Alberta Brood: The Continuing Story of The King Khan & BBQ Show

A band with an ampersand, The King Khan & BBQ Show came together much like mayonnaise, with 3 central ingredients: Mark Antonio Pepe, Arish Ahmad Khan, and pure anarchy. The duo played together in the band Spaceshits (listen on youtube as Spacehits), from 1995-99, and took their music from Montréal to a brief pillage of Europe. After which, they hacked their own expeditions through the musical jungle for several years until the pair eventually collided, and rejoiced. The duo spread the good word under the title The King Khan & BBQ Show (KK&BBQ) from 2004 to 2010, before it split into a bramble of scorn. Long before fans grew wrinkled from concerns of the fallout’s radiation, Arish, then known as Blacksnake, fell under Berlin's spell in 1999 and rooted into the city. The punk rock that swamped through his veins, and gripped into his brain, there made him first a Kaiser, then a King… King Khan.

A sanguine cluster of monikers appears beside the litter of Khan’s collaborations and combos: psychedelic soul, garage punk, hobo-sexual, poly-sexual energy, rad-o-rama, retro-soul rock n’ roll, death cult, gospel supergroup, boogaloo, etc. Despite the label(s) one may pine to stamp on him, it could never prevent King Khan from his intention to supplant his audience with “eyegasm[s]” and “eargasm[s],” at the very least. Despite slipping around identifiers during nearly every interview in the guise of an electric eel, the man has managed to cultivate a persona through his fusions with other artists and the searing of his own musical style into the cognition of his audience. Khan’s feet straddle, then fully plant into, the camps of surreality, reality, anarchy, and rock & roll adventure-land.

His romp across earth and the negotiable regions of the universe produced 12 bands, pacts, and collaborations (as far as this member of the universe can tell): Maury Povitch 3 (1994-96), Spaceshits (1995-99), Kukamongas a.k.a. Death Cult (a brotherhood of sorts since 1995-Present), King Khan and The Shrines a.k.a. King Khan and His Sensational Shrines a.k.a. The Supreme Genius of King Khan and his Sensational Shrines (1999-Present), The Black Jaspers (2001~2009), King Khan And His Lonesome Guitar! (2005) ,Buttflower (2008), The Almighty Defenders (2009-Present), Tandoori Knights (2009-Present), King Khan & GZA (2009), Vomit Squad (2010-Present), King Khan & Pat Meteor (2010), and Khanwood Clarke (2012-Present).

Did I miss anything? Yes, more than I’ll ever know. These groups continue to fractal out into the depths of the planet with collaborations, splinter groups, and then back to original and modified lineups. Their avenues all curl around to resemble Ouroboros, the giant snake that eats its tail. The musical influences that sculpted Khan’s taste range from Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Johnny Thunders, to Sun Ra, Ethiopiques, and Art Ensemble of Chicago. The culmination of these musical spirits somehow led to the incredible display of Khan’s manic gamma energy; an energy that produces more material and ensembles than even the humanoid perpetual motion machine, Spencer Krug, of Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, and another list of projects that spin off into outer space. *Wolf Parade - I'll Believe In Anything*

Though a capable musician in every sense, Arish Ahmad Khan couldn’t imagine the raw power that would unravel from the fusion of his own talents and those of Mark Sultan. Born Mark Antonio Pepe, this biological nightmare of rock rhythm and soul developed his drumming as a kid in Montréal. While studying psychology in the ivory towers of secondary education, a cataclysm of ideologies assaulted Sultan. The event forged his personae into a musical cultist, eventually preaching the Sultanic Verses, and led him to sacrifice normality and a life of 9-5 to the spark-sputtering altar of Rock & Roll. The infancy of Sultan’s musical career witnessed Powersquat, a band in which he drummed away any affinities for conformity he had left. Little is known of Powersquat in North West Canada, other than their deranged violence. The details of the migration from Powersquat to the Spaceshits remain hazy as it occurred during Montréal’s Dark-Ages ♣. Attention began to build when the wild antics of the Spaceshits hit the Montréal scene. The 5-man band lost a bass player before Blacksnake (Khan) joined the foray. The entire band worked with a synchronous attitude to smash apart the monotony of everyday life and have a good time doing it. A listen to their records yields the taste of bliss and the reinforcement of freedom as a tangible goal. Even the search for the sea of happiness is hard to find,

