Tav Falco's Panther Burns, sometimes shortened to (The) Panther Burns, is a rock band originally from Memphis, Tennessee, United States, led by Tav Falco. They are best known for having been part of a set of bands emerging in the late 1970s and early 1980s who helped nationally popularise the blending of blues, country, and other American traditional music styles with rock music among groups playing in alternative music and punk music venues of the time. The earliest and most renowned of these groups to imbue these styles with expressionist theatricality and primitive spontaneity were The Cramps, largely influenced by rockabilly music. Forming just after them in 1979, Panther Burns drew on obscure country blues music, Antonin Artaud's works like The Theatre and Its Double, beat poetry, and Marshall McLuhan's media theories for their early inspiration. Alongside groups like The Cramps and The Gun Club, Panther Burns is also considered a representative of the Southern Gothic-tinged roots music revival scene. The album, titled Command Performance, was produced by Panther Burns guitarist Mario Monterosso and released in 2015 on the UK label Twenty Stone Blatt Records, with distribution by Proper Records.

Also in 2014, Stag-O-Lee Records (Germany) compiled a double album of Falco's favorites from his personal music collection, released as Tav Falco's Wonderful World Of Musical & Exotic Obscurities. Falco contributed to the varied artists album a liner notes essay and a Panther Burns song called "Real Cool Trash," which The Wire likened to "the rock 'n' roll energy" of The Cramps. The Wire described the album styles as ranging from rockabilly to "far-flung genres" that include "tangos, waltzes, and concertina music."

In 2022, Tav Falco's Panther Burns undertook an extensive US Tour, which began in August 25 in San Francisco and featured dates in 34 US cities. On the Nashville stop of the tour, the band recorded a live-in-the-studio session at Bridgestone Arena Studios. The session was recorded 27 September 2022, and was initially broadcast as "Cabaret of Daggers Special" on SiriusXM Outlaw Country (Channel 60). Org Music then released the sessions as the album Nashville Sessions: Live at Bridgestone Arena Studios in 2023. Soon after the release of Nashville Sessions, Tav Falco Panther Burns embarked on yet another US tour, entitled the "Ride the Snake Tour". This time the tour started on 28 September 2023 in New Haven, Connecticut, and finished in Los Angeles on 21 October 2023.

In 2024, Falco recorded the solo album Desire on Ice, which featured current Panther Burns members Mario Monterosso, Giueseppe Sangirardi and Walter Brunetti as session musicians, as well and former Panther Burns members Jimmy Rip, Jim Sclavunos and René Coman as guest musicians. Monterosso produced the album. to positive reviews, including a 5/5 rating from Mojo magazine with a special inset, an 8/10 rating from Uncut with a full page writeup,

Musical style

According to the band, Panther Burns is "a Southern Gothic, psychedelic country band influenced by Memphis music styles". The original band lineup featured two guitars, synthesizer, and drums, later usually omitting keyboards or synthesizers at live shows. The group's somewhat experimental recordings have embraced and deconstructed a number of influences and genres, including rockabilly,

With his signature Höfner fuzz-tone guitar and a stage presence characterized by his Argentine-styled pompadour, pencil moustache, smoking jacket, and urbane manner, Falco infused his shows with theatrical antics and a reverence for the originators of country blues and rockabilly. The band's assorted song subjects and album photography themes have included Memphis scenery, Carroll Cloar's Panther Bourne painting, the occasional reference to historical figures like American rampage murderer Charles Starkweather, motorcycle imagery, denizens of Memphis neighborhoods, tango imagery, and blithe introspection, among other themes.

