It only took about 20 years for Rik Slave and the Phantoms to make a full-length studio record. But hey, in rock n'roll time, that's not so long.
“We don't like to rush into things,” Slave said.
Who knew Rik Slave & the Phantoms were honky-tonkers at heart? Off and on for two decades, the heavily inked Slave and his cohorts have revved up garage rock inspired as much by the Stooges as the Rolling Stones.
Led by the powerful, bombastic voice of Rik Slave, the Phantoms were a punk rock oasis in the funk- and blues-filled swamps of New Orleans, where oppressive humidity and languid, booze-saturated crowds left most musical hooligans sounding slightly phlegmatic.
Now that James Hall has moved away and Erik Corveau is out of a band for a second, I feel fine saying with certainty that Rik Slave is the best rock frontman in the city.
The boys in the Phantoms, a self-described "southern hard rock/psychedelic/punk band," are pursuing rock stardom the old-fashioned way: grueling, shoe-string budget tours of bars and dives from here to Rochester and back again.