MELTDOWN RODEO

Description

Kym Register + Meltdown Rodeo (formerly LOAMLANDS) is a transgressive and distorted country music band based in North Carolina that places queer storytelling at the forefront. Their music is deeply engaged with identity, retribution, reconciliation, and queer existence in both modern and historical culture (including most of the South). Register also contributes to the philosophy of Southern rock. In a supporting role, Sinclair Palmer (bass), Joe Westerlund (drums), and Matt Phillips deliver categorically. Check out the title track for a perfect example of the band's ability to navigate between gritty reactivity and tender reflection in Register's lyrical instruction. Whether it's grappling with the restrictions of gender expressions on dating apps ("How Do You See Me"), evoking the semi-autobiographical loneliness of the bastards of Carolina from Dorothy Allison ("Maureen"), or daring white people to "conform to their history of conformity in racial capitalism" ("Loamlands"), Register asserts that songwriting, at its best, is a rough but necessary confrontation. Ultimately, Register and Meltdown Rodeo (the newly named band and album) have achieved in eleven songs something that the South has only half-heartedly attempted – unraveling generational curses by stripping away the discourse of pure form "bless your heart."