Falco's treatment of the blues classic "Bourgeois Blues" adds a line from Ginsberg's famous beat poem "Howl". In a 1984 interview discussing his anti-environment concept and music, he said that many outstanding, but lesser known blues and rockabilly artists were "treated like the idiot wind". Similarly, he continued, "the beat writers and theorists like Antonin Artaud were treated like they were crazy. It wasn't until he died that everyone realized he was a genius". Two of his originals, "Agitator Blues" and "Panther Phobia Manifesto", evinced playful humor and a left-leaning, Utopian anarchist political stance. In "Panther Phobia Manifesto", Falco referenced lines from influences as disparate as William S. Burroughs, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Howlin' Wolf, Rod Serling, French psychedelic band The Dum Dum Boys, and Dadaist poet Louis Aragon, in wishing a "huge firedamp explosion" to closed-minded members of society who blindly follow the dictates of the establishment. Proclaiming that everywhere the Panther Burns go, they are greeted with derision, he riffed from Aragon, "Laugh your fill, the Panther Burns are the ones who always hold out a hand to the enemy".

The group's wide-ranging styles have included Argentine tango music, country music, rockabilly, R&B, soul music, novelty tunes, early rock and roll, country blues, and pop standards of the 1950s and 1960s like Frank Sinatra's "The World We Knew", among others. Set lists have included mutated covers of songs originally performed by such diverse artists as J. Blackfoot, Doc Pomus, Bobby Lee Trammell, Gene Pitney, Reverend Horton Heat, Jessie Mae Hemphill, R. L. Burnside, Mack Rice, and Allen Page (of the small 1950s Moon Records label helmed by early rock-and-roll producer/songwriter Cordell Jackson), among others.

The earliest description the band gave itself on a concert poster read simply: "Rock'n'Roll". Media confusion in categorizing led the band to eventually invent its own self-descriptive terms, such as "panther music" and "backwoods ballroom", also at times calling its tumultuous performance style "art damage".

Performing personnel

Current lineup

  • Tav Falco: lead vocals, guitar (1979–current)
  • Mario Monterosso: guitar, bass, producer (2014–current)
  • Giuseppe Sangirardi: bass (2016–current)
  • Walter Brunetti: drums (2018–current)

