Memphis-based punk rock juggernaut Jay Reatard has adopted a fistful of musical approaches since he first began recording in his bedroom, writing and recording frantic punk, synth punk, power pop and straightforward rock & roll tunes at a frantic pace since releasing his debut EP in 1998. Reatard was born Jay Lindsey and dropped out of school when he was 15, owing to boredom with conventional education and a problematic home life. Lindsey became interested in rock & roll when he heard Nirvana via MTV, and in his mid-teens he began writing songs. After seeing Memphis punk blues legends the Oblivians open for Rocket from the Crypt, Lindsey was inspired to try something similar and created the Reatards, which initially was just Lindsey, who sang, played guitar, and beat on a bucket with a stick for the benefit of his four-track cassette machine.



Eric Friedl, aka Eric Oblivian of the Oblivians, was impressed enough with Lindsey's early recordings to offer to release a Reatards record through his label Goner Records, and their debut 7" EP, Get Real Stupid, appeared in 1998, with Lindsey adopting the stage name Jay Reatard. A full-length Reatards album, Teenage Hate, appeared later the same year, with Reatard forming a three-piece version of the Reatards so the band could play live, featuring Steve Albundy Reatard on bass and Elvis Wong Reatard on drums. A second Reatards LP, Grown Up Fucked Up, was issued by Seattle's Empty Records in 1999, but the following year, Reatard formed a side project, the Lost Sounds, which soon became his main musical outlet. Featuring Reatard's then-girlfriend Alicja Trout on keyboards and guitar and drummer Rich Crook, the Lost Sounds were a synth punk band heavily influenced by the Screamers, with Reatard and Trout trading vocals back and forth; they released four albums between 2001 and 2004, but abruptly split up in 2005.



During the Lost Sounds' lifespan, Reatard briefly reunited the Reatards and performed with the Bad Times (featuring Eric Friedl), the Final Solutions (including Reatard and high-school buddies from the band the Jackmonkeys) and Angry Angles (a collaboration with members of the Lids, Die Rötzz, and Tokyo Electron), and after their breakup he briefly recorded with Terror Visions and Destruction Units. In 2006, Reatard stepped out as a solo artist, releasing a single "Hammer, I Miss You" on Goner and a full-length album, Blood Visions,via In the Red. After issuing a handful of solo 7"s, Reatard signed with Matador Records in 2008, and in April of that year he released the first in a series of six singles for the label, "See Saw." In June 2008 Matador released Singles 06-07 which gathered up songs from an array of singles and labels, then followed it in October with Matador Singles '08,which collected all the singles released for the label in 2008 plus one bonus track.

Jay Reatard's newest album is Watch Me Fall.

Jay Reatard in The New York Times

Box Elders started as the Friday night goof off sessions of brothers Clayton and Jeremiah McIntyre. Naming themselves after the bugs that infested the house they grew up in, they began playing impromptu shows around Omaha. Drummer and organist Dave Goldberg saw them play a free show in a park and was convinced to join. The brothers suggested that Goldberg learn to play both instruments simultaneously instead of adding a fourth member. It took some practice.

In January 2008 they released a 7” on Grotto Records and spent several months of the year touring the USA. The record's off-kilter fuzzy pop caught the attention of Memphis’s Goner Records and earned them an invite to the label's annual festival. Offering to release their next record Box Elders began working on their debut album. “Alice and Friends”--named after the band's favorite cult run vegan Korean BBQ-- will be released by Goner on August 4th, 2009.

A visual cross between the leather bondage movie “Cruising” and the raunchy retro-fuelled imagery of early John Waters movies like “Desperate Living,” San Francisco’s Hunx and his Punx (one of whom is Justin “Nobunny” & another of former Gravy Train!!!!) have injected humor, imagination and fun into their prodigious multimedia output, which includes records and videos.

Hunx’s bouncy pop sound is equally cool, melding ‘60s-based bubblegum pop sensibilities with DIY garage prowess for a sticky-sweet aural assault. Starting with his “Good Kisser” single on Austria’s Bachelor Records, Hunx has moved forward with lightning speed and now has three other singles in the offing.

One of the many personalities of Okmoniks drummer and Sneaky Pinks founder Justin Champlin, Nobunny (with and without the Fabulous Flys) is a tucson-founded, oakland-based, bunny-faced act specializing in 60s-style garage rock and pop.

Useless Eaters is Seth: guitar, bass, drums, assorted borrowed instruments, stolen tascam portastudio... live band: Clay Mignon on Bass. Bevan Williams on drums.