Boo Hag

Sexy, sinister and unrelenting in its blues-saturated attack, The Further is every inch a companion piece to the Columbia duo’s debut and, driven by Scotty Tempo’s raging-bull drumming and Saul Seibert’s banshee howl, solidifies Boo Hag’s status as one of the state’s true arbiters of white-knuckled rock ‘n’ roll. The decision to form a two-person rock band is often one of convenience, but in Boo Hag’s case, it feels more like pragmatic economy. — Michael Spawn - Free Times

Voodoo garage rock duo Boo Hag hit on something special with their summer release The Further. It’s a maddening listen, full of short blasting songs with colorful lyrical imagery, screamed, howled, and yelped over gritty guitar and driving drums. - Scene SC

BOO HAG are a two-piece band from South Carolina. The music is old-timey, stomping rockabilly with some surf music flourishes. It sounds kind of like the CRAMPS, but without an attempt to imitate LUX's vocal style. That is a good thing. Singer Saul G. Seibert has his own intense style even if it's more laid back. I like this. (CK) - Maximum RockNRoll (September 2017 print issue)

In some ways, it’s an act of chutzpah to try and reinvent the conventions of the garage rock duo. Noisy guitar riffs and raw vocals with only a primitive drum kit to support them have been a path to greatness — or at least infamy — for any number of groups, from 1980s cult favorites Flat Duo Jets to the quirky mainstream success of The White Stripes. What makes such a duo great, though, is clear — an unmitigated, unfiltered vision of primal rock ‘n’ roll.

And that’s Boo Hag in a nutshell. Formed casually by singer/guitarist Saul Seibert and drummer Scotty Tempo (a nickname and rock band pseudonym), the group briefly featured bassist Reno Gooch before emerging as a distinctly finalized two-piece. For proof, check out June’s The Further, the band’s debut full-length following a 2016 EP.
“It wasn’t too much of a bump in the road,” says Seibert of the decision to forge ahead as a duo. “It was terrifying for me, because a lot of the songs had huge spaces in them that were no longer there. Scott to his credit has always had a tremendous amount of confidence in what we do. I don’t know if I would have the confidence to go on as a two-piece outside of Scott.”

It’s clear from both words and music that the two musicians’ rapport is one of the driving forces of the band, but there’s also something more intrinsic to the music that allows them to work as a duo. Seibert isn’t a technically brilliant guitarist, but he has a slash and burn charisma on his instrument, wielding big punk riffs that aren’t afraid to slide into Motörhead territory and eschew blues-rock convention. The drums, rarely showy but crackling with intensity, are the wild-animal heartbeat of the operation, driving the music forward despite the unsettling sense of uncertainty. On top of it all, Seibert’s crazed carnival barker howls punctuate heady, often macabre lyrics that are delivered with the intensity of a mad shaman.

“I think that’s why it works,” offers Tempo, whose unflagging support for the project extends far past the music. “It’s not what you’re used to hearing, and sometimes that space is uncomfortable, but that adds a mystique to the guitar sound of whatever’s going on. Something’s a little different about this.”

“We get weird, man. We get very ritualistic,” explains Siebert. “There’s something very primitive to taking raw material — wood and metal — and bending it and contorting your body over it unnaturally, really. Beating on shit, bending metal — there’s nothing more primal and tribal than that, and it’s very easy for me to get lost in [that].”

There are times when Boo Hag almost feels like a statement of purpose. For as gritty and unvarnished as their recordings and performances are, they are also intersected with creepy samples and sirens. Live, Seibert will sometimes shout through bullhorns and megaphones that tear and distort the façade even more, seemingly desperate to bring a little bit of destruction into the mix.

“I think rock ‘n’ roll has become very safe, and that scares the f!k out of me,” the singer contends. “Rock ‘n’ roll needs to be dangerous again, people need to stand and go, ‘What the f!k? Is it safe to stand in the front row?’”

The recording process isn’t much different. All of their efforts thus far have been captured by Jay Matheson at Columbia’s Jam Room with mostly live takes that are imbued with the wild, almost manic energy that makes the group great.

Boo Hag further entrances listeners with bits of dark mysticism, embracing a bit of a voodoo swamp aesthetic and the mythos of New Orleans, where Seibert lived for much of his life, having moved to Columbia two years ago. These themes are further teased out by The Further — in the foreboding Tarot cards that dominate the album cover; in the liner notes, which include a cryptic and creepy evocation of the duo’s supernatural namesake.

Seibert takes the songs quite seriously. He says he’s up every day around 4 a.m. writing; it’s as necessary to him as breathing. He has a checkered past, having taught theology for over a decade and having also contended with fits of mourning and self-destructive tendencies. He eschews specifics.

“I think I’m ideologically promiscuous, that probably plays into it,” Seibert says after considering his relationship to the various mysticisms and spiritual references that dot his songs. “I don’t overthink it. If you try to dissect the rose, you lose the beauty of it, for me. And some of it is private, to be sure. I’m not willing to throw my heart on the table and show everybody everything.”

And, in the end, he prides Boo Hag on bringing primal passion to the stage.

