Jackson Free Press

Water Liars recorded its debut album, "Phantom Limb" (out now on Misra Records), in three days at drummer Andrew Bryant's home in Pittsboro, Miss., while singer/guitarist Justin Kinkel-Schuster was visiting for a long weekend.

What came out of the recordings, mostly recorded with one microphone, was a 10-song album of southern folk-rock and acoustic originals, and a few unusual mixes.

"Things that seem to not always go together is really interesting to me," Kinkel-Schuster says. "I'm always interested in things being at odds with each other."

Never is this more apparent than on the album's seventh track, "Fresh Hell/Is It Well," which starts with a short original song, followed by the old gospel hymn "It is Well," with a reading of British occultist Aleister Crowley's poem "The Pentagram" in between.

As a whole, the album is a standing example of the butting heads of noise and music, ugly and beautiful, profane and holy. And that seems to be exactly what Water Liars was going for.

The album's lead track, "$100," begins with sharp feedback and heavily distorted metal chords, which give way after about 40 seconds to a short, bouncy, well-crafted southern-rocker featuring Bryant and Kinkel-Schuster harmonizing over drums and a less-distorted electric guitar.

"Dog Eaten," the second track on the album, quiets things down to a finger-picked acoustic as Kinkel-Schuster's lofty voice, which brings to mind Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell, sings of inter-family theft and innocent love.

Track 3, "Whoa Back," sounds like it could have been on an early Black Keys album. The slow blues-rocker visits the idea of faith and the profane, which drives the record, with lines like "Christ will come again/He'll be my friend/Whoa, back, son. Oh, goddamn."

One of the highlights of the album is "Rest." The guitar, drums and backing vocals bring to mind early Shins tracks, while the harmonizing vocals sing through a series of verses that once again visit the idea of faith in a higher power, one Kinkel-Schuster says has always fascinated him, even if he doesn't hold the same faith.

"Short Hair" is the album's most fun song, and stands with "Rest" and "$100" as the album's most accessible tracks. It's hard not to smile when Kinkel-Schuster sings, "First thing you know, they got you by the short hair, my friend."

The battle between beauty and ugliness, faith and profanity, comes to a culmination on the final track "On the Day," a slow, wondering lament about Kinkel-Schuster's last day on earth. The last half of the track caps off the album with three minutes of screeching white noise many will find as unlistenable as (and nine times longer than) the album's purely filler track "C.H.W."

Water Liars will play at Hal and Mal's (200 S. Commerce St., 601-948-0888) in the Red Room at 9 p.m. Friday, March 30. Tickets are $5 at the door, and only those 21 and up will be admitted. You can buy the album at http://www.misrarecords.com/store.