Sioux City Pete and the Beggars

Chickenhawks guitarist turns hoodoo head-hunter with this witching hour detour into a delta far darker and deeper than the Mississippi one it resembles on the surface. With sleeve pictures depicting scenes of general depravity and random dismemberment while littered with quotes from poets and revolutionaries to resonate among songs like Everyday I'm Dead, Playing The Murder Game, Death Rattle and Necrophilia this has it's eye on the sickness that satiates the world and oneself through sociopathy or self-destruction, rather than another trivial trawl through the murder ballads of yore. As such it does whip up its own impending spirit of bad moon doom and junked-up, juke joint, fire-playing peril. Grimacing and shaking with the Godzilla grind of The Gun Club and The Gories, and even pre-commercial grunge of Tad and the like, this is a great volley of vamped-up voodoo from the rolling monolithic riffing of Farmlands to the sloppy-ass shuffle of Whiteout and the sadistically rejoicing VooDoo Motherfucker ('I'll set that bitch on fire, fuck her in the ass till she die off') cranked up and clattering like they're making a crack-houses out of Louisiana crypts. All the while SCP wails n' hollers, not so much with a hellhound on his tail but as the one who trains and tames said beastie, but who knows full well the bastard'll turn on him in the end. A warped, twisted, uncompromising visitation of vile, sludgy maverick mojo-thunder blues that'll be sure to malinger in the space it'll cleave in your oh so susceptible soul.

- Stu Gibson - Sleazegrinder.com

The nastiest, low-downest, shoot-the-hostages slab of dirty, howling death blues Ive ever heard, and brother, I grew up in a bad neighborhood. Sioux City Pete and the boys rip through turgid tales of hillbilly murder and historical mayhem like some kinda rabid werewolf version of the Black Keys. Theyre scary as fuck, and relentless in their pursuit of the darkest arts cannibalism, necrophilia, even baby rapin is included on their list of bad obsessions here. Naturally, theyre from Iowa, a state that nobody except other Iowans know anything about. So, pretty much ANYTHING can happen there. Its a fantastic gimmick for a band like this. Im envisioning cornhusk Jesuses adorning the walls of their rehearsal space, in the basement of burned-out church where nobody ever goes anymore. Missing pets, dug-up bodies, strange lights in the night sky, the works. It all makes sense once you slap this one on and let demon-raising punk-blooze howlers like Voodoo Motherfucker (Voodoo motherfucker, baby, Ill cut your head right off) and Every Day Im Dead ruin your mood. Necro Blues is an awesome display of shameless death tripping.

-Sleazegrinder - Sleazegrinder.com

Howling, punk-fried death blooze from deepest, darkest Iowa. The 'Necro' in the title and the pentagram on the cover might fool some into thinking this is some sorta oddball black metal album, but Sioux City Pete and the Beggars are way, way scarier than Norwegian kids in Halloween outfits.(8 out of 10) - from Classic Rock issue 95 August 2006 p.81

Oh good, 'Necro Blues' time. Sioux City Pete (known to his folks as Pete Phillips) has a voice that rings out sleazy stoner blues that snake through the smoke in hot pursuit of man's dark side focusing on voodoo, paedophelia, slain Hollywood actresses and whole slew of other savage matters. Like experiencing zombies singing Delta blues on a very bad acid trip after you had already spent a full day worshipping Satan.(8 out of 10)SM - From Terrorizer #147, August 2006 p.60

"Just in case you hadn't noticed there is a funky little punky blues scene happening. And these ain't yer mama's blues. Bands like the Black Keys, The Immortal Lee County Killers and Bob Log have been
kicking asses and have already gained a well deserved level of success and attention. But without a doubt the wildest and most obscure of the lot is Sioux City Pete & The Beggars. Their hot new Sodomy & Failure
CD comes stuffed in a photocopied sleeve, the disc itself is spray painted(!) and the music therein sounds like it was recorded during a prison riot. Equal parts Robert Johnson, the Cramps and the anvil chorus of Hades; psycho blues taken to the max and slammed deep into the dirt. Roky Erikson would be so very proud. Oh... they even whip out the definitive version of the banned Stones classic Cocksucker
Blues". This Venture is the brainchild of Mr.Pete from Iowa's pride & joy, The Chickenhawks" - from Carbon14 #23

