Locust Fudge - Royal Flush

I don’t recall why I bought this when it came out in 1995. I was probably following the recommendation of one of the guys at the awesome local record shop I frequented back then. It surely wasn’t for the horrible cover image of the 2 protagonists. But in all fairness the picture and the title of the record are a tongue-in-cheek self-reference to their earlier album “Flush”( 1993), the cover of which features 2 disheveled dudes sitting on their porch smoking. That picture evokes images of good ol’ boys strumming their banjo and playing bluegrass music. And “Flush” doesn’t stray much from that imagery and delivers acoustic, neo-folk guitar songs.
“Royal Flush” still echoes some of that same feeling, but also represents a clear step forward by adding a piano and some electronic elements and generally speeding things up a bit. Also, Schneider (a.k.a. Dirk Dresselhaus, a.ka. Schneider TM) and Krite (a.k.a. Christopher Uhe) thankfully leave their shirts on for this ironic recreation of the previous cover photo. Musically, this is lo-fi indie rock that occupies the space between Sebadoh, The Notwist, and Iron and Wine, without really sounding like any of these bands. At times the vocals drone on a bit, but for one that’s part of the charm, and in addition there are enough musical gimmicks, little bleeps and blurbs, to keep you occupied. So step right up and give German Volksmusik a chance:

As far as I can tell this is out of print, but you probably will be able to order a cheap copy through the German Amazon (amazon.de) or to buy a copy on e-bay.

Royal Flush