Dan Sartain was born in Birmingham Alabama, the bastard child of a bizarre three way sexual encounter between the devil, a guitar, and Johnny Cash. This dude is beyond great. If yer like us you’re a dedicated follower of the Church of RnR, and Mr Sartain is here to give you the sermon you need. I’ve been steady working 8 days straight and during that time Dan Sartain “Lives” has been on heavy rotation. He got me through. And like Jesus he apparently had to rise from the dead to do it.
The album is called “Lives” cause apparently people thought this mother fucker straight died after taking an extended six year hiatus betwix albums. I think it was also assumed he died cause both covers for his previous two albums showed him killing himself. On the cover of “Vs. The Serpentines” he hangs from a noose and on the cover of “Join Dan Sartain” he’s blowing his brains out with a handgun. But lives he most certainly does. Sartain is so painfully rockabilly it hurts. He kinda looks like an RnR John Waters. Skinny. Pencil thin mustache. An all around odd duck (on his MySpace he has a forum for people to post their favorite Eazy E quotes). But fuck me he can play. A lot of rockabilly is posturing and hair grease. Sartain greasy as he may be is not posturing in the least. He’s the real deal. Where has he been for the last six years? Fuck you that’s where!
Sartain’s last two albums were on Swami but with “Lives” he joins the roster for One Little Indian (the London based label that brought you the Twilight Singers). He’s got a bunch of 7″s out (the split with him and Henry Dunkel is killer) yet “Lives” isn’t on vinyl (yet at least). I don’t even know that the CD got a proper US release. I haven’t seen it anywhere and when I ordered it from Amazon they said “only 1 copy left”. This may as a result be tough to track down in stores. But man is it worth it. Your best bet is to get it direct from One Little Indian or through iTunes. I suggest the former.
To be fair the only misstep is Bohemian Grove which is a 60′s garage tune to a fault. It’s not a bad song at all, it just feels out of place next to dark tunes about getting bit up by cobras, having atheist funerals, and girls named Ruby Carrol. I read somewhere that Jack White produced the 7″ Single version of the song, but I don’t see his name in the liner notes for the LP so maybe it’s a different version. This one song aside the rest of the album is fantastic through and through. If you like garage get it. If you like rockabilly get it. If you like the blues get it. If you like dudes in pencil thin mustaches riding zebras get it. Sartain is undoubtedly alive and back to tear shit up. Check out his free Daytrotter Session or the video below if you don’t believe me. Oh and Mr. Sartain, my favorite Eazy quote is the one where he goes “So what about the bitch who got shot? Fuck her! You think I give a damn about a bitch? I ain’t a sucker!”
Dan Sartain Atheist Funeral Official Video from One Little Indian Records on Vimeo.
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