Irina Shayk - Featuring White Denim "River to Consider"

Steven Terebecki was raised near a roadkill burning factory
off I-464 in eastern Virginia. “On the way home you could smell it and it was pretty terrible,” the bespectacled bassist says. “I wrote a haiku about it in ninth grade. It goes like this: Enter the suburbs /The raw sewage burns your eyes / Live in harmony.” About a year later Terebecki wrote a tune called Stripers at the Gates of Time, on a drum machine that he claims was once owned by Bonnie Raitt and used on the five-times multiplatinum album Nick of Time. Don’t let any of this discourage you from listening to his current band, White Denim. The tunes got a lot better once Terebecki moved away from the fumes of scorched possum and settled in the land of slow-cooked brisket, Austin, Texas.

The guys in White Denim are the sort of friendly dudes down the street that are always offering you a cold one from the cooler. They gave away their third album, Last Days of Summer, online. It plays a breed of Southern rock that could be branded boogie. The Texans’ Allman-Brothers-go-punk style of jamming relaxes on its fifth album, D. The quartet, expanded from a power trio, plays with a garage virtuosity. Cuts like Anvil Everything bustle with a flurry of notes yet never come off as flashy.

With fluttering acoustic guitars, D is a much prettier record than its raucous predecessor, Fits. The amplifier smoke has been cleared away, and you notice how James Petralli’s soulful tenor glows like orange coals. At other times Petralli, who’s pop, Geno, played catcher for the Texas Rangers in the ’80s, sings as soft and cool as a beer koozie. This is music made for, and perhaps music that was made during, backyard BBQs. At one point some jazzy flute even floats in. And it’s not some hippie embarrassment. Look, if you can make a flute rock and roll, the rest is a breeze.

Q & A with Steven Terebecki

Your worst experience on the road?

In the summer of 2011 we toured Europe and I got really ill. It was to the point where if I moved it hurt. I would literally sleep and be still all day except for when we played. I felt absent from a tour that would have been a great time. Total bummer. Thanks for bringing it up!

The first record you owned?

Yello, Stella.

Your favorite beach?

Negril, Jamaica. It’s the most incredible place I have ever been. I highly recommend it.

What inspires you?

Perhaps it’s a cop-out of an answer but everything! I try to find inspiration in the most mundane things. Today I picked up a pack of hot dog buns at the corner store and thought about how I could use them to help create a different vibe in the studio.

Favorite Record?

It changes every week. At this moment it is Necromandus, Orexis of Death.