AAAA The New Memphis Legs

Blood and beer-encrusted recordings from the epochal year 2000: Once mammoth Texas guitar noisemaker James Arthur moved from Los Angeles to Memphis and began hanging out with local roustabout Eric “Oblivian” Friedl, The Legs were inevitable. The two filled their days drinking whiskey and beer, searching for pinball machines, riding mountain bikes through broken glass and rabid-dog-filled uncharted alleys, and enjoying spontaneous dance parties which mostly consisted of wearing out copies of the “Quick Joey Small” 45. When they could be bothered to actually play music, they jammed away on a chord or three. They thought they might be onto something, but couldn’t really tell what it was. Bassists were not consulted. All this time, drummer Forrest Hewes of Oxford, Mississippi’s Neckbones was quietly living a few blocks away from Friedl; once his massive drums were planted behind their wall of scuzz, The Legs knew they had truly arrived. With a setlist of Australian garage thudders from the Ugly Things compilation, a mutant two-chord Doug Sahm song and simple, intense originals, The Legs were a short-lived, yet highly entertaining Memphis club favorite, playing alongside Reatards, Jeffrey Evans and other Memphis talents of the time. There were two recording sessions—one captured by Jeffrey Evans with Jay Reatard on organ that yielded the track “I’ve Been Raped (By the Pinball Machine)” for a Pinball song compilation, and the other done in Jody Hill’s living room, which is issued here in its entirety.