but it felt like the Spaceshits were well on their way with 1996’s EP I’m Dead, 1997’s LPWinter Dance Party, and 1999’s Misbehavin’. Between the club owners, other bands, and promoters, the Spaceshits gained a tarnished reputation in Montréal when their shows were cut short—15 to 20 minute sets became the norm—due to the chaos incurred by their berserk energy. Sultan attests, “Things would get smashed, fireworks would go off, there would be food fights, and so on.” Coming out of the Dark-Ages, some accused Montréal of being a musically boring city. Entrenched in the associated haze of stagnant creativity, many venues—at times preemptively—blacklisted the Spaceshits. *The Spaceshits - Misbehavin'* With a little luck, the Spaceshits managed to procure a government grant, hallelujah to Canada’s taxpayers! The grant made the band’s first (and only) tour of Europe possible, and financed some Kukamonga tattoos. Before taking off to Europe, the band attempted to promote a release off of Sultan’s label (Sultan Records). The event proved disastrous as an altercation with the venue’s co-owner resulted in an injury to one of Blacksnake’s hands, rendering it unusable. A pissed off Sultan encouraged the crowd to get their money back, due to the co-owner bunging up the show. The band never again booked a show in Montréal. The tour of Europe completed, Blacksnake had become enamored with the mystery of the ancient & foreign lands. He opted to stay behind and set up camp in Berlin, Germany, where he eventually developed the pseudonym King Khan. The rest of the Spaceshits, all tempted by other fruits, respected his decision and made their way to Canada.

As the Spaceshits dissolved into the toilet bowl of life during the year 1999, 2 members emerged from the particulate to conjure Les Sexareenos! The name mistranslates from French to “Instant Dance Party.” Mark Sultan took the mike and skins as lead vocals while Colonel Lingus (Danny) hammered bass and sang. They added ‘Work With Me” Annie as a Farfisa organist, and officially welcomed Choyce (Roy) in as a lead guitarist. The members coexisted with several other bands at the time, multiplying their acts like bacteria. For a taste, Choyce spread his talents to the Daylight Lovers, Cheating Hearts, and Del-Gators, while Sultan initiated a one-man band later known as BBQ. The label Sympathy for the Record Industry (SFRI), released Les Sexareenos Live! In the Bed on 16 May 2000, 14 Frenzied Shakers 17 July 2001, and 28 Party Dancers from Montreal’s Finest 22 March 2005. As Les Sexareenos eventually wound down, Sultan pressed on under the pseudonym BBQ, releasing 2 albums: BBQ on Alien Snatch Records 2003, Tie Your Noose on Bomp! Records 18 January 2005, and a couple songs on SFRI’s The Sympathetic Sounds of Montréal album shortly afterwards. The first of which garnered reviews with similar verbosity as this one, “Dope as fuck! Pure panty moistification by a true master moistificator! Quick sloppy and goopy.” BBQ, consisted of Mark Sultan on vocals, Creepy on guitar, and Bridge Mixture on drums. 2005 also succumbed to the punk noise of the Mind Controls’ LP. Sultan slashed into the recordings on both vocals and guitar. The self-titled album’s result? Noisy-as-fuck! Writing songs with a group again left Sultan to pine for more forces of vim and spam to tangle with.

