Rubble
The Farewell Drugs
2011 Latino Bugger Veil

Rubble’s debut album is a modern Texas psych project seven years in the making. And no, we don’t mean tepid jangle psychedelia from kids whose roots go all the way back to buying a Pebbles box-set in 2006—this is the hard stuff made by grown men who know better and can’t help themselves.

The Austin band was formed in 2003 by King Coffey (Butthole Surfers) and Bobby Baker (ST-37, Baby Robots). Tom Carter (Charalambides) played guitar for a while before handing the keys over to Shawn David McMillen (Ash Castles on the Ghost Coast, Warmer Milks, plus his solo albums on Tompkins Square). Rounding out the fivesome is Matt Turner (Quttinirpaaq) and Craig Stewart (Sex Organs of Emittance). Rubble makes music where Texan icons Josefus and Stick Men with Ray Guns hold equal reverence; where covering Joe Byrd & the Field Hippies and songs from the Cruising soundtrack makes perfect sense. Over the past seven years they have toured Texas with Trås Grås och Stenar and Comets on Fire and shared the stage with Sun City Girls, Acid Mothers Temple, Rusted Shut, Sic Alps and many more.

The Farewell Drugs is a diverse album of high-speed squalls, slow stomps that go from the lower mantle to the inner core, and anthems to the stratosphere. The MVP moments come from Ralph White (of solo and Bad Livers fame) on kalimba and violin.