Past members

  • Perry Michael Allen—keyboards, backing vocals: 1995
  • David Berger—drums: 2002
  • Barri Bob—percussion, rhythm guitar: some 1980s gigs
  • Orazio Brando—guest guitarist: 2005
  • William Brandt; (also of "Beyond Einstein's Eulipion Bats") drums 1988 including live recording "Live at Vienna Messeplast" 24 May 1988
  • Roy Brewer—violin: 1980s and 1990s
  • Benny Carter—drums: 1994
  • Grégoire Cat (real name: Grégoire Garrigues)—lead guitar: early 2000s onwards
  • Ben Cauley (also of The Bar-Kays)—trumpet: 1990s
  • Raymond Cavaioli—lead guitar: some 1980s gigs
  • Alex Chilton (aka L X Chilton and Axel Chitlin)—lead guitar: 1979–early 1980s and occasional appearances thereafter; produced several of the albums
  • Riccardo Colasante—drums: 2016
  • Rene Coman (also of The Iguanas/New Orleans)—bass: early to mid–1980s and occasionally thereafter
  • Francesco D'Agnolo—keyboards: 2015
  • Toby Dammit—drums: 2015 (guest appearances in 2016, 2018)
  • Peter Dark (also of Bellmer Dolls, real name: Peter Mavrogeorgis)—guitar: early 2000s, 2011 onwards
  • Jim Dickinson—producer and keyboardist: occasionally 1980s and 1990s
  • Peter Dopita—singing saw: 1991
  • Jim Duckworth (also of The Gun Club)—drums: 1981; lead guitar: early 1980s, 1989
  • Doug Easley—bass: occasionally, including 1989 live album
  • Ron Easley (aka Durand Mysterion; also of the Country Rockers)—lead guitar: 1980s and 1990s sporadically; producer: 1989
  • James Enck (later of Linda Heck and the Train Wreck)—lead guitar: 1984, 1991; bass on "Cuban Rebel Girl" from the 1984 Now! cassette release
  • Kai Eric (aka Red West)—bass: mid-1980s–2000 on most tours except some in the South U.S.
  • Cyd Fenwick—backing vocals, dancing: 1979–1981
  • Kitty Fires 1 (real name: Sue Easley)—backing vocals: 1984; Kitty Fires 2 (different woman)—guitar: 2000
  • Bob Fordyce (also of the Odd Jobs)—drums: 1989
  • Lorenzo Francocci—drums, percussion: 2015
  • Doug Garrison (also of The Iguanas/New Orleans)—drums: 1996
  • Diane Green (also of The Hellcats/Memphis and the Odd Jobs)—theatrics, tambourine, dancing: occasional 1980s appearances
  • Alex Greene (also of Big Ass Truck and Reigning Sound)—organ: 1989–1990
  • Stacy Hall and Dawn Hall—dancers: 1979
  • Jim Harper—snare drum: 1981
  • Mark Harrison—guitar: 1984–1985
  • Linda Heck (later of Linda Heck and the Train Wreck)—bass: 1984
  • Jessie Mae Hemphill (as part of the Tate County Mississippi Drum Corps)—snare drum: 1981
  • Eric Hill—synthesizer: 1979–1980, 1989
  • Douglas Hodges (aka Tall Cash)—drums: 2001–2002
  • Teenie Hodges—lead guitar: 1990s
  • Michael Hurtt (also of The Royal Pendletons)—bass: 1999
  • Rick Ivy—trumpet, vocals: 1979
  • Cathy Johnson—backing vocals, dancing: 1979–1981
  • Ross Johnson—drums: since 1979 on a number of albums and live shows
  • Amanda Jones—backing vocals: 1984
  • Jules Jones—backing vocals in studio and live shows: 1979
  • Via Kali—tango dancer at live shows: 2006 onwards
  • Kye Kennedy—lead guitar: mid-1980s touring
  • Gabriele Kepplinger—backing vocals: 1991
  • Little Victor—guitar, harmonica: 2005
  • Laurent Lanouzière—bass: 2002–onwards
  • Michael Lo (real name: Michael Rafalowich)—bass: early 2000s, 2011–onwards
  • Andrew Love (also of The Memphis Horns)—saxophone: 1990s
  • Vickie Loveland—backing vocals: 1991
  • Tammo Lüers—guitar: 1995
  • Randall Lyon—theremin: 1991
  • Olivier Manoury—bandoneon: 1995
  • Bob Marbach—piano: 1991, 1995
  • Lisa McGaughran (also of The Hellcats/Memphis including in one compilation as Lisa Burnette)—backing vocals, bass: 1984–1990
  • Ron Miller—bass: early 1980s
  • Billy Mitchell—drums: 2013
  • Robert Palmer—clarinet: 1989
  • Giovanna Pizzorno (also of The Hellcats/Memphis)—drums: first sporadic tours began 1986; steady member since the early 2000s; duet vocals: 2015
  • Jon Ramos—bass: 2002
  • George Reinecke (also of Busted Flush)—lead guitar: 1980s and 1990s
  • Will Rigby (also of The dB's, Steve Earle) – drums: 1980, 1999
  • Jimmy Ripp—guitar: 1983
  • Roland Robinson—bass: 1992
  • Kurt Ruleman—drums: 1984–1989
  • Raffaele Santoro—keyboards: 2010 onwards
  • Harris Scheuner—drums: 1989
  • Jim Sclavunos—drums: since about 1982 on a few albums, beginning with Blow Your Top
  • Jim Spake—saxophone: 1984, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1995, and occasional live appearances
  • Brendan Lee Spengler—keyboards: 2000
  • Ken Stringfellow—bass: 2011
  • Nokie Taylor—trumpet: 1991, 1995
  • Nina Tischler—backing vocals: 1991
  • Lorette Velvette (real name: Lori Greene; also of The Hellcats/Memphis and The Kropotkins)—backing vocals: 1984–1990; guitar: 1984 briefly
  • Mike Watt—bass: 2015 (guest appearances in 2016, 2018)
  • Misty White (also of The Hellcats/Memphis and Alluring Strange)—drums: 1988
  • Vincent Wrenn—synthesizer: 1979–1980
  • Jack Yarber (aka Jack Oblivian)—bass, organ: 2000
  • Abe Young—bass drum: 1981

