Rhythm & Views

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN you take the triple lead guitar subterfuge of Lynyrd Skynyrd, synthesize it with the brute speed metal-punk ferocity of Nashville Pussy (sans the chicks) and add monster Nugent/Stooges/Blue Cheer '70s-inspired power chords currently adopted by the likes of genre rejuvenators the Hellacopters? You get a motley bunch of Confederate flag-waving punk rednecks known as the Quadrajets. Summoned from the one-room shacks nestled outside the thriving metropolis of Auburn, Alabama, these mosh pit Billy Bobs don't restrict their worship of rock 'n' roll to the gods of Southern rock, three-chord punk and early '70s heavy metal. They also feel just as comfortable singing Mudhoney-debased blues ("John Lee Hooker Is My Heavy Metal" and "My Baby Wants To Die"), Memphis soul/R&B as interpreted by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion ("Solid Gold Soul") and the Antiseen school of gore punk ("All My Rowdy Friends Are Dead"). On "The Tomb Of Johnny Reb," the Quadrajets channel the spirit of Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas hopped up on steroids and gallons of moonshine. While the ghostly likeness of Ronnie Van Zandt rears his revered image in the seven-minutes-plus fuck you-if-you-don't-like-Skynyrd paean "If You Ain't Down With Ronnie V (You Ain't Down With Me)." It's a swelling Collins/Rossington/Gaines-inspired three-guitars scorcher where the layered instrumental attack keeps building and ultimately climaxes in a detonation of a multi-lead instrumental cacophony worthy of "Freebird." The ragged, slightly speeded up cover of Blue Cheer's "Second Time Around" implodes in a fusillade of feedback, random screams, and tambourine thumping as a rugged drum beat from J.R.R. Tolkin holds the whole caterwauling breakdown from becoming an under-rehearsed sludge rock shambles. The Quadrajets manage to pull off this psychedelic distorto-shebang with flying rebel colors.