“For me, every live performance is a ritual. It’s going to church,” Seibert says. “There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears on the stage, and that’s real. And that translates, because that’s what people want. That campfire experience, man, beating on the drums with our friends and going some place.” - Free Times

We don’t know about you, but on Friday nights we occasionally like to indulge in some head-flailing, fist-pumping music just to release the stress and celebrate the weekend. Such songs also bring us back memories of the dive bars we often frequented with our mates and participated in the occasional mosh pit or crowd surfing (not that we really did the latter other than hold people up). While some may think there is a dearth of good old-fashion guitar-driven rock and punk music, they haven’t been looking hard enough. Or maybe they haven’t looked to South Carolina, which is where Boo Hag reside.

The project of Saul G. Seibert and Scott E. Tempo, this duo is putting the sludge into underground rock scene, and we say that as a compliment. They call their music “swamp punk”, but no matter the categorization their music is flat out awesome, such as their single, “The Further”. Coming in at a tight 2 minutes and 29 seconds, this song is a mini-riot with its grimy guitar, feverish drum line, and nonsensical lyrics (but they’re fun!). The combination makes “The Further” the perfect tonic for the end-of-the-work-week blues, where a song get make us feel hammered and rejuvenated. - The Revue

Boo Hag released a video for their song Ol Scratch. The video captures the band’s intensity that carried over from their live show, and into the studio for their latest record. Boo Hag’s live shows are sweat and booze fueled, almost a ritualistic experience to watch and become a part of as a fan. Their gritty brand of garage rock pushes far past being coined just that, like the heaviest most psychedelic rockabilly you’ll come across. - Scene SC

“It’s important for me to be honest in my writing… some things are coded, some said tongue in cheek but above all, I am compelled to write about what I am wrestling with… due to personal loss, betrayal, guilt and curiosity, I certainly wade in dark waters… but I stop short of any subscription.” So declares Boo Hag guitarist, singer and songwriter Saul Seibert, self-analyzing the mysterious waves that he and power drummer Scott E. Tempo both surf and dive into on their latest album, The Further. Even though this is the band’s second release, it seems to be their true “debut”, with a redefinition of image and purpose. “The album is bathed in blood,” Seibert says, and it’s a pyschedelic trip through the singer’s mental landscape, his firebrand exorcist persona yelping, yowling, gurgling and ultimately groping for existential release or redemption. His vocals don’t preach to the choir; they exhort the congregation, like a swamp punk version of Spencer Moody, or his spiritual predecessor, Iggy Pop. The music he and Tempo create is based in ’60s freedom rock, with the Stones, Eric Burdon, Link Wray and the MC5 being on the Boo Hag family tree, and the Cramps, Reverend Horton Heat and maybe even Fidlar banging away on further branches.

Opening with the title track, the Arabian surf-rock reminds me of French rockers Trust with its simplistic yet powerful guitars while “Bad Blood” has a short, discordant post punk riffing style that is re-energized Bo Diddley, rising gruesomely from his grave. “Ol Scratch” starts with basic blues call-and-response vocalizing and Seibert’s entreaty to the titular character to “take your turn/ with me” makes the bedrock Stooges/ MC5 hyper-blues even creepier. The guitar in “Pop the Clutch” turns into controlled surf-rock chaos, with riffs Josh Homme would be proud of and all of the James Brown/ Tom G. Warrior sex grunts lead me to believe that most of the references to um, “hot rods” in this song are euphemisms. “Second Line” is hard driving pysch with trippy sound effects and a bit of a nod to the Knack, maybe. “Jonah” is bluesy garage surf, driven by Biblical imagery, starting moody, then completely psyched-out and ending with primitive chanting – it’s a hell of a voyage in the depths, both literally and metaphorically. The laid back “Turn of the Screw” recalls Pink Floyd in the beginning then morphs into punked out poor boy blues, with Seibert’s mantra being ” I take another hit/ I hope it all makes sense”. “Monster” and “Vietnam” are the two older tracks redone for this release and they both benefit from a bit of tweaking, the former with a bit of white noise static and a more barren and bleak feel driven by hollow, blown-out vocals. “Vietnam”, written by Seibert about his veteran father, has a perfect ’60s feel that surges along with the subject matter, now shortened, heavier and more ritualistic, the singer promising to “shake you!/ shock you with my lightning bolt!”. The crooning, “House of the Rising Sun”-style ballad “It Follows” ends the album with some expert advice from the singer.

Some artists take chances with figurative songs, doling out enigmatic snippets of their personality through lyrical clues and to an extent, Boo Hag does this, too, but Seibert lays himself bare literally in his work, also. It’s an emotionally raw record, with a nuanced balance between the two extremes of guarded confession and full disclosure, leaving the audience wanting just enough to come back for more. The Further comes with some amazing artwork and a short story printed on the back cover, along with a set of Boo Hag tarot cards for those buying the digital download. All can be viewed here: https://boohag.bandcamp.com/music

Recommended if you like: MC5, The Cramps, The White Stripes - South Carolina Music Guide