Discography

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! style="background: silver" | Title

! style="background: silver" | Type

! style="background: silver" | Year

! style="background: silver" | Label

! style="background: silver" | Notes

|-

! colspan="5" | Studio Albums

|-

| She's the One to Blame

| EP

| 1980

| Frenzi

| Re-issued on 7" vinyl by Sympathy For the Record Industry (1998) and Mighty Mouth Music (2012)

|-

| Behind the Magnolia Curtain

| Full Length

| 1981

| Frenzi/Rough Trade (UK)

| Re-released 1994 and 2011

|-

| Blow Your Top

| EP

| 1982

| Animal Records (USA), Frenzi/Rough Trade (UK)

| Re-issued 1987 by Fan Club Records

|-

| Now!

| EP

| 1984

| Frenzi

| Initially released on cassette, later rereleased on vinyl

|-

| Sugar Ditch Revisited

| EP

| 1985

| Frenzi/New Rose (France)

| Re-released 1994

|-

| Shake Rag

| EP

| 1986

| Frenzi/New Rose

| Re-released 1994

|-

| The World We Knew

| Full Length

| 1987

| Frenzi/New Rose

| Reissued 1992 by Triple X Records (US)

|-

| Red Devil

| Full Length

| 1988

| Frenzi/New Rose

| Re-released 1994

|-

| Tav Falco Panther Burns

| Box Set

| 1988

| Frenzi/New Rose

| Box set featuring four 7" singles. Eight songs total. Limited numbered edition of 5000.

|-

| Return of the Blue Panther

| Full Length

| 1990

| Frenzi/New Rose

|

|-

| Surfside Date

| EP

| 1990

| Frenzi/Sympathy For the Records Industry (USA)

|

|-

| Life Sentence

| Full Length

| 1991

| New Rose

| Released in 1991 on Triple X Records (USA) as Life Sentence in the Cathouse

|-

| Shadow Dancer

| Full Length

| 1995

| Frenzi

| Released by Upstart Records (USA, CD), Last Call Records (France, CD),<br /> Alternation/Intercord (Germany, CD), and Munster Records (France, LP)

|-

| Panther Phobia

| Full Length

| 2000

| Frenzi/In the Red Recordings (USA)

| Released on LP and CD

|-

| Conjurations: Séance for Deranged Lovers

| Full Length

| 2010

| Frenzi

| Released by Stag-O-Lee (Germany, CD), Bang! Records (France, LP),<br /> and Cosmodelic Records (USA, CD)

|-

| Command Performance

| Full Length

| 2015

| Twenty Stone Blatt (UK)

| Distributed by Proper Records

|-

| Nashville Sessions: Live at Bridgestone Arena Studios

| Full Length

| 2023

| Org Music (USA)

| Live-in-the-studio album initially recorded for broadcast on SiriusXM Outlaw Country. Recorded in one 90-minute session and features previously unrecorded track "Treat Me Nice."

