Madjack Records is a Memphis label known for releasing first-rate indie material, so when I saw that they were releasing a new album by James and the Ultrasounds, a band I knew only from local live music schedules, I was eager to check it out. Madjack is of course the label that launched the career of Lucero, and is also known for such melodic indie/folk artists as Delta Joe Sanders, John Kilzer, the Memphis Dawls and Mark Edgar Stuart, so I was expecting James and the Ultrasounds to be in the same general vein, and I was in for something of a shock, to say the least. The album Bad to be Here opens with a blistering, fast-paced punk-rock anthem called “Sleep Cheap”, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like this album or band after all. But the second track “Raise My Kids” maintained the punk ethos while mixing in a fair dose of Memphis roots rock, and by the time I reached the slow ballad “Streets Get Slick”, with its melodic, soulful implications, I was hooked. Memphis implications appear throughout the remainder of the album, a more pronounced soul feel on “Letters In A Box”, the Hill Country blues feel of “Ballad for the Man” whose lyrics address police harassment, the 50’s Jerry Lee Lewis approach of “Lover Man” or the 1960’s summertime groove of “We’ll Be Together Again.” For a relatively new band, James & The Ultrasounds have internalized a vast library of Memphis aesthetics, from Stax to Sun, and from Tav Falco to the Compulsive Gamblers, and even shades of the Alex Chilton of “Like Flies On Sherbet”, yet they are at once a bold and fresh new voice in Memphis music. Altogether, James and the Ultrasounds’ new album is a like a wild ride on the old Zippin’ Pippin’, and despite the title, it shows that when “here” is Memphis, it’s not so bad to be here after all. (GRADE A+)
Keep up with James and the Ultrasounds:
https://www.facebook.com/jamesandtheultrasounds
http://jamesandtheultrasounds.bandcamp.com/releases
http://www.madjackrecords.com/the-artists/james-and-the-ultrasounds/
http://www.reverbnation.com/jamesandtheultrasounds
https://twitter.com/ultrasounds_901
Keep up with Madjack Records:
http://www.madjackrecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/MadjackRecords
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https://myspace.com/madjackrecords