Retrospective #3 - Picks & Lighters

Before I was of drinking age, I lived in a small town about a one and a half hour drive from Memphis. I worked minimum wage jobs, and on pay day, I would excitedly hop into the car and head down to the only two cool record stores of West Tennessee at that time: Shangri-La and Last Chance Records. The latter carried the more hard-to-find, and is thus out of business after several location changes, but it was my favorite. Oh the treasures I would find! And oh how my small-town, inexperienced little mind was blown. Today I will reminisce about another of those bought-for-the-album-cover situations.

I was flipping through the countless rows of vinyl, when I suddenly came across a unique spiral design that caught my eye. Upon further inspection, I realized that this wasn't a print but the band had simply thrown blank white jackets onto a hot eye of a stovetop, burning the design onto the cover. The album credits were then written out in ink pen on the back. There were no song titles listed, simply the band name, Picks and Lighters, where they were from, Knoxville, and the band members names. The record was recorded in 1997, and the band had unfortunately already broken up in 1999 before I had even purchased the record, being sold on consignment at Last Chance for $6.99.

What's truly fucking depressing about this record is how goddamn good it is, and how under the radar it still remains. The band created a warm, bluesy brand of instrumental rock at a time before idiots started saying "post-rock" to describe their teary-eyed bullshit. The only currently available piece of recording from Picks and Lighters today is their last album from 1999, re-released by Ecstatic Yod in 2006 (Update: found a spot, but I'm unsure of their stock: Laboratory Standard).

The music occurs without too many rules but doesn't bore you with nonsense. It breathes but doesn't get too jammy. It's a home recording, but doesn't rub the lo-fi idea in your face like new wannabes such as Wavves. It's simply a sincere and brilliant offering, and modestly so.