SIOUX CITY PETE & THE BEGGARS AT THE REDWOOD BAR AND GRILL
There was a time when preachers warned that the blues wasthe Devil’s music, that it was dangerous and would send you straight to Hell, but nowadays it’s usually considered harmless background music at picnics, sporting events and boating tours. But no one will be inviting Sioux City Pete & the Beggars on any restful blues cruises in the near future. These drifters from Iowa hammer down an awful, abrasive, scarifying, rumbling, crude garage-industrial blues racket that’s so hellishly loud, it buries most traces of its ostensible Charley Patton/Robert Johnson/Howlin’ Wolf/Cramps/Gun Club influences in a junkyard racket. Ex–Chicken Hawks guitarist Sioux City Pete stubbornly digs into generally taboo subjects (pedophilia, racism, genocide, Satanism, cannibalism and necrophilia) but not because he’s trying to be shocking or punk-rock offensive; he sees modern-day horror and cruelty as just being part of an unbroken chain that stretches back past the time Johnson first noticed the hellhounds were following him. Another recurring theme is how seemingly gentle, stout-hearted and steady Midwestern farmers are secretly boiling over with homicidal impulses, with Pete bookending his imprecations in raw swaths of distorted slide guitar. These are murder “ballads” that really do sound like murder. - by Falling James 2/10/09

I was all the way behind this before even sliding it into my player; in a brief interview with Sioux City Pete Phillips provided on the promo sheet, Pete has this to say: “The catalyst to do this was hearing the White Stripes turn roots music into quaint garbage.” So we have one thing and one thing only to thank those unSympathetic little cocksuckers for; spawning the Necro Blues. This is pure hellfire revival that in a single song, “Goin’ to the Church,” for example, lays to waste all conception of the blues in the 21st Century. As the man says, “Necro blues is death blues,” and it’s all right here: the clawing on the coffin lid guitar scratch of “Pedophilia,” the lyrics of “Voodoo Motherfucker” (“Voodoo Motherfucker, baby, I’ll cut your head right off.”), and so much more. It’s all accomplished with a primeval guitar slide and stomp that is about as mean and low-down as most would care to go. The album is also filled with vintage samples from bygone days, everything from revivals to hindu rituals with unspeakable segments lurking in between. Even the CD booklet itself is a thing of wonder; adorned with the Goat of Mendes (which doesn’t properly show on my low-quality cover scan), it’s filled with imagery of pornography and savagery mixed with quotes from the likes of Carl Panzram, Louis Farrakhan and Georges Batailles, all of which, according to the promo sheet, “Proved to be incendiary enough that it was rejected – due to its ‘questionable content’ – by every pressing plant Steel Cage had worked with to date.” Spooky shit that, dare I say it, even outdoes Brujeria on the brutality scale. - Paniscus Webzine- http://home.earthlink.net/~newpanaudio/id6.html

Sioux City Pete & The Beggars- Sodomy & Failure(Welfare Records)
Like a John Holmes spoot shootin' all over the room, this band of bent
and bawdy buttholes makes a mightily magnificent mess kicking the corn-crusted crap out of the Gun Club and the Immortal Lee County Killers with delerious disregard for regular rules of fidelity and finesse and fancypants fashion. Nine noxious nuggets of blues-punk bombast blast, bug-eyed, through turgid trashheaps and straight-up
sonic sadism, leaving lacerated lollygaggers and weeping windbags in the wake of the aggravated aural assault. Also,
Pete's from the Chickenhawks. -Cuss Baxter - Razorcake

"SIOUX CITY PETE & the BEGGARS are very different, sick Motherfuckers. This disc is chock full of references to cannibalism, kinky sex, murder and mayhem of every stripe. I LOVE IT. I first heard it on a day I really needed it. I had become fed up with bands being so fucking nice and well behaved. There's nice, comforting (to me) and up front satanic art on the booklet cover and a variety of well chosen black and white photos inside depicting the wonderful sick goddamned world we live in. Gore, mayhem, lunacy, SLAUGHTER ranging from twisted personal acts of violence to wholesale carnage. The minds behind this gem chose to use RAW as fuck heavy handed, bluesy open ended sort of psych jams in many cases to get the message across. An occasional accoustic guitar is heard, but this no goddamned Donovon mellow yellow crap. "Psychotic bluesy folk" is the best way I can sum things up into a neat package. Lots of really creepy samples are used to add an eerie quality to the festivities.

