Matt K. Shrugg on the street

Hot Off the Press!

Just picked up Matt K. Shrugg’s brand new debut solo record, Matt K. Shrugg, out on Chicago’s Tic Tac Totally label. It’s good. Really, really good. Four brutal, blazing jazz-inflected garage punk songs in three-track lo fi glory, first 100 on clear vinyl with a cute lil booklet describing how Tic Tac Totally came to put this out. Raw like the Sonics, recorded like the Mummies and written and sung and played by nobody (but nobody) like Matt K. Shrugg.

I’m not gonna pretend to be unbiased. I’ve known MKS since he was 12 years old, and we’ve played together in various bands for over a decade. I’ve watched Matt go from being an awkward pre-teen Beatle nerd with a mismatched, busted up drum kit to being a full-on Sammies Hall-of-Famer musical juggernaut with a mismatched, busted up drum kit.

So yes, I am totally biased, but others have been taking note. KDVS DJ and indie tastemaker Rick Ele featured a batch of MKS material on a recent show and then followed it up with a blog post recounting Matt K.’s history that sums up, “Bottom line…dude’s awesome at whatever he tries.” And then there’s this line from SS Records head honcho Scott Soriano: “A fixture of Sacramento’s music scene, Matt K. is probably this town’s best pop songsmith since Nar’s S. Miller.” Please note that this is probably the only example of DJ Rick, Scott Soriano and the Sammies folk ever agreeing on anything.

I lack the contemporary musical vocabulary to describe exactly what this record sounds like. Hasil Adkins once explained that he developed his unique one-man band style because he grew up hearing Hank Williams on the radio and had no idea that there was a whole band backing him up. This record sounds as if Matt K. Shrugg had grown up thinking that one guy had played everything on the Angry Samoans records and gone on from there. It’s loud, it’s distorted, it’s fast, it’s catchy and it features Matt K. Shrugg playing every instrument on every track all while operating the tape as well. And he drew the cover (of course).

If you want to get a copy before it sells out and ends up going for $40 on ebay, try Time Tested Books on 21st between L and K. Last I heard they had it in stock…