His ensemble’s solo career (accounted for by BBQ, Creepy, and Bridge Mixture) turned a tad monotonous around 2005, and found itself colluding with others more often. Jack Oblivian, Sunday Sinners, along with the Deadly Snakes found themselves in BBQ’s presence, and one rocker in particular, King-motherfuckin’-Khan! That year, the 2 put out a 7” EP somewhere in France with The Mojomatics, which consisted of Mojomatt and Davmatic. The quartet slapped their new name, The Ciaoculos,

on the 45 and rambled on. However, well before this unexpected powwow, Sultan and Khan began to tour as BBQ & Blacksnake, but by the time the LP came out they had melded into one unstoppable force: The King Khan & BBQ Show. (Fish Fight) Raw, stripped down, rock softened with the vibrations of fuzz guitar, came from these hard bangin’ mofos who stomped down the weeds around them and let their sound waves roll from wherever they played. In earnest grassroots style, the show went venue to venue and kicked out the jams. Just as before, their apathetic treatment to judgment, in tandem with intense energy, made them an icon of antiestablishment to anyone who witnessed them perform. Arish, claimed the band’s sound came from combining their favorite genres, “Doo-Wop, and Punk, and Psychedelic music… And Chinese music, and Idiot music.” BBQ, amplified this concoction as a, “casserole of garbage.” A, admittedly united, casserole of garbage won the hearts and minds of those who wanted to hear something real coming from their stereos again. And God damn it if that trash casserole never sounded better.

I better take a moment here. The King Khan & BBQ Show blew my fuckin’ brain out of every orifice in my body in a shower of ectoplasm when I first saw them. It took 2 years from first hearing “Animal Party” on myspace—on the occasion of Sled Island pitching its tents in Calgary, AB—to actually seeing them at the now defunct Underground in said city. Overcapacity shuttered all previous attempts, along with a lack of capital, absence of organization, excess of alcohol, etc. For that one show, when I filled up the ABM’s receipt bin with vomit, both Those Darlins (the opening act) and KK&BBQ made a hot mess out of the audience’s lives. An alchemy transformed the leaden souls of MDMA club bunnies into hair swingin’ foot stompin’ Amazons. Though scouring record stores for an album had proved futile, I got my grubby hands on their first LP (even though they were debuting Invisible Girl at the time) at that very show. I could rely less upon the pirated singles dredged out of the dark recesses of the interweb. and add another bullet to my arsenal. Problems didn’t carry much weight after that show. Friction in the life stream dispelled with beer, love, gasoline, buddies, and rock n’ roll. The Doors won’t ever leave the top honors of my mind, but now, they sit on par with KK&BBQ.

Back to the trash casserole’s discography, 3 central records: The King Khan & BBQ Show 2 May 2005 , What’s for Dinner? 10 October 2006, and Invisible Girl 3 November 2009. Every record proves worthy of a smashed bottle on your head. Not about to quit their other projects, Sultan dropped The Sultanic Verses (mastered during a bender at Jay Reatard’s house), the Hold On EP, and $ as, more or less, solo albums. The Black Lips and KK&BBQ hashed out a record in 2009 dubbing themselves The Almighty Defenders, as well Sultan teamed up with Bloodshot Bill to record the first Ding Dongs LP. Khan kept at it too, pumping out What Is?! with the Shrines in 2007, The Supreme Genius Of compilation in 2008, then doubling the beats with Bloodshot Bill on Curry Up, calling themselves The Tandoori Knights. Khan poured 3 more concrete features while keeping the KK&BBQ on the side: pressing a long awaited Black Jaspers album with old pal Jasper Hood, he grabbed Pat Meteor of the Demon’s Claws to record The Fiery Tears of St. Laurent EP, and Amon Ra Bless America, an EP with Vomit Squad features Skid Marks of the Spaceshits. Even the GZA of Wu-Tang Clan took to the stage with Khan, a result of the GZA’s manager attempting to put him together with ‘hip’ ‘white’ acts. All of these multiplying gyroscopes managed to operate and exist in dimensional harmony. The Rock & Roll oozed out of KK&BBQ for nearly 7 years, modeling the brimstone excrement of cancer preventative catharsis. An anarchistic rock library of fuzz tone fuck offs opened up to their audience after every show; it issued memberships in bars, towns, and cities the world-over. Though nothing lasts forever. Referring to the Kukamongas, Khan once said:

Love, life, and death are so real in our world, and that’s what we revolve around. We don’t revolve around money or fame or success. Love, life, and death: you’re constantly balancing the 3, and of course you’re surrounded by pleasure, which glues everything together.

