I'm Not A Sicko, There's A Plate In My Head

Oblivians

Jay Reatard was just a teenager when his mom took him to see a Rocket From the Crypt show, and a little band called Oblivians was the opening act.  Years later, when asked how Oblivians influenced his early work, Jay said, “I was just trying to rip them off.”  Here’s Jay Reatard on his love affair with that great underrated Garage Rock band, Oblivians:

I thought The Oblivians were like the worst band I’d ever seen, but there was something about it I was drawn to.  I went to the record store and described the band to the person at the counter.  I was like, “It’s this drunken sloppy band with no bass.”  She was like, “Oh, that’s The Oblivians,” and I bought their records. From there I just started hanging out with Eric Oblivian and he turned me on to other stuff I would have never found out about otherwise.

Eric Oblivian also produced that first Reatards 7” and later played with Jay in Bad Times.  Greg Oblivian played drums for an early incarnation of Reatards.  And Jay would later release a couple of Jack Oblivian’s records on his label, Shattered Records.  My point being that if we’re going to discuss Jay Reatard, I think it’s only appropriate that we start by posting some Oblivians.  Here’s my favorite song from that early Oblivians record, the Never Enough EP.  It’s recently been re-released on vinyl, and all those early Oblivians records have been brought together on the Sympathy Sessions collection, which I can’t recommend highly enough to anyone fond of music that’ll make your mama’s ears bleed.