Reatards TEENAGE HATE / FUCK ELVIS HERES THE REATARDS

Teenage Hate may well be the greatest title ever for a punk rock album, and the Reatards' first full-length release (after a few EPs and cassettes) fully lives up to its handle: it's a raw, powerful blast of stripped-down rock & roll that howls long and hard well after the neighbors have threatened to call the police. The Reatards were Jay Reatard's first band to make a noticeable impact, and it's not hard to understand why; the lo-fi audio on Teenage Hate seems to be perpetually in the red zone (the liner notes claim it was recorded at Tape Hiss Is Good Studios), and the trio (Jay on guitar and vocals, Steve Albundy Reatard on guitar and backing vocals, and Elvis Wong Reatard on drums) threatens to explode into three different directions at any given moment, but the band has more energy than a case of Red Bull, and this music confirms that even at his scruffiest, Jay Reatard was a talent to reckon with. His guitar work throws surprisingly agile blues and rockabilly figures into hi