King Khan & the Shrines

King Khan & the Shrines
What Is?!
(Hazelwood, 2007; re: Vice, 2009)

It’s not Erick Khan’s fault all songs have been written already. Those 12 notes, everyone’s just sick of putting them in order really, which goes quadruple for the State of Indie Rock, a business where people who do split singles with Black Dice can score an event debut on Billboard. Khan even limits himself more than most, avowing to only boogie if it sounds ’60s. What’s a garage punk to do? Hone his riffs. And for those we forgive Khan for gobbledygook like the “My baby’s fat! She’s ugly! She’s fat and she’s ugly!” chorus from the Shrines’ 2001 “Took My Lady to Dinner.”

This watermark of maturity for the Black Lips’ fellow pissing, bleeding, stage-destroying associate was smuggled electronically from overseas in 2007, won stateside acclaim, and is finally seeing its US release. Despite a honking title like “69 Faces of Love”, What Is?! displays a slight turn towards empathy, even if Khan’s egotism is such that he has to embody women and eaters of welfare bread alike to reach his understanding. “The way they bitch and the way that they curse / The way they smell and the things in their purse!” exclaims a jealous Khan on “I Wanna Be a Girl”, though even he recants upon realizing all the shit women have to go through to retrieve his approval, appending the title hook with a “…sometimes” under his breath. It’s a cute song, and it’s the closest thing to insight here, but we’re into Khan’s brand of power-soul for one thing only: Riffs. “Welfare Bread” has lyrics that nag in comparison to its glorious feel-good horns and shading Hammond B-3, and strikes like a more ambitious (glockenspiel!) take on Morphine’s “Cure for Pain.” “Bread” is bookended by the rushing “I Wanna Be a Girl” and the irresistible “Land of the Freak”, Khan’s best Jerry Lee Lewis/James Brown update, all piled-up horns and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins howls. Album opener “(How Can I Keep You) Outta Harm’s Way” distills four discs of Nuggets into one throbbing buzz-note and four insistent horn-chart chords before a surprisingly tricky minor-key chorus.

Even “69 Faces of Love” makes the most of its Raveonettes-cum-spy/lounge pastiche, with vibraslap and congas and that awesome Spectorian wet-echo that makes shaking tambourines sound like a keychain of metal forks. All the texture and care and sacred analog-throwback quality reverberates gorgeously enough that you can still tune out the terrible chorus (“Your love is so fine / The way you blow your mind / Come on, wine and dine / 69!”) and enjoy it as a studio experience six listens later. “No Regrets” follows with a streamlined “Raw Power” drive, complete with plinking piano on metronome that unapologetically insists, “I don’t regret a thing!” and then promises to leave you cold and blue.

While nothing on What Is?! tops its opening quadrant and towards the end there’s a bit of filler (the dead-on-arrival psych cutting-room floor “Cosmic Serenade”, the out-of-ideas retread “Take a Little Bit”), at least half of the richly-recorded aura and swollen wah-guitar/horn combinations justify this re-release and future additions to the Khan discography, which could be a great one if he deigns not to half-ass it next time and do a whole record as clever as “I Wanna Be a Girl” or “Welfare Bread.” A potential stage monster to be sure, but we’re still waiting to build that shrine.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

Tags: King Khan and the Shrines, What Is, Vice Records