All Hell bubbles with Can Can’s musical muscle and Apolcalyptic fears

The members of Atlanta art-punk/big-beat trio Can Can aren’t going to show you their underwear. The name comes from the ’60s-era Krautrock band Can, not Nicole Kidman’s high-kicking lingerie show and dance from the 2001 flick Moulin Rouge! Can Can’s message is a tad more serious, often coming across as a page ripped straight from the book of Revelation.

“From water we come/to dirt we return,” lead Patrick A. howls on “Locked In,” from the band’s latest release, All Hell. “When people became too great upon the land/the water rose and ruptured/and the children of dirt were taken to water again.”

But you don’t need to build your ark just yet. “We do tend to talk about the Apocalypse,” says guitarist Mary Collins, “but I guess that’s kind of a paranoid fear of growing up in the Bible Belt of the South.” Such lyrical content has caused some to mistakenly label them a Christian band, but Collins says Can Can’s only religious doctrine is “to believe what you want and have respect for everything.”

The band resonates with the same raw elements that fueled the Jim Carroll Band and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, with a bit of punky bombast added.

It coalesces in a sound that’s harder than the country vibe of guitarist Collins’ previous incarnation as Trixie Riptide in the Moto-Litas. It’s also edgier than Patrick A.’s former hellbilly crooning in the Love Drunks. You might say they’ve been all over the musical map. Before producing Can Can’s first EP and joining the band, drummer Josh Lamar honed his hard-edged skills in Mondo Generator, the side project of Queens of the Stone Age’s Nick Oliveri.

“We just go wherever it takes us,” Collins says regarding their music. “You can call it dance metal, art punk, prog punk – whatever you want to call it. Just listen to it.”