Immortal Lee County Killers

The Immortal Lee County Killers were an American punk blues band, formed in Auburn, Lee County, Alabama. The band existed from mid-1999 to 2007 with Chetley Weise on guitar and vocals as the mainstay of the outfit. Assorted other musicians formed separate incarnations of the band, which can be roughly grouped into three different lineups. These were known sequentially as ILCK, ILCK II, and ILCK3. The group recorded three full-length albums and several singles during their lifetime. Musically the group took influences from the Mississippi Delta and Chicago blues styles, adding garage rock to this mixture to create a raw, raucous identity.

In 2000, the group issued their debut LP, "The Essential Fucked Up Blues!" on the Estrus label. This was followed in 2003 by "Love Is A Charm Of Powerful Trouble" (released under the name ILCK II). The same year, the Sweet Nothing label released "Love Unbolts The Dark", an LP compiling studio and live material. The band's final LP, "These Bones Will Rise To Love You Again" emerged in 2005 under the name ILCK3.

Links To Peel
Stylistically, the Immortal Lee County Killers sound harked back to the Gun Club of the early Eighties, but also had something in common with contemporaries the White Stripes, the Soledad Brothers and other practitioners of raw, bluesy garage rock. The group were first played on the Peel show on 12 December 2000. It was an inauspicious debut: Peel was not amused by the 7" sleeve, which has a photo of a member of the band not only giving "the finger" to the camera, but both fingers. Peel commented:

"'You think, normally records like that when they've got that on there, I just put them in the bin, because you think that's such a cliché and anybody who's still prepared to do that on an LP sleeve or a record sleeve quite clearly lost the plot quite a few years ago. But there you go, that's what they're doing. Shan't play it again though.'"

Fortunately, Peel found the subsequent music to be much more acceptable.

On 24 September 2003 he mentions that son William Ravenscroft "saw them playing recently in Newcastle and said they were pretty dazzling. In fact, he went to see them again the following night, that's how good they were."

Two tracks from the live Maida Vale set were officially released on the Sweet Nothing LP "Love Unbolts The Dark" in 2003.

Festive Fifty Entries

 * None.

Sessions
1. 22 January 2003 live at Maida Vale. 2. Recorded 2003-11-18. Broadcast 18 November 2003. No repeat.
 * Said I'd Find My Way / Nothin' Hurts Me Like My Back And Side / Cool Driver / She Likes It / Shitcanned Again / Robert Johnson / Goin' Down South / Let's Get Killed / Rollin' And Tumblin'
 * 'Said I'd Find My Way' and 'Let's Get Killed' were later released on the LP Love Unbolts The Dark (Sweet Nothing, 2003).
 * Revolution Summer / Been Down So Long / R1 Jingle / Boom Boom (Yeah Yeah) / Cool Driver

Other Shows Played

 * 2000
 * 12 December 2000: Let's Get Killed (7") Estrus Records
 * 2001
 * 01 August 2001: Killer 45 (LP - The Essential Fucked Up Blues!) Sweet Nothing
 * 16 August 2001: Won't Cook Fish (LP - The Essential Fucked Up Blues!) Estrus
 * 23 August 2001: Sometimes The Devil Sneaks Inside My Head (LP - The Essential Fucked Up Blues!) Estrus
 * 2002
 * 29 January 2002: Preachin' More Fuckin' Blues (Compilation LP - Estrus Double Dyn-O-Mite Sampler Vol. 3) Estrus
 * 04 April 2002 (Radio Mafia): Preachin' More Fuckin' Blues (Compilation LP - Estrus Double Dyn-O-Mite Sampler Vol. 3) Estrus
 * 19 December 2002: She's Not Afraid Of Anything Walking (LP - Love Is A Charm Of Powerful Trouble) Estrus
 * 2003
 * 01 January 2003: Robert Johnson (LP - Love Is A Charm Of Powerful Trouble) Estrus
 * 21 January 2003: Don't Nothing Hurt Me Like My Back And Side (LP - Love Is A Charm Of Powerful Trouble) Estrus
 * 24 September 2003: Boom Boom (Yeah Yeah) (LP - Love Unbolts The Dark) Sweet Nothing
 * 08 October 2003: Boom Boom (Yeah Yeah) (LP - Love Unbolts The Dark) Sweet Nothing
 * 14 October 2003: Said I'd Find My Way (LP - Love Unbolts The Dark) Sweet Nothing
 * 23 October 2003 (Radio Eins): Boom Boom (Yeah Yeah) (LP - Love Unbolts The Dark) Sweet Nothing


 * Other
 * January 2003 (Peel's Record Box): Love Is A Charm Of Powerful Trouble (LP) Sweet Nothing
 * September 2003 (Peel's Record Box): Love Unbolts The Dark (LP) Sweet Nothing
 * 18 November 2004 (Rob Da Bank): Been Down So Long (7") Sweet Nothing