At some point, the pleasure expired, and the adhesive failed.

Whatever tensions existed between Sultan and Khan, boiled over at the Sydney Opera House, Australia, June 2010. Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed, who curated that year’s annual Vivid LIVE festival in Sydney, hand picked KK&BBQ to belt out the Devil’s music. Reports, illegitimate and otherwise, claim they did just that, “King Khan then proceeded to kick that guy in the head.” Somewhere after informal servings of Italian Futurist dinner, fake snakes, everybody dancing, the odd Chinese person on stage, an acquaintance with the Blind Boys of Alabama, and sacrificial offerings of wine Sultan and Khan exchanged some words at a high decibel reading and called it quits. The 2 minstrels managed to patch things up for the next leg of their pan-Asiatic tour in Daegu, South Korea. A bitchin’ show ensued for about 45 minutes, then descended into what one person thought was possibly the most intricate theatrical show he’d ever seen. Khan’s scorn could be heard throughout the venue as the audience witnessed the tired shrugs of Sultan’s shoulders. One witness suggested the night left a bad taste in Sultan’s mouth, though Sultan later recanted to wish Khan well and dismiss the rumours that alcoholism corroded their relationship. When I heard the news, my hopes of seeing them perform at Calgary, Alberta’s Sled Island Festival (their next tour date) metastasized into bitter sadness. They came so close to curating my favorite festival, yet so far. I skipped town and spent the money saved up for the festival pass on liquor and gasoline instead. Friends and reviews said The Almighty Defenders put on a great show without Khan, but I couldn’t face the music. The fallout sounded so bad, it seemed a reunion was as far flung as the hollow-earth theory. The world continued to turn.

To my relief, neither player wanted to quit the game, just each other. BBQ stowed away his Pandoran box of nicknames, yet still avoided his birth name, and released 2 symbiotic albums in 2011: Whatever I Want, and Whenever I Want. 2012 witnessed Sultan get surreal as he popped out a stream-of-consciousness recording, The War on Rock’n’Roll, from Sao Paulo, Brazil. The accompanying manifesto is worth a read. A few more EPs float around the æther now too. Khan put out a few EPs with the Shrines and Bloodshot Bill as well. A recent endeavor running with the title of KhanWood Clarke emanates the sounds of country. The collaboration features Khan, Jeff Clarke of The Demon’s Claws, his girlfriend Emily, including Sean Wood of The Spits and the Sadies. No albums have surfaced yet, but a few vids made their way onto youtube: KhanWood Clarke - Dirtiest Girl. Upon researching this article, I made a major discovery, it will go down in history as an event bigger than Indiana Jones thieving priceless artifacts of the Temple of Doom!

******http://vimeo.com/51875164******

The media drilled mantra after mantra into my head, several times over: KK&BBQ will never reunite, it won’t happen, Arish Khan projects himself as the very image of a dick hole to the Asiatic nations, Mark Sultan plots against World Peace (not the basketball player) and Amnesty International, etc. No signs looked up or pointed to yes, in fact, “They said the hate was just too severe, the wounds too sebaceous. They said Mark Sultan was working as a spy at Sunmaid Raisins and that King Khan was crossing the world taped to [3] swans.” Whether the claims can be validated or not makes no difference, because 24 November 2012 saw KK&BBQ kick off their Anal Apocalypse mini tour! The reunion evidences an alignment of telluric energy across the planet, which allowed the Anal Apocalypse to imbibe the catastrophic events of 21 December 2012, filter it through its plush new liver, and ultimately free the world from dour depression, sobriety tests, and pre-fab entertainment. With any luck, KK&BBQ will feel the need to celebrate their victory over the Mayan calendar’s misinterpretation with a world tour. Hopefully this future tour of rock n’ roll salvation includes pubs of northern Canada, which are difficult to reach and unassuming by nature, but God willing they’ll make it (wink wink, nudge nudge ;D). No doubt, the curtain parts before the costumed minstrels of psychic revolution as we speak, and the sounds of bliss pummel the earth again.