Memphis Garage-Punk Band Lands In San Francisco
By Dave Pehling
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- One of the most popular garage-punk outfits to emerge in the last five years from the hotbed of Memphis (home of noted underground imprint Goner Records, which holds it's unhinged annual Gonerfest every fall), Ex-Cult got it's start in 2011 when five musicians from various hardcore, psych and indie-pop backgrounds first came together.
The band managed to put out two independent singles under their original name Sex Cult before getting a cease-and-desist letter from an NYC techno label that forced them to adopt their current moniker. Delivering a feral take on kinetic garage-rock sounds highlighted by the careening, reverb-drenched vocals of frontman Chris Shaw, it wasn't too surprising that the band found a kindred spirit in prolific psych/punk wunderkind and then SF resident Ty Segall after he saw them perform at South By Southwest in Austin.
Signed to Goner, the band recorded its explosive self-titled 2012 debut in San Francisco with Segall producing. The record established the quintet as another able representative to the Memphis punk sound, ably following in the footsteps of The Oblivions, The Reigning Sound and the numerous projects of the late, great Jay Reatard. Several singles and their follow-up effort Midnight Passenger in 2014 solidified that reputation.
The band has maintained a close relationship to San Francisco ever since, frequently visiting during its incessant tours across the country and continuing to work with local (if now relocated to Los Angeles) legends Segall and John Dwyer. Shaw teamed with Segall and Segall's bandmate in Fuzz Charlie Moothart to form the band GØGGS, while Dwyer's label Castle Face put out Ex-Cult's Cigarette Machine EP last year.
The group returns to SF to headline their biggest show yet at Brick and Mortar Music Hall Saturday night to promote their third album and debut full-length for In the Red Records entitled Negative Growth. Ex-Cult will be joined by current touring partners, incendiary Aussie power trio Power, who mix the raw sounds of Detroit proto-punk with the guitar fury of their Australian forebears like Coloured Balls and Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. SF punk band Cursed Graves opens the show.
Ex-Cult with Power
Saturday, Oct. 8, 9 p.m. $9-$12
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
