Golden Boys

Goodbye Country (Monofonus)

Former Tav Falco drummer Ross Johnson pays the Golden Boys quite the compliment in the liner notes of Goodbye Country, reminiscing about seeing them play a Memphis club in “advanced states of intoxication. … They were and are uncaring in the best sense of the word.” He nails the Boys live, but their albums have always been a bit more composed. While this third LP lacks the loose-limbed, blackout-drunk ferocity of 2007’s Whiskey Flower, the local quintet broadens its horizons, from the feel-good pop-organ of opener “Mine Like a Diamond” to 1960s psychedelic (“The Box”) and growled gothic country (“Wrong and Right”). The woozy strum of “Pharmacy” bears the self-medicated slur of a true Golden Boys song midalbum, and the last half slowly makes its way to its knees, until the pass-the-bottle, tear-in-your-beer torch song “Shell of Some Guy.” With the addition of horns and accordions, Goodbye Country‘s a bit of a hodgepodge, but trampling on acceptable music standards is seldom a bad direction.

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This article appears in John McCain.

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