King Louie is one of those musicians that makes me think, “This guy’s a genius, and everybody else is stupid,” simply due to the fact that really bad music gets notice, while King Louie has been the Kevin Bacon of the American garage scene for going on twenty years now. He had a hand in creating the Exploding Hearts power pop classic, Guitar Romantic, and worked with everybody from Jay Reatard to members of the Oblivians and The Black Lips. All the while he’s released a slew of singles and LPs under a dozen different names, both with bands, and solo.
I’m not sure if his latest incarnation, King Louie’s Missing Monuments, is his effort to fix the fact that the public at large hasn’t paid enough attention, but if anything is going to get people to notice, his forthcoming Douchemaster Records release, Painted White, is probably going to be it.
What I most love about this song in particular, is that it’s one of the best examples of the right kind of weirdos taking back power pop from the tight pants wearing, Ron Wood haircut having types that dominated it in a post-Exploding Hearts world. “The Girl of the Nite” is a fun song that obviously calls to mind bands that Paul Collins or Peter Case were in, but realizes that there is so much more to making this sort of stuff than simply being a cover band.
