the Saturday daytime show as part of the “One Man Band Off,” a showdown that will also feature others like Conner Sewer and the twangy Ming Donkey at The Ink Spot Gallery.
Saturday night at Hal & Mal's Red Room will turn out to be a formidable night of severe rock'n'roll folly. Starting off with the Overnight Lows, another Jackson act whose clamoring slop ditties land in the same sonic monkey cage as an Angry Samoan baboon. Die Rotzz from New Orleans, deliver a plucky assault of anthemic short bus punk. The Black and Whites' set will radiate the blushful chorale of pinnacle pop punk their recent single promised, and headlining are Memphis's maniacally mechanical Final Solutions.
Check Jackson in our listings section for the festival's complete line-up.
