Durham’s King Teen returns with True Stories of Time Travel, five new tunes that lean hard into his ragged, barroom Americana instincts. Where last year’s Us Ugly Guys Got Style was already very entertaining, here the punk rock veteran indulges himself even more in confident, chucklesome songwriting. From opener Time Traveler’s Blues: “I’ll bet on the Jets and the Mets in ’69, Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson // I’ll save the dodo bird, make ’em quit killing all the bison // I’ll get to Marilyn Monroe in time to get her stomach pumped // I’ll strangle baby Hitler, I’ll sterilize Fred Trump.” Closing track Hard to Get Loaded rocks just as loudly, but in between we make excursions to alt-country in the protest song Luigi (L-U-I-G-I), confessional Stupid, and the storm-scarred duet The Ballad of Pnut & Salty (with Supermutt’s Mimi Kramer). All proof that a good story beats a fancy trick.

True Stories of Time Travel, recorded by James Phillips, is out now digitally and on CD via Bad Logo Records.

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