King Tuff

Was Dead (Burger)

What’s a decade in the life of the eternal post-teen dream machine? Recorded in 2003, then re-recorded in 2008, King Tuff’s once-rare second album finally gets wide release. Vermonter Kyle Thomas began work on Was Dead at 18 and it shows. The songwriting’s brash and unconcerned, vocal delivery unapologetically snotty, and Thomas demonstrates a remarkable knack for coaxing magic out of slop. His steam-heated synthesis of garage punk and shag-carpet fuzz cultivates extra adhesiveness by juxtaposing bubblegum hooks with savage strangeness. Like a train song in the age of Amtrak, “Connection” taps the last gasp of young love facilitated by unrequited pop-punk surrender. On the flip side, Thomas opens verse three of “Animal” by screaming, “I eat pizza all fuckin’ night!” This finger-snapping inventory of adolescent vices is downright liberating. (12:45am, Red 7 inside)

***.5

This article appears in November 7 • 2014.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.