Imagine Little Richard being backed the Stooges, mashing punk, garage rock, funk, doo-wop, r&b, and soul together and you come up with the music of King Khan. I discovered King Khan way back in 2005 when he was collaborating with Mark Sultan (his former band mate in the Montreal based Spaceshits while Khan was going by the moniker “Blacksnake”). During this time, Khan had formed King Khan & His Shrines and Sultan had just left Les Sexareenos and was performing one man shows under the name “BBQ”. The first album the duo put out was titled “The King Khan & BBQ Show” (Goner Records -2005) and I have been a fan of anything King Khan related ever since.
King Khan’s latest album titled “Murder Burgers” is technically his first “solo” album but producer Greg Ashley brought his own band, The Gris-Gris, to back Khan on this album. From the opening track “Discreate Disguise” with its surf-like intro followed by the Dylanesque “It’s Just Begun” and the punk raver “Born in 77′”, you can feel all of Khans influences melting into his music but he takes control of every song and makes it his very own. As with every Khan album, the melodies and energy are top notch but on this album he shows more of his strong song writing skills than in prior releases. Khan claims this album was made in less than a week and if that is indeed true, I hope his next release will be coming very soon. I have heard so much great music in 2017 but “Murder Burgers” makes the cut for my favorite album of the year.
Vinyl copy of Murder Burgers – 1st pressing with blood red splatter.
