Fulks It Up

Initially, I was drawn to Robbie Fulks because he's cruel; sarcastic truth-telling is in short supply these days, especially in the world of country music. So when I was cajoled into staying for Fulks' set at the Bottom of the Hill several years ago -- I was there to see opener Whitey Gomez, a local band of pickers whose breakup I still mourn -- it was revelatory to hear a guy paying strict homage to Buck Owens, hollering his guts out in a song called "God Isn't Real." At the time, I thought he was a hilarious smarty-pants of a songwriter; I didn't know about the angry part. I'd have to wait until I bought Country Love Songs to hear "Barely Human," whose lyrics ask, "Whose footprints are these in the new fallen snow/ And what kind of creature has hurt my wife so?" Hint: It was the narrator, who was drunk at the time!

Jim Herrington

I Love a Mean, Mean Man: Robbie Fulks.

Details

Famous Last Words opens

9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3

Admission is $8-10

970-9777

12galaxies. c om

12 Galaxies, 2565 Mission (at 22nd Street), S.F.

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More About

• Robbie Fulks
• Whitey Gomez
• Buck Owens

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Fulks' career unspools like a sad story with a happy denouement: The young songwriter moves his fledgling family to Nashville to make it big; he doesn't. Instead, he releases the above-mentioned masterpiece and another critically acclaimed record, South Mouth (both on Bloodshot Records), on which he contributes an ode to his experiences in Nashville, "Fuck This Town." (I take issue with his use of the word "faggot" in this song, but then again, the guy is not nice.) Next, megalabel Geffen comes calling, and "helps" Fulks produce an emasculated, stylistically confused piece of shit called Let's Kill Saturday Night. There are good songs on it (like "God Isn't Real"), but they sound bad. Dumped by Geffen, our hero goes on to several more decent records on small labels.

And now, Fulks gives us Georgia Hard on Yep Roc. The title track sounds somewhat conventional and not at all unkind, but I happen to know that another song, "Countrier Than Thou," is spastically bitchy. Yay!