Uncle Skunkle

Murfreesboro, TN's Uncle Skunkle & The Scarecrow Family Band has one of those weird names that would have been absolutely greasy and cool in the 1950s but sounds so bland and hippie-ish now. It's really a shame, because these boys can wrench a wailing good time out of a guitar.

Hyped locally by The Humms' Zeke Sayer via his Gypsy Farm label, the band comes well recommended: Sayer's taste has proven pretty impeccable; so even if you bristle at the group's name, just power through. It's worth it.

The band scored two slots on Gypsy Farm's recent Gypnosis compilation: "Dazy," a howler worthy of Hasil Adkins' ghost, and “Ramblin' Man,” which spills its guts all over one of those single-string bass guitar runs from the Peter Gunn handbook.

Not included on the comp, but released around the same time, is the band's cover of The Sonics' “Psycho.” (It can be heard at soundcloud.com/gypsy-farm-records/uncle-skunkle-psycho-the.) Now, who cares about a cover song, right? Well, covering The Sonics is a basic rite of passage for any garage band worth its salt. It's a fair standard by which to judge the chops, not to mention the taste, of wannabe slingers and growlers. Thankfully, Uncle Skunkle passes this test with high marks.

The band will appear early on the bill Saturday night, so keep that in mind. They're sandwiched in between two other fine locals—Mother The Car and The Humms—but chances are they'll punch their way outta those close quarters as soon as they plug in.