The flipside to Jay Reatard's first Matador single "See/Saw" has a surprisingly vulnerable center inside its thudding garage rock shell. "Screaming Hand" sees the Memphis-based oddball looking back on a childhood spent with a less than understanding father figure. Instead of a "kind word or two or a warm touch" he's got a slightly sauced patriarch with the titular "screaming hand," which I'd read as a strangely apt symbol for an occasional ass-whoopin'. But the tone isn't of bitter punk defiance, despite a nagging chorus that makes it clear that dear old Dad wasn't much of a heroic figure. Instead the weirdly joyous track speaks to understanding and forgiveness, putting Jay in his old man's workboots with its final verse. It's strange to hear a genre so associated with juvenile impulses packed with such a mature sentiment, and by a man who calls himself Reatard no less.
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