A (Not At All Definitive) Guide to Atlanta Garage Rock

The Lids - The Lids

Atlanta’s exciting garage/punk culture wouldn’t exist without B Jay Womack AKA Bobby Ubangi. A member of myriad bands and a longtime friend of – and muse for – the scene, he was once lovingly referred to as “a mascot of sorts for the Atlanta music scene that nurtured such bands as Deerhunter, Black Lips and Gentleman Jesse” by ATL’s alt-weekly Creative Loafing. While lung cancer tragically took his life at the age of 34, his songs remain – including the 13 frenzied tracks on this long lost gem.

With Womack on guitar and vocals, the Lids were a who’s who of Atlanta’s early punk heroes, including Mark Naumann (founder of Die Slaughterhaus Records), Dave Rahn (drummer for Carbonas and Gentleman Jesse) and Alix Brown, who would go on to perform with Jay Reatard in the Angry Angles. The songs were brash, quick and dirty, with angelic female harmonies shouted over three-chord stomp. “All I want is somethin’ to do,” Womack yells on one of them, and the whole record feels like it was just “somethin’ to do” that surprisingly worked out.

Carbonas - Carbonas

Perhaps Atlanta’s greatest pure punk band to date, Carbonas released three proper albums and a slew of singles from 2003-2008. The self-titled album is their most polished and rewarding record, even ten years on. Nine songs in 20 minutes rush by like a speeding train, leaving furious fist-pumps and hook-laden choruses in their wake. And the songs are so good you’ll forget how cheesy that last sentence was. Although they reformed in 2012 for East Atlanta’s annual lost weekend/punk festival, the Atlanta Mess-Around, Carbonas are no longer an active band. The best place to find its members currently are other excellent groups like Gentleman Jesse, GG King and Shocked Minds.

The Coathangers - The Coathangers

While these shit-starting ladies have considerably shined up their sound in the decade they’ve been releasing music, this self-titled LP debut for Atlanta punk mainstay Rob’s House established their attitude and ethos in fine form. It’s a mix of shrieks and shouts juxtaposed with gentle coos and handclaps, as if the Coathangers are as happy to charm you as they are to push you into traffic. They offer advice (“Shut the Fuck Up,” “Don’t Touch My Shit,” “Nestle in My Boobies”), ask some tough questions (“Where the Hell Were You Last Night?”) and comment on the socioeconomic politics of Atlanta’s melting pot of neighborhoods, demographics and backgrounds (“Buckhead Betty”).

Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil

This was the record that turned Black Lips from knucklehead townies with an underground reputation to nationally touring knucklehead townies with semi-mainstream appeal. Songs like “Bad Kids” and “O Katrina” proved that the group could write bonafide pop hits, the former making what felt like near-constant appearances on television and in movies. Good for them, because when Black Lips had a song land like that, it meant more time for trippy, wigged-out acid jams like “I Saw a Ghost (Lean),” more goofy-but-touching country odes like “How Do You Tell a Child That Someone Has Died,” more burnt-out driving anthems that reference local strip clubs like “It Feels Alright” – more everything, really.

Gentleman Jesse - Introducing Gentleman Jesse & His Men

While Jesse Smith has mostly stepped away from the musical life to run a Decatur restaurant with Douchemaster Records founder Bryan Rackley, his songwriting chops, spread across a couple LPs and several singles, are undeniable. On his proper debut, earworms like “Highland Crawler,” “All I Need Tonight (Is You)” and “Put Your Hands Together” sprinkle the influence of Nick Lowe, the Nerves and Elvis Costello over Smith’s catchy, alternately bitter and exuberant tales of love and loss. It’s a delight throughout, and a reminder of what a bummer it is that he’s not cranking out new releases on the regular. Thankfully, Smith has spent some of his free time of late working on new songs with the Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright.

The Gaye Blades - The Gaye Blades

This Atlanta supergroup features “Gentleman” Jesse Smith, Jared Swilley of Black Lips and B Jay Womack, who unfortunately passed away a couple years before the album was completed and released. Swilley and Smith’s songwriting styles intermingle throughout, sounding like they’re having significant fun with the overlaps. “Pretty Boy” talks shit on a chump who’s “cruising for a bruising” with the narrator’s girl. “Jesus Didn’t Try Hard Enough to Save My Soul” feels like it was recorded in one rambunctious take. “I Wanna Join the James Gang” is an ode to a local motorcycle gang, wrapped in the cloak of a misfit anthem. “I don’t think it’s such a strange thing to wanna be someone in a place you don’t belong,” the whole crew sings together on that last one – perhaps a direct comment on ATL’s punk scene.

Enoch Ramone & The Ebola Boys — ER+EB Jr.Esq.III

Enoch Ramone & The Ebola Boys, in the words of the naked man on the record’s cover: “The only reason they made this shit album is because [ER&TEB’s lead singer] Avery ran up a huge pay-per-view porn bill at his mom’s house and needed some money. They ripped off a few GG Allin songs, enlisted a few of ATL’s finest scum, bought a few bags of baby laxative coke, recorded a demo in 5 hours, and cut what's sure to be on KBD #4738 in the year 3077. No one bought the record. Avery still owes his mom $89.”