20 July 2012

TiJUANA HERCULES Play The Almanack Of Bad Luck

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Photo of Tijuana Hercules stolen from the brilliant Joni Kat Anderson.
It sums up the band nicely - Heads down and rollin'.
Mr. Johnson told me about Tijuana Hercules a few months ago.  They're one of those bands that have so much cool stuff happening that for me at least, I had to take small bites to get in to them. I'm still crackin'. They're deceptive. So simple and yet....you take a look at the band photo I posted and probably think "Huh? Looks like some olde dudes makin' some kind of racket. So?" You'd be half-right. It's a racket and clatter, blather and smoke. It's Hasil Adkins vs Flat Duo Jets with Captain Beefheart's horn section and Zoot Horn Rollo as referee. It's dank & doped-up voo-doo era Dr. John vs Rocket From The Crypt doing Bored and 5'1" Iggy. 


Get some!
Tijuana Hercules is led by a primatavist Georgian named John Forbes who acts as Master of Ceremonies, singer, cartoonist, twelve-string guitarist, songster and testifier.  Forbes straps himself with anywhere from one to fourteen players playing horns, keys, sometimes a couple drummers, and most anything else they can get ahold of to wail on. It's one hell of a sound.  Free and primal, dirty blues-based, it's pure bottled smokey amber and the criminal sin of knowing the one your with.  It's the soulful Romweberian sound of Hasil's country hunchin'. It's The Stooges covering early Tom Waits, all the while blasting thru with a sometimes shamboling, sometimes Don Garlits vs Shirley Cha-Cha Muldowney lowered and louvered rat rod of souped-up fully-blown custom rock and blues with rusted chrome sidepipes. 


Y'all need this.
I got mine on rootbeer brown vinyl.
Twelve tracks recorded live (but for horns and some backing vocals) on the band's own Black Pisces Records label out of Chicago. The Almanack Of Bad Luck rips, roars, boogies and howls its blues-style racket like it's going out of style.  
 Don't let it.

Tijuana Hercules have three products available:
Almanack Of Bad Luck - cd/vinyl
When The Moon Comes Up Wild (ep) $5
Tijuana Hercules - cd
Fightin'Off The Evil Eye/The Undertaker Cancelled - 7"

You can contact them HERE.



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