The Reverend Horton Heat “Liquor in the Front” 1994. Sub Pop Records, on clear vinyl. The Rev’s third LP, produced by Ministry’s Al Jourgensen. Joe got a chance to see Reverend Horton Heat last week at Summerfest here in Milwaukee (I had to work so couldn’t go). After their set, which included a blistering cover of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” (video below), Joe wandered to the side/backstage area and sure enough, there was Jim Heath hanging out. This is the second selfie Joe’s snagged with him in the past few months (yes, I am totally jealous).

Since I wasn’t at the show, I’m not sure what the set list at Summerfest was (and can’t be bothered to look it up!) but when we saw them perform at the Rave this past October, the band focused on the tracks from Liquor in the Front. Mostly wild surf-meets-punk rockabilly, my top rockin’ tracks from LP include the breakneck “Baddest of the Bad” which is, according to the liner notes, “just a song about staying out late and drinking too much to recover from heartbreak,” the dark and menacing single from the record “One Time For Me” (#40 US Modern Rock Tracks), the monstrous “Yeah, Right” — “The lyrics are born out of me being an arrogant little shithead,” and “Rockin’ Dog” which “is one of the oldest Reverend Horton Heat songs…[Ronnie Dawson] liked that song and asked if he could record it…but he was on a European label and they never gave me credit. That always bugged me.”  There are a couple of really excellent more mellow songs that I totally dig: “In Your Wildest Dreams” about which the Rev writes “…many of our songs have a strong Latin influence. Growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas, half of my schoolmates were Mexican-American…it reminds me of listening to Flaco Jimenez as a kid” plus their cover of “Jezebel” made popular by Frankie Lane (1951).