Photo by the Flavorflanks.
Friends, let’s talk about the real rock and roll. Sometimes I have friends coming through town, and they ask, “who is the house band of Jackson? Who is the band that makes the kids grind it down at the prom? And, Where is the place of the Jager?”
These friends are often unskilled in the ways of the South, and fairly drunk by the time they get here. Nonetheless, I point them in one direction: SAM’S LOUNGE, longtime home of the Luv Tub, and more recently the place where ¡Los Buddies! come home to roost.
It’s tough to have friends in bands. First off, they get to have all the sex that you would like to have with the hot girls who love boys in bands. Secondly, boy, you really hope that they are a good band, because you will be going to see them whether they have “songs with choruses and melodies” or “lengthy funk jamz.” The good thing is that sometimes they let you make fliers for them and then they give you beer.
And lo, here is the truth: I always thought Jackson’s ¡Los Buddies! were a good band. I’m wired for garage and powerpop, and they played a delicious mix of the two, jangling their way to our hearts. It didn’t hurt that they’re the type of truly good people that you love immediately, or that they started their own cassette-only label to release their work (complete with hand-stitched covers), or that their posters are soaked with some of the best modern design in the country.
But recently I realized they might be a great band. I was trying to trick Wes Buddy into purchasing some of the Buddy Polaroids I’ve taken in the past, and asked if they had any recent songs he could lay on me. He told me they’d be in their studio, the ¡Losboratory!, trying to get something down on tape but that nothing weren’t working. So they jammed a microphone into the p.a. speaker and then . . .
Then, I got stunned, and stunned good. My little computer speakers shuddered under the weight of the distortion. Brothers and Sisters, I downloaded three minutes and thirty-three seconds direct from Memphis 1966 right into my brain: and lo, it was good: I heard that treble skittering all over the place, that slightly-off Standells solo, those big whoomping drums, and I near about fell out of my chair.
The Buddies are recording soon, set to release a 45 by year’s end, and if you think you like music you need to put this in your mouth and then take a swig of Coca-Cola and let it blow yr head off.
Download ¡Los Buddies! – Libido.
This reminded me so much of those punk shows we went to when we were too young to go to them. Memory floods are cool.
Nifty! More Los Buddies! Tour the tri-state area!
i remember when black lips came to club fire in jaxxon and how they were all back stage while los buddies played UNTIL the buddies started in with “libido”. both guitar players came walking quickly around the stage and to the front, the better to have their faces melted off.
“set to release a 45 by year’s end”
They need 9 months to put together a 7”? Love you, Buddies, but c’mon. Step it up.
[...] Previously: Los Buddies break my “Libido.” [...]
[...] makes me happier than I can tell you on a Sunday night. 2008 PF story on the Buddies—complete with “Libido” download. Original Los Buddies [...]