Uhh..try this one: The Manson family meets the Birthday party for a hoedown at R.L. Burnside's grave? The song titles alone pulled my coat to the fact this wasn't gonna be no MTV polished bullshit. "Voo doo Motherfucker" "pedophilia" "necrophilia" "goin' to the church" "John the revelator". These folks should tour with the "Electric Hellfire club" even though they sound nothing like them. Their fans would love this I'm betting. A twinbill with Helios Creed would rule too."
- http://home.centurytel.net/whskyreb/diary40.html

NECRO BLUES - Sioux City Pete & the Beggars (Steel Cage Records)
Woah! Talk about coming out of left field. I thought I knew a bit about the blues until I heard this. Sioux City Pete is the working name of a self described blues man from the Midwest. Player, teacher & spreader of the word, he has put together an amazing and thought-provoking LP. Threads of religion, sex, politics & death twisted and pulled into a mix that's beautiful, repellent and hypnotic in equal measures. But before we get too far into it, maybe I need to
back up a bit.

The set up Pete & the Beggars use is simple- three guitars and one
drum kit- and the sound will be familiar to anyone who's ever heard
Panther Burns, early Cramps, the Immortal Lee County Killers, or any
of a dozen more. Stripped down snare drum beats keep things rock solid behind fuzzy guitars and plenty of slide, occasionally dropping back to simple steel guitar alone. There are odd samples and snippets of gospel singing and chanting mixed in here and there, usually referring to the tune that follows. There are a couple of blues standards covered, but only a few. It's the subject matter of the originals that takes this someplace else. Drugs, death, violence, sex, and revenge are all on offer here.

For instance, "LA Black" takes a tour through that city's dark pages,
from the 1947 Black Dahlia killing to the murder of Sharon Tate in
1969, and the death rock scene that festered there in the early 80s,
with nods to the Germs, Christian Death & 45 Grave thrown in along the way. I'm a little puzzled as to why it's true crime writer John
Gilmore that is highlighted, rather than James Ellroy, and the song
doesn't seem to have a point of view on whether the City of Angels is misnamed or not- but this on wins in the last round, with the final
lines: "Stained panties, hard cocks, heroin/And burning LA black",
roared over throbbing beats and stinging guitar.

The standard political discussions about the blues are usually
confined to a/ whether or not white men can play it (yes they can) and
b/ whether or not it can be changed from it's historic shape (yes it can). I can't recall anyone taking a lead from the music's African origins and using it to highlight the appalling state of much of present day Africa. Sioux City Pete drive his point home with
"Cannibal", a song about the politics of Charles Taylor, the former
president of Liberia, soon to be on trial for war crimes. The catch
being that Liberia is a nation founded & settled by the Christian
descendants of slaves who returned from America to their "homelands"
in the late 1800s…

A children's call-and-response playground chant leads into
"Pedophilia"- the chant in question being about a young man riding the
train all night long…no prizes for guessing what THAT refers to. No
prizes for guessing what the song is about either- this is
straightforward taboo breaking, over a mess of distortion. This is an
effort that would have made Big Black proud back in their heyday.

After a crisp fife-and-drum band opening, "Voodoo Motherfucker" fishes in the muddy pond of blues metal, while closing track "Necrophilia" is a strange deconstructed thing of speed guitar, tape loops and muttered
vocal samples- very unsettling.

Put out by the team behind the excellent Carbon 14 magazine, with
handsome and unsettling packaging, this may well turn out to be one of
those legendary albums (like the Gun Club's sulphur-and-magnolia
scented "Fire Of Love", that ignited my interest in the blues to begin
with) that not many people own at the time, but that everyone will
claim to have loved forever, 10 years after its release. Seek it out.

- TJ Honeysuckle - http://www.i94bar.com/reviews/siouxcitypete.html