|   It's a real shame that more music fans don't know about Charlie McAlister's work as his stuff wins over pretty much everyone who hears it. Over the course of 15 years and hundreds of cassette-only releases, Charlie has developed a totally unique and captivating style of music that encompasses everything from rural blues to pop to early industrial to general Dadaist spew. Charlie writes some of the most catchy, deceptively simple melodies out there, and then layers them in all manner of weird sounds, creating a totally new genre all his own. Mississippi Luau is a concept album of sorts, loosely examining cultural collisions between the "old south" and "Polynesia": King Maui-Wowee's love affair with Neddie DuBois; South Pacific shipwrecks, fried chicken wrapped in banana leaves, robot-building monkeys, hula dancers hanging out at the golf course down in Gulfport — this record has it all. Underpinning it all is Charlie's hyper-catchy and engaging music built from banjo, steel guitar, anvils, mic'ed Styrofoam coolers, skipping records, and God-knows-what-else. Charlie calls this "psych Dixie music" and that's probably the best description of all. Edition of 500 copies. The first 350-400 covers were beautifuly detritus-collaged/painted/etc. and silkscreened. |
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