King Louie Posthumous Album Set For November Release

Goner Records is honoured to announce the release of Harahan Fats, an extraordinary posthumous album by King Louie Bankston (December 18, 1972 - February 12, 2022). The collection showcases an American artist at the pinnacle of his musical and personal identity. An aural roadmap to South Louisiana that’s imbued with personal mythologies and blurry, beer-soaked and drug-skewed memories, Harahan Fats was recorded over a four-year period that culminated in mid-October 2021. 

Harahan Fats’ lead single “Trinkets” was initially recorded by Jay Reatard at Shattered Studios in Memphis, TN with Jack Oblivian on drums and Harlan T Bobo on the acoustic guitar. “‘Trinkets’ is a song I found when going through Jay's home studio hard-drive after he passed in 2010,” tells Goner’s co-owner Zac Ives.

“It is an amazing song, but Louie was always hung up on Harlan playing a ‘bad note’ at one point and he didn't want to release it without fixing it. It became a running joke over the years between us, and it's fitting that it's finally seeing the light of day.”

It comes alongside a video directed by Art Boonparn, ex-New Orleans punk rocker, now Brooklyn-based filmmaker and long time buddy of Bankston. Miss Pussycat made the Louie doll and he tapped Louie’s family, friends and hangers-on with rolls and combed through countless hours of recorded performances and home videos to create an amazing piece that functions as part music video, part artist tribute, and part samurai skate video.

From October 2021, recording engineer Lewis D’Aubin recalls, “King Louie shows up at my studio with a pair of bongos, some congas, three guitars (two without cases), a tiny Vox amp, and a head full of ideas. He wants to be ready for whatever inspiration might strike… Words flow seemingly off the top of his head into the mic - perfect in two takes. What an eclectic mix of songs! Some are really raw and simple, some way more complex with drum machines, backwards cymbals, saxophone, you name it.”  

Before his untimely death at the age of 49, Bankston envisioned Harahan Fats as a 22-song release on two cassette tapes. Now, Goner Records is releasing it as a standalone 40-minute LP and a limited edition “Director’s Cut” double cassette as Bankston intended. Goner has been diligently working with his estate to celebrate Bankston’s vast oeuvre by releasing a series of unheard albums from Louie’s back catalogue.

The first of this series is the digital (only) release of his 2001 King Louie One Man Band album Jesus Loves My One Man Band which will be available on September 20, 2023. Harahan Fats is the second of the series and will see its release in-stores on vinyl, cassette (double cassette has bonus tracks, limited to 125) and all digital retailers on November 10, 2023. 

As co-founder and drummer of the Royal Pendletons, Bankston recorded with power-pop legend Alex Chilton. He picked up a Gibson Flying V for his work in Bad Times, a garage rock supergroup that Bankston helmed alongside Eric Oblivian and Jay Reatard. In the 1990s, Bankston channeled his energy into bands like the Persuaders, Intelligenitals, the Clickems, Harahan Crack Combo, and Gerry and the Bastard Makers. At the dawn of the new century, he founded the legendary King Louie One Man Band.

In 2000, Louie pulled up stakes in New Orleans and moved to Portland, Oregon, where he joined the power-pop punk band The Exploding Hearts. Bankston wrote many of the songs and played keyboards on their only album, the highly acclaimed Guitar Romantic, released mere weeks before three members of the band were killed in a van wreck, and recently reissued by Third Man Records.

Bankston then landed in Memphis, where he formed the Loose Diamonds, a ramshackle bar band, with Jack Oblivian, Harlan T. Bobo, and Gary Wrong. With guitarist Julian Fried, he formed Missing Monuments and Black Rose Band, founded a New Orleans biker-rock band called Kondor with Mr. Quintron, and reconnected with The Exploding Hearts guitarist Terry Six for Terry and Louie. 

Despite Bankston’s musical adventures–and misadventures–Harahan was always home. And much like Bankston’s life, Harahan Fats is laden with truth and tall tales. Some songs are roughly laid down in a single take; others sound fully fleshed, with overdubs with drum machines and horns.

On “Coke-A-Cola Cowboy,” and “(Theme From) Crawzilla” a happy-go-lucky Bankston notes recent heartbreaks over jaunty, countrified power pop guitar lines. Bankston’s fans will recognize the more bitter truths that underscore the lyrics of “Gentilly Woman,” the rollicking “Wasted At Work,” and the spoken recitation “Pawn Shop Row.” A few songs are a capella: “Down and Out,” and “Places Like This.”

There are also journey songs, like “Trinkets” and a re-recorded version of the King Louie One Man Band song, “Writing the Same Song Over Again.” The heartbreaking “Rehab Legend,” which serves as the centerpiece of Harahan Fats, was not written by Bankston. He discovered this obscure hip hop song by the rapper “Cadalack Ron” with less than a thousand views on Youtube. In true Louie fashion, he connected with lyrics of “Rehab Legend” and turned it into a stark, acoustic confessional. 

For more information on the King Louie Bankston series, or to pre-order / pre-save, go here.

Photo By Gary Loverde

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