The FADER Magazine F2 Issue 2 May 2008

New Violence
Jay Reatard and his garage pop brutality

A self-described loner and a middle school dropout by the age of 15, Jay Reatard spent his teenage years how he wanted—wandering the gutters of Memphis with headphones on, catching fistfights and bottling punk hurricanes on a four-track in his bedroom. “I guess I did what any other kid would do,” Reatard says. “I hung out, ate fast food, played video games and watched Jerry Springer. Except I also recorded songs and toured.”

Many years, bands and tours later, Reatard’s Blood Visions album caused something of a retroactive explosion, with reviews still being written about the garage punk masterstroke almost eighteen months after its release. And now that indie hulk Matador Records have signed him, his growl and hiss will become increasingly present. Keeping pace with his freakish work rate, Reatard will release a limited-edition series of six 7-inches this year (which will be collected into an album in the fall), then a record of completely new material in the beginning of 2009. His previous label, In The Red, also plans a compilation of his older singles this summer.

Early listens hint at a shift towards a more pop-oriented, but defiantly damaged, approach. “The first Ramones video I ever saw blew me away,” Reatard says. “Those guys played fifteen minutes and they played fifteen songs. And they were full pop songs with arrangements, not some hardcore bullshit where it’s twenty seconds of nonsense.” But when playing live, Reatard’s performances mirror the pace and fury of hardcore. Like a sprint through waves of sugar, spit and even blood, Reatard opts for electric freakouts instead of stage banter, kicking and screaming all the way. “It makes me sick when I see bands that talk too much on stage, trying to tell you what their songs are about. I just try and cut the bullshit, and I think that bums people out.”