White Reaper (2021)

One Liner: Glammy, fun rock and roll with a great live show
Wikipedia Genre: Hard rock, garage rock, garage punk, power pop, glam rock
Home: Louisville, Kentucky

Poster Position: 10

Both Weekends

Sunday at 2:30 on the Honda Stage.

Thoughts: They were last at the Festival in 2017, and their show was freaking awesome.  Here is what I said afterwards:  "So we walked over to the BMI stage to catch a band I'd never heard of before, and it was a good find.  White Reaper is the kind of ridiculous rock and roll band that makes me love rock all over again.  This is that pure rock and stupid roll, fat riffs and basic low end and buzzy singing that isn't quite punk but could be right there.  Their album is apparently named The World's Best American Band, which is kind of funny in its own way, and while their crowd wasn't that big, the people who were there knew the words and were in to it.  Oh, and LOUD.  So very loud.  The keyboard player was cracking me up, kicking at the sky and holding his little keyboard up over his head and headbanging and generally rocking out.  He even grabbed a pair of sunglasses out of the air, tossed up by someone in the crowd, and stuck them on his face without missing a beat.  I don't know, there was something purely skuzzy and awesome about these dudes.  I'll go hunt down their tunes and try them some more."

I did go check out that older album, and liked it a lot.

White Reaper - The World's Best American Band.  Like the title of this album, these dudes are fully tongue in cheek at all times.  I saw them play at ACL this year, and the show was one of the best things I saw at the second weekend, as they just blasted through a fun show with abandon, rocking out and being ridiculous.  Very fun.  The album isn't quite as raw as the show, but it still sounds like punk rockers trying to play classic rock, like they're trying to cover T. Rex ("The World's Best American Band") or Thin Lizzy ("Judy French") but came up playing only raw punk tunes.  I like the mix.  "The Stack" really sounds familiar too - I know it has the same kind of chord progression as "Rock and Roll Never Forgets," but I almost feel like it is a cover song that I've heard before from someone else.  But it appears to be an original.  Weird.  That Thin Lizzy-esque song is the top track on this album (4.2 million streams), and I think it kind of rules.  "Judy French."

Oh, and Alexandra Daddario, who was in the kind-of-funny-but-pretty-solidly-dumb Baywatch (as well as other flicks) tears it up in that video. I also walked into the living room just this week to see an image of her frozen on the TV screen with her chest straight up bursting out of a bathing suit - she's apparently in a new HBO show.  I have no clue why it makes any sense for her to appear in the video as though she is every member of the band, but whatever...  Their live show is even better than this album, but I think this album is highly fun stuff too.  I'm gonna keep it around and blare it from my car tonight while I drive home.  FYI, I did do that on my drive home and it was excellent.  I also kept it going this morning when the girls got in to the car for the drive to school and they didn't tell me to change the station, so that's a plus."

Of course, since then, they've put out some really good music.  2019's You Deserve Love is very good and boasts their most streamed track by a good ways.  "Might Be Right" has gotten some radio play as well, at least here in Austin.

The bass that starts off the track is super good - gets it into a nice groove before you even hear the catchy action that comes later.  I know I compared them to T Rex and Thin Lizzy earlier, but what I hear in this one is more of Weezer trying to channel Kiss.  And I love it.  Long live rock and roll.  "Real Long Time" is their second-most streamed off of that album, and its also good stuff.

The singer almost has a Brit sound to him in there - and the guitar-work makes me think of Diarrhea Planet (R.I.P. - that band ruled).  Sounds more like Cheap Trick on that one.  They sure know the retro guitar jam keyholes.

They named the band after an all-white Reaper prop in a Halloween Express.  As you can probably guess, the founding members of the band did that when they were still in high school and didn't realize that the name might follow them around for a while.  Their Wikipedia profile sucks - very little historical information.  One cool anecdote that I found in an article about them is this: "It was a few years ago at South By Southwest that they met Hunter Thompson, a friend of a friend who had let them crash at his house for the festival. The Austin native struck up a fast bond with the group and was soon asked to join as their second guitarist."  Hell yeah, they're partially from Austin!

I'm curious if their live show will be a more restrained affair now that they have a little success under their belts.  Either way, I'm going to this show for absolutely sure.