After a rough week on their West Coast tour, which included crashing into a deer with their van in Montana, Lover! are now descending on better times as they arrive in San Francisco tonight for the kickoff of the Budget Rock Weekend festivities. As most of you know by now, Lover! is the mind-expanding pop rocket creation of Rich Crook, one of the most underrated and prolific figures in Memphis rock'n'roll, and one of the most deadly when it comes to crafting catchy songs delivered with an inimitable pop punch in the crotch. Whether it's releasing over two albums worth of top-quality material per year, or rotating band members as often as an underwear change, Rich has assembled another fine crop of dudes to pump up the sounds he has swimming around in his head. Along with adding Matt Williams on drums this tour is A-ron Orlowski (Baseball Furies, The Dirges, Bold Ones, Sang des Loups) on bass, and The Black and Whites' Johnny Valiant on second guitar to form a thunderously tight platform for the rapidly developing song base to blow up right in your face. Add a seemingly non-stop barrage of 7" singles this year on Hozac, Douche Master, Robs House and Tic Tac Totally, and you'll see that its time you stopped fighting it, and let yourself slip and fall in love with this band, for real.
Another band from the SF-area you should familiarize yourself with is Buzzer, who have just released their debut 7" EP on Douche Master Records this month and incorporate the best delinquent guitar squeal of mid-70s glam power raunch into their corkscrew curl lifestyle better than anyone these days. Featuring Ray from The Impediments, and most notably Andy from The Cuts and Time Flys, the songs don't stray far from those winning formulas, but engage a chorus-heavy grunt/chant anthem blueprint that effectively covers the authentic glitter style like a charm and shows how much of their junkshop glam homework they've been doing. Pick up their Disco Kiddz 7" at all costs right HERE and check them out live for a sweaty great time that will get your black heart pumping like crazy.
Opening up the show are The Safes from Chicago and the wild local SF band, Fault Lines who cough up rough-cut punk songs recorded while falling off the edge of a cliff and crashing into the rocks below, as heard on their My Dog is an Awesome Dog 7" released on their own Don't Cry Joe Records, available from the band, or right HERE.
AND! If you're so inclined, head over to the Eagle Tavern at 5PM for a afternoon show with Lover! and Nobunny as well.
check out a video clip of Buzzer, from December of last year, courtesy of omarsleeze, right here...