|-

! colspan="5" | Live Albums

|-

| Live Atlanta Metroplex 10-3-87

| Full Length

| 1988

| Calypso Now (Switzerland)

| Cassette only, limited edition of 100 copies

|-

| Midnight in Memphis: 10th Anniversary Live LP

| Full Length

| 1989

| New Rose

| Reissued in 1992 by Triple X Records

|-

| 2 Sides of Tav Falco

| 10" LP

| 1996

| Frenzi/Helter Skelter (Italy)

|

|-

| Live aAt the Subsonic, France 10.2001

| Full-Length

| 2002

| Frenzi/Speed Records (France)

| Released on LP and CD-R

|-

| Live in London

| Full Length

| 2012

| Frenzi/Stag-O-Lee (Germany)

| Recorded live at the 100 Club;<br/>Released on 2x 10" LP and CD-R

|-

| Live at Vienna Messeplast 24 May 1988

| Full Length

| 2015

| Frenzi/Stag-O-Lee

| MP3 only; original recording appeared as Disc 2 of<br />Life Sentence In the Cathouse 2015 CD reissue

|-

! colspan="5" | Singles

|-

| Live in Australia

| 7" single

| 1987

| Au Go Go (Australia)

| Live two-song single

|-

| Drop Your Mask

| 7" single

| 1987

| New Rose

|

|-

| Memphis Beat

| 7" single

| 1989

| New Rose

|

|-

| Love's Last Warning

| CD maxi-single

| 1995

| Frenzi/Alternation (Germany)

|

|-

| "Administrator Blues" <span style="font-size:87%">b/w</span> "Real Cool Trash"

| 7" single

| 2009

| Frenzi/Stag-O-Lee

|

|-

| "Me & My Chauffeur Blues" <span style="font-size:87%">b/w</span> "Whistle Blower Blues"

| 7" single

| 2016

| Frenzi/Org Music (USA)

| Black Friday record store day 2016 exclusive; limited edition of 1000 copies

|-

| "Sway" <span style="font-size:87%">b/w</span> "Where the Rio De Rosa Flows"

| 7" single

| 2016

| Frenzi/Org Music

| Limited edition of 1000 copies

|-

| "Rock Me" <span style="font-size:87%">b/w</span> "Whistle Blower Blues"

| 7" single

| 2017

| Space Case Records/Selection Records (USA)

| Limited edition of 500 copies

|-

! colspan="5" | Compilations

|-

| Behind the Magnolia Curtain/Blow Your Top

| Full Length

| 1987

| Fan Club (France)

| 2-on-1 reissue released in numerous editions and in several different countries, with Fan Club's being the first

|-

| Sol y Sombra

| Full Length

| 1988

| Marilyn (Spain)

| Vinyl only release

|-

| Deep in the Shadows

| Full Length

| 1994

| Marilyn

|

|-

| Love's Last Warning

| Full Length

| 1996

| Frenzi/Last Call Records (France)

|

|-

| Shadow Angels and Disappearing Dancers

| Full Length

| 1997

| Munster (Spain)

| 2-on-1 reissue of Shadow Dancer (1995) and Tav Falco solo album Disappearing Angels (1996)

