Thursday, August 4, 2011

john wesley coleman - steal my mind / bad lady goes to jail



JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN plays ramshackle countrified garage rock.....and it's fun catchy drinking / hanging out music.....

he reminds me of the GIBSON BROS and the COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS..... taking rock n roll back to its simple country / blues roots......  with a bit of weirdo indie / psych twist......

john plays in the GOLDEN BOYS and is from that very riotous fertile austin texas music scene, but his solo records definitely stand out from his other band and in the overcrowded underground rock scene....


maybe it's because JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN plays garage rock as if he doesn't care that you and two other friends are the only ones that love it.......


TERMINAL BOREDOM had this to say about his STEAL MY MIND LP......(certified PR records)
"This thing has subtly become one of my most-listened to LPs of recent vintage somehow. Not sure how it happened.  It's a real sidler. A go-to record for whenyou're just sitting around drinking and smoking cigarettes with a couple pals. It pulls up a chair along with you and takes a nip and a drag and gets comfortable. Sort of what you'd expect from a guy who covers Warren Zevon and Lester Bangs.  Boozy and sun-baked rock-n-roll Americano playedloose and gutsy. I think "Steal My Mind" is actually stealing a J.Mascis guitar hook. Actually reminds one of the Meat Pups in passages and surprisingly poppy in a rough-n-tumble way. What I wanted Golden Boys to sound like a lot of times. "Bad Lady" is the perfect combo of sax, beer and shitkicking. Country-singed and essentially turkey-free. "Tonight" opens with throbbing style and "Liqour Store" closes the first side with what I can only call completely stoned Seventies pop-rock. Depressing at times, yet upliftingly so in some strange way. I'm going to get a lot of use out of this LP over the summer. I can already smell the warm dusky breezewafting through the yard, perfumed by the smell of the earlier BBQ and the beginning of a campfire, me, my bros, my dog, a cooler full of beer and the untapped evening waiting to unfold.   Great fucking record, no bullshit." 


REVOLVER has this to say about his BAD LADY GOES TO JAIL LP......(GONER records)
   Who is John Wesley Coleman? He describes himself as “garbagecollector, golden boy.” Those four words might fit him best.Coleman currently makes pizzas in Austin, Texas, lives in weirdterritory, and is part of an invisible, non-scene made up of his otherAustin band Golden Boys, North Carolina’s Spider Bags and Memphis’ Limes—all groups with their own takes on sprawling, psychedelic,country-tinged rock. The artists he covers, largely street-levelcommentators of life below the poverty line, are telling; on his lastalbum, Steal My Mind, he did Lester Bangs and Warren Zevon songs;this time, it’s Nikki Sudden. Of course, a few years back he released acompletely blasted version of George Michael’s “Faith” that was seenas a piss-take but actually spoke to Wes’ mindset.Coleman has been compared to Lou Reed, Mr. Bangs, DanielJohnston and even Pavement, who adopted some of the spaciousnessof country life after their initial spizzle grotted out. But whowants to hear Pavement now? Owning cars that don’t break downmakes one complacent, and luckily Coleman hasn’t had to deal withthat yet. Hanging out at bus stops gives the man with eyes a whole lotof material to work with.  Bad Lady Goes to Jail covers a whole variety of desires, from Coleman’s desire for police to stop assaulting him to the desire to dance with his woman, to the less-specific “Something in My Brain Wants Something.” To balance the wanderingheart, he also offers more mundane observations in songs like theself-explanatory “Christians Drive Like Shit” and “My Friend Dan,”a straight celebration of one of his buddies.  There’s a glorious shimmer that runs through Coleman’s sometimes ramshackle music, a graceful melding of enthusiastic melodies and a rushed instrumental attack that frames off-beat lyrics sung by someone who can find moments of excitement in some pretty unlikely situations. Instead of living in the gutter and looking at the stars, he’s living in the gutter and looking at the crazy people stumbling down the street. And loving it!


click here to grab 2009's STEAL MY MIND lp.......


and here to grab 2010's BAD LADY GOES TO JAIL lp...


and if you live in the following cities, be sure to check out JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN out live.....


8/5 - Seattle, WA - Funhouse (pizzafest)
8/8 -Fargo, ND - The Aquarium
8/10 - Chicago, IL - Crown Liquors
8/11 - Milwaukee, WI Cactus Club



watch below......




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