Despite its somewhat questionable reputation as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll, Memphis is a city marked by death. In addition to Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination at the Lorraine Motel, Elvis croaked at Graceland; Al Jackson Jr. was murdered in his home; Otis Redding died in a plane crash; David Prater died in a car crash; Stax went under and was torn down; Chris Bell drove into a telephone pole off Poplar Avenue; Jeff Buckley drowned in the Wolf River. Ineluctable tragedy has seeped into Memphis' mythology and mindset, as pervasive as muddled civic government, and it bubbles out through the city's music.
Not many Memphis musicians understand this municipal obsession with mortality as well as Greg Cartwright, who fronted the 90s noise-rock trio The Oblivians until the group disbanded in 1997. Afterwards, he formed the Reigning Sound with three other local musicians, releasing Break Up Break Down and Time Bomb High School, two full-to-bursting albums of jarring garage-rock that transcended the genre through its impossibly deep knowledge of local and national pop and soul. On their new album, Too Much Guitar, the Reigning Sound make it clear that they would be playing the same songs with or without that genre's recent revival.
Not that the garage-rock trend has been especially good to the band. After Time Bomb High School, the Reigning Sound were on the verge of breaking up, held together by the power of a dozen or so new songs and the promise of studio time. Guitarist/keyboard player Alex Greene left in 2003, which left Cartwright, bassist Jeremy Scott, and drummer Greg Roberson, the latter two forming a tight-as-ever rhythm section reminiscent of their Stax forebears. Splitting time between Memphis and North Carolina and recording several tracks in Cartwright's now-closed Legba Records store, they brought in a few local musicians-- including Alicja Trout and Jay Rensley of Lost Sounds-- to create an album full of stomping backbeats, scorching guitars and soulful melodies.
On the opener, "We Repel Each Other", the band promise to live up (or down) to the album's cheekily self-critical title: Cartwright's voice is buried beneath piles of guitar noise, as if he's singing from six feet under. It's an odd tactic: Cartwright is blessed with an amazing voice for the music he plays, able to convey defeat and defiance, hangdog sadness and poisoned disdain, all in the same breath. At points on Too Much Guitar, he's barely audible-- although you hear more of him with each listen. However, the album's messy production exponentially increases its raw spontaneity and desperate urgency.
Not surprisingly, death informs much of the record, which directly equates love and loss. Songs like "If You Can't Give Me Everything" and "I'll Cry" lament the end of a relationship as if performing an exorcism. Even when a song celebrates romance-- such as the cover of Sam & Dave's "You Got Me Hummin'"-- fear always countervails happiness and contentment, making these songs seem restless and gloomily resigned to love's futility. Or, as Cartwright sings on "Funny Thing", "Love is a funny thing/ You don't know it's real 'til it's caused you pain."
Sometimes death is very literal, as on "Drowning", which begins ominously: "I went walking the other day/ Under the bridge to Arkansas." He promises to tell us what he saw, but only mentions that the sparkle in her eyes died. On one of the album's standouts, "Let Yourself Go", Cartwright sings, "Keep your feelings inside/ All your thoughts of suicide/ Oh, let yourself go." He's not promoting death, but exhorting listeners to "live your life like the end is near." Cartwright seems to be heeding that advice: Despite being so recently in the throes of their own demise, the Reigning Sound sound lively and vital as ever.
