The Sloths: Back from the Grave

It’s the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll legend: Record a remarkable 45 (one single, “Makin’ Love,” one B-side, “You Mean Everything to Me”). Play the Sunset Strip in the middle of the ‘60s. Break up before recording an album or even sniffing a radio playlist. (In fact, the song is deemed too raw for radio.) Have the single resurface 20 years later on a compilation appropriately titled Back from the Grave, where all the garage bands that never broke through in the ‘60s get one last stab at immortality. The guitarist hires a private detective to find all the members of the band scattered across the country — except, of course, for the ones who have died. Re-emerge in 2012. As the climax, get the band back together properly in 2015 to release its first full-length album ever, a half-century after the original vinyl 45 touched a record player.

That’s the reality of Hollywood-bred The Sloths, a punk-before-there-was-punk garage troupe that existed for less than two years while its members were underage, but still managed to share bills with The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Animals, Love and Iron Butterfly. No longer a footnote in the long and winding history of garage rock, The Sloths have decided to go for more than a victory-lap reunion tour and also release their first ever full-length album on Lolipop Records. Sidebar: Guess whose brother strums the six-string and writes the songs? Houston’s art-scene doyenne Barbara Davis! Indeed, Michael Rummans is the only Sloth from their original incarnation still in the band. To commemorate the record, The Sloths will embark on a tour of the Southwest, including special showcases at (where else?) South by Southwest. Between several stops in Austin, they will play Houston twice — an evening show at Mexican restaurant/live music mecca Last Concert Cafe and, late night, around the corner at House of Creeps, a fledgling dive venue for all music acts too unique to perform anywhere else. Saturday, March 14, 8:30 to 9:30 pm, and 11 pm to midnight.