Sixteen Deluxe

Sixteen Deluxe

"You almost hit me, like, five times," exclaims singer Carrie Clark as Sixteen Deluxe's signature song "Idea" squalls shut. "Jeff's, like, totally rocking out, [and I'm like], 'Shit! It's like being in the front row of a Jesus Lizard show!'" Where David Yow and company gnashed reptilian, first generation post-punk born of our capital city, 16D's supersonic pop ecstasy crowned Austin's indie revolution of the 1990s. Butthole Surfers' hammer King Coffey put out the group's full-length debut, Backfeed Magnetbabe, on his Trance Syndicate label in May 1995, the results bridging Red River's punk past to the Cobain era and beyond. Five demos from the previous year, plus a sixth ("Giver") which ended up on 1998's Warner Bros. one-shot, Emits Showers of Sparks, preserve the local quartet's Year One. Though the thrilling feedback and primitive bash opening opener "Baby Headrush" wears off all too soon into the disc, Clark's pirate-frequency vocal and Chris "Frenchie" Smith's subterranean riffs chunneling through the song still shower sparks. Theirs is a sound still being born, bulbous and at times flatulent, but it's flipped to the on position in an explosion of fuzz, Dinosaur Jr. gone girlie, especially in the Stepford Wife vox and power source hook of "Idea." The fruity sludge of "Honey" piles up next, while two-minute hydroelectric gush "Happy Song" swallows whole another good-humor pill. Four songs recorded live at Liberty Lunch in May 1995 close on "Idea" lit up like a Christmas tree. Those were the days. (Wed., 1am, Encore.)