Slim Cessna's Auto Club

Slim Cessna's Auto Club channels country gospel through an intensity that feels drawn from a punk pulpit. Frontman Slim Cessna, a tall and lanky figure distinguished by a gold tooth and oversized white hat, delivers vocals in a high-lonesome register complete with yodels while delivering spoken passages that carry the weight of fervent testimony. One such passage appears in “Last Song About Satan”: “So I said, Lucifer you piece of sh*t/I should kick your ass right where you sit.../My mother cries because of you.” The ensemble issued its self-titled debut album in 1995, which received revisions before its re-release in September 2001. The 2000 album Always Say Please and Thank You, issued on Alternative Tentacles—the label founded by punk figure Jello Biafra—featured the lineup of Danny Pants, Reverend Dwight Pentacost, Jay Munly (who has issued recordings under the name Munly De Har He), John Rumley (who constructs instruments at the Denver Folklore Center), and Ordy Garrison. Although Cessna relocated to his wife’s home state of Rhode Island and Pentacost settled in Chicago, the group continued to operate from a Denver base and maintained a steady schedule of local performances. The Bloudy Tenant Truth Peace arrived in 2004, followed by Jesus Let Me Down on Smooch Records in 2005 and Cipher, again on Alternative Tentacles, in 2008. Eight rarities and outtakes were compiled for the 2010 release Buried Behind the Barn, with Unentitled slated to follow in 2011.