The King Khan & BBQ Show

If baseline three-chords-and-a-thunderbolt rock and roll needs to be reborn, Mark Sultan and King Khan (aka Blacksnake), both former members of the outrageous Montreal punk band Spaceshits, will make great midwives. Sultan objects to the one-man-band label pinned on his last solo project BBQ, but since he played electric guitar and drums simultaneously, it isn't hard to see where people get that idea. It is, however, hard to object to the torrid three-minute Canadian Euro-trash punkabilly songs he and guitarist King Khan lay down.

Khan has been living in Germany since 1999 and was the driving force in King Khan and The Shrines, who put a punk twist on soul music and created a stir on the European underground scene when one of their London shows got raided. Khan, who brings a theatrical touch to the stage, joined Sultan for some shows in 2005, and the Khan/BBQ duo was formed. Their gut-level rock draws comparisons to everyone from Black Flag to Black Keys, and on the new album, surprisingly smart songs like "Fish Fight," "Shake Real Low" and "Outta My Mind" catch the earth-quaking rumble of Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, the earliest UK punks and 13th Floor Elevators. The result is torrid, raw, powerful garage band stuff that plays well from Hamburg to Houston.