HEAR THIS

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Heavy Trash's wretched rock


Americans love trash culture. We're prurient by design. Which is why Heavy Trash may soon rise like a double-barreled phallus to the top of the pops. A visionary marriage of sick pups with serious musical chops, HT finds Jon Spencer (of Pussy Galore and Blues Explosion infamy) and fellow arrested adolescent Matt Verta-Ray drawing from the sanctified scrapheap of Rock 'n' Roll, USA -- from early Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis to American Bandstand to Iggy Pop and even Vinnie Barbarino (picture this: "You make me lose controool and make my paaaants all wet!"). The guitars are greasy with the filth of roadside diners and condom-strewn gutters, the lyrics often straight nasty or full-frontal stoopid ("Hey baby, your mama's a whore!"). Yet there's beauty in the band's no-shit ID: Heavy Trash is raunch defined. And nearly every song's got an infectious do-the-jerk groove. The bouncy brand subversion "Gatorade" -- appropriated as a "sweet and wet" euphemism for "a little piece of heaven right between the thighs" -- is one of countless catchy hits on the group's eponymously titled CD debut. Sing along with Spencer -- "Yeeeaaah, baaaaby ... c'mon, let's ball!" -- Monday, Oct. 24, at the Bottom of the Hill; call 621-4455 or go to www.bottomofthehill.com for more info. -- Sam Prestianni