Austin Sound

Scott Biram has always been known for his demented, electrified blues licks and harrowing ballads of the beaten down and bruised. The self-proclaimed “Dirty Old One Man Band” unloads a fury of hellbent skids and aching redemption, and his sixth album and third on the rebel roots imprint Bloodshot exorcises his tortured spirits in moments both brutal and begging. Like 2006’s Graveyard Shift, Biram walks the fine line between belligerence and penitence. That dichotomy is set from the start as Biram trades the CB for the opening answering machine message of “Hospital Escape.” “They’ve got me held prisoner over here,” Biram croaks out in a fevered morphine delusion. “Got me tied down to the bed. I really need your help, I need to get out of here.” The message is lifted from his infamous 2003 hospital stint after being crushed in a head on collision with an 18-wheeler. While Biram has never shied away from the tale, this moment of fear and helplessness so rawly exposed is revealing: Biram knows he’s on borrowed time, but doesn’t seem to know how to deal with that realization, and maybe that’s the purgatory that haunts the dual title Something’s Wrong/Lost Forever.

We thought this idea was pretty interesting, a nice intersection of Austin’s arts community. There is, of course, more culture in Austin than can possibly be taken in completely, and we inevitably feel a bit guilty about neglecting all the other awesome events in favor of going to see music. We’re not going to stop going to shows, so thank goodness we can now expand our horizons thanks to Debutantes & Vagabonds and Double Stereo Productions, who are putting on this weekend’s “Are You Alive” at the Long Center.

9/28/06
Next month, Bloodshot Records will be releasing their first DVD which features 12 years of footage from its impressive stable of artists. Titled Bloodied But Unbowed: Bloodshot Records Life in the Trenches the disc contains over 3 hours of live performances, interviews and music videos of artists like the Old 97’s, Split Lip Rayfield, Neko Case, Bobby Bare Jr, and a young Ryan Adams. Also featured prominently are Austin artists Alejandro Escovedo, Wayne Hancock, The Meat Purveyors, and Scott Biram.

In anticipation of the release, Bloodshot has released a remake of the video for Scott Biram’s “Hit the Road,” which is also on the DVD. The remake, though, features pictures from Biram’s own brush with death on Texas Highway 123 in 2003 that are, to put it mildly, gruesome as hell.

Scott Biram has honed one of the most unique sounds on the Austin music scene. His music is a mixture of gritty blues and country fused with a hardcore metal sensibility and distorted, reverbed vocals. At equal turns ominous and up-lifting, his fourth album Graveyard Shift was released last month on Bloodshot Records. He took some time in between his constant touring to talk to us about the new record, the current tour and the origins of his fanclub, “The First Church of the Ultimate Fanaticism.”

Biram performs Friday night at The Hole in the Wall.

Scott Biram is perhaps Austin’s best contribution to the new breed of hell-raisin’, pscyhopathic redneck music purveyed by the likes of Hank III. On Graveyard Shift, his second album on Bloodshot Records, Biram continues to write the soundtrack for your roadtrip to Hell and Salvation. With one foot stompin’ out time and his eyes rolled back into his head, “the dirty old one man band” brings more songs of truckdrivin’, murder, drinkin’ and sometimes redemption like Leadbelly by way of Stevie Ray and with a heavy metal heart. This is 21st century roots, and if Lomax were wandering the backroads today, Biram would be hailed as a prophet and genius; if there is any justice in the world, he still will be.