Simon Joyner and David Nance take aim at rock tropes

Courtesy GrapefruitThe cover art for Simon Joyner and David Nance’s recreation of the Rolling Stones’ 1973 album Goats Head Soup appears to have been rendered by figurative painter Egon Schiele’s disturbed and deliberately mutilated brushstrokes. It’s a harbinger for what plays out in the grooves of this masterpiece of strange and grotesque beauty. From the dreary trombone and guitar noises layered atop “Dancing With Mr. D“ to the tale of police shooting a boy in a case of mistaken identity in “Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” this pair of Omaha, Nebraska songwriters pull deeper meaning from the Glimmer Twins’ original vision.

History has proven that Goats Head Soup suffers from a lingering hangover coming on the heels of the Stones’ last great album, Exile On Main St. Here, the “Silver Train” party anthem runs off the rails in this warped, lo-fi rendition. “Hide Your Love” bears no resemblance to the original presumably rewritten because it doesn’t do anyone any good to suffer through lyrics such as “Now look here, baby, you sure look cheap/I make money seven days a week.”

In “Angie,” when Joyner sings, “With no lovin’ in our souls/And no money in our coats/You can’t say we’re satisfied,” the languid resignation of the original number reaches new depths of depression. ★★★★☆

Courtesy Ba Da BingAs strange and mangled as it may be, this is no novelty, but an essential deconstruction of a problematic rock ‘n’ roll album a classic to some, a scourge to others. It’s also a stark change in tone from Nance’s latest album, Negative Boogie (Ba Da Bing). Nance’s most recent album arrived as a rock ‘n’ roll underdog; an album that spites the digital age, and proves to rock musicians of every stripe that this is by no means an exhausted medium. The combination of “More Than Enough (Reprise)” and the blown-speaker plod of the album’s title track carry the confrontational DNA of the Jesus Lizard, the Fall, Rocket From the Tombs, and anyone else who challenged the vanguard with explosive fortitude while upholding a compelling post-punk drive. At times it feels as though songs such as “Cruel Kind of Love” and “5,2 and 4” could shake themselves to pieces at any moment. But there’s a boldness and an instinctual lurch that keeps the balance of noise and winding riffs, drums and plodding piano moving forward as though Nance’s life depends on it, because it does. ★★★★☆

Simon Joyner and the Ghosts, the David Nance Group, Jesse Nighswonger, Cuntry, Sounds for Harm Reduction, Thalmus Rasulala and DJ set by the Cowboy Twinkles. $8-$10. 9 p.m. Fri., Sept. 1. 529, 529 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-228-6769. www.529atlanta.com.