Morning 40 Federation

The members of Morning 40 Federation, more a low-rent Mardi Gras krewe than a band, live by a simple manifesto: Those who would live life reasonably would search out and consume a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor each morning — before they brush their teeth, take a leak or do anything else. This group of New Orleans miscreants, equally influenced by Tom Waits and King Oliver (especially in the baritone-sax-blurt department), will test the patience of those demanding precision in music and set off the spirit of sloppy celebration for everyone else. It’s not often that droning, funky, fuzzed-up guitar crashes so desperately into kazoo-influenced horns, but the unlikely results — songs like “Frenchy Got Bald Head” and “Jimmy Cousins Left Town and Stonewall Jackson Died” — turn the Federation into something mightier than it should be. Someday, these guys will be toothless and sitting in a steamy, wood-floored Baton Rouge bar telling war stories — if they make it that long.