Karl Hendricks Trio "The Jerks Win Again"

Ever wonder what happened to the Karl Hendricks Trio? Well, it’s been a few years, but they have a new cd out. It’s called The Jerks Win Again. I got it in the mail about two weeks ago. I listened to it a lot, usually late at night with a .40 oz of HIGH LIFE by my side. After the fifth listen, I’d decided that this album might just be MEANT to enjoy with a really big sweatty bottle of Miller. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great album, although lyrically depressing Pretty much every song on here is a sigh of defeat…which goes great with beer!

The first song is a tale about great work going unnoticed and someone else taking all the credit, pitting Chuck Dukowski and Henry Rollins of BLACK FLAG as the protagonist and the antagonist, respectively. I’ve still got most of my 40 left. The end of the third song surpasses the twenty minute mark of the cd.…My massive beer is now a quarter gone, and I’m half drunk. Yeah, these songs are really long…..it’s like the songs themselves will end, and then they’ll rock out at the end for another 5 or 6 minutes, to give you time to dwell on the dismal lyrics in said song. “The Overweight Lovers” is a tale of a hefty couple in a rocky relationship, and rather than communicating with each other to solve their problems, they’d prefer running from their problems into the comforting arms of a box of Little Debbie snack cakes.

Swig.

Then, in “I Think I forgot something…My Pants”, Mr. Hendricks states “I think I left all my original thoughts back at some bar, I thought I had some friends left around here somewhere, now I wonder where they are”. And then they rock the fuck out.

Damn.

Did I mention that these guys rock?

The last song on this album is titled “The Summer of Warm Beer”. This is kind of eerie, as I seem to have made a habit of drinking 40’s while listening to this cd, and by the time I get to this track, my beer is always warm (and it just so happens to be August). But even though the beer is warm, I finish it anyways, you know why? Because even though the jerks keep winning, beer makes everything better. And… I may be drunk now, but you should buy this cd.

--Kyle Sowash