Dave Chamberlain

Seldom has a band come so far in so short a time. The Immortal Lee County Killers--the duo of Chetley Weise and J.R.R. Token--could be a cliché, given their blues-blooded punk-rock duet form, which so many other bands have recently adopted. But between the band's two records, 2001's "The Essential Fucked-Up Blues" and this year's "Love is a Charm of Powerful Trouble" (both on Estrus Records), something amazing happened--maybe the band learned how to play its instruments, or maybe it just got caught up in the spirit of savage rock 'n' roll. Either way, the modern version of the ILCK brings the bloody rock like a freight train from Robert Johnson's personal hell, packed with full-range riffs that defy their two-man status and an almost literal crack of electricity. At this year's South by Southwest, in an opening spot for Nebula and Mudhoney, the Killers went psycho on stage, extended their songs, changed songs in the middle of another one and cranked through extended blues riffs that were less circular than circular-saw. And whereas "Fucked-Up Blues" was muddied and buried and raw like a hunk of freshly killed meat, "Love" takes a more precise angle, parsing out pieces of chaos and danger inside both the originals and a fair number of blues covers. Weise and Token are rock 'n' roll machines--expect to be duly processed.

The Immortal Lee County Killers open for the Gaza Strippers, May 17 at the Subterranean, 2011 West North, (773)281-4444.

(2003-05-14)

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