|-

| Sugar Ditch Revistited/Shake Rag

| Full Length

| 2013

| Stag-O-Lee

| 2-on-1 reissue

|-

| Hip Flask: An Introduction to Tav Falco & The Panther Burns

| Full Length

| 2015

| Frenzi

|

|-

| Return of the Blue Panther + Midnight in Memphis

| Double album

| 2015

| Frenzi

| 2-on-1 reissue

|-

|}

Notes

References

  • Ambrose, Joe (2005). "By the Time I Get to Memphis". Outsideleft. Accessed May 3, 2005.
  • Christgau, Robert (2000). "Alex Chilton: Consumer Guide Reviews". Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics. Accessed Apr. 26, 2005.
  • Cleary, David. [ "Like Flies on Sherbert (released 1979) album review and song list".] Allmusic. Accessed Apr. 25, 2005.
  • Dawson, Walter (October 25, 1981). "Album Captures the Untamed Fire of Panther Burns". The Commercial Appeal.
  • Deming, Mark. [ "Tav Falco biography"]. Allmusic. Accessed Dec. 9, 2004.
  • Donahue, Michael (February 19, 1995). "THE ANTENNA: Weirdo club's a 'trash hole,' but consider the alternative". The Commercial Appeal.
  • Duane, Paul (October 5, 2004). "Tuesday, October 5, 2004 blog entry". It Came From Memphis blogspot site. Accessed May 3, 2005.
  • Duckworth, Jim. "Jim Duckworth: Gun Club Days". The Gun Club and Jeffrey Lee Pierce website. Accessed Dec. 9, 2004.
  • Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. [ "Alex Chilton Live in London (recorded 1980/released 1982) review and song list".] Allmusic. Accessed Apr. 25, 2005.
  • Falco, Tav. "Tav Falco Biography: Tav Falco/Panther Burns". Tav Falco/Panther Burns fan website. Accessed Dec. 9, 2004.
  • Gordon, Robert (1995). It Came From Memphis. New York: Pocket Books. .
  • Hart, Gabe (November 10, 2011). "Tav Falco: Sexual, Abandoned, Political". LA Record. Accessed Mar. 31, 2015.
  • "It Came From Memphis: Ardent Studios Night". The Barbican website. Accessed May 2, 2005.
  • "It Came From Memphis Festival". Tav Falco/Panther Burns fan website. Accessed May 2, 2005.
  • Johnson, Ross (February 1&ndash;7, 1996). "Bad Decisions and Busted Eardrums: an Insider's Retrospective on Tav Falco's Panther Burns, the Band That Won't Go Away". The Memphis Flyer.
  • Johnson, Ross (October 22, 1997). "Til the Well Ran Dry: a Selective History of Memphis' Original Punk Club". Memphis Flyer online. Accessed Apr. 26, 2005.
  • Jordan, Mark (February 11, 1999). "Midnight in Memphis". Memphis Flyer online. Accessed Dec. 9, 2004.
  • Jurek, Thom [ "Command Performance (released 2015) review and song list".] Allmusic. Accessed Mar. 31, 2015.
  • Lisle, Andria (May 2005). "Unsung Heroes: The Underbelly of the Memphis Sound". MOJO magazine.
  • Matthews, Bunny (September 1, 1980). "Tav Falco Sizzles While Panther Burns". Figaro (now defunct; reprinted in Tav Falco fan website). Accessed Apr. 24, 2005.
  • McGaughran, Lisa (May 1984; revised 2005). "Rending the Veil &mdash; Dropping the Mask: the Unapproachable Panther Burns". Tav Falco/Panther Burns fan site. Accessed May 14, 2005.
  • O'Brien, Glenn (August 1988). "Memphis blues again; Tennessee's most evasive R&B man &mdash; Tav Falco of Panther Burns". Interview magazine, pp.&nbsp;50&ndash;51.
  • Palmer, Robert (January 15, 1982). "Beat generation lives in a night of rock and poetry". The New York Times, p.&nbsp;C6.
  • "Panther Burns". In the Red website. Accessed May 1, 2005.
  • Sprague, David (April 17, 2001). "Panther Burns". Variety.
  • "Tav Falco's Wild And Exotic World Of Musical Obscurities." (November 2014). The Wire, issue 369, p.&nbsp;83. Accessed Dec. 25, 2014.
  • Turner, Jeremy (December 2003). "07: Interview With Tav Falco About Early Telematic Art at Televista in Memphis, New Center for Art Activities in New York and Open Space Gallery in Victoria, Canada". Outer Space: The Past, Present and Future of Telematic Art. Accessed Apr. 28, 2005.
  • [ Panther Burns overview and discography, Allmusic]
  • Panther Burns' personal reissue label, Frenzi, run by the band
  • Panther Burns' 2015 CD release page at the CD distributor ProperMusic's website on behalf of the TSB record label
  • Tav Falco/Panther Burns fan site
  • Tav Falco Biography at Trümmer Booking and Promotion
  • Tav Falco's Panther Burns and Frenzi Records home site
  • Tav Falco and Panther Burns site at Myspace