Take one look at Hanni El Khatib's song titles -- "Dead Wrong," "You Rascal You," and "Fuck It. You Win" -- and it seems like the Los Angeles-based retro-rocker has an axe to grind. Luckily for garage rock fans, the axe he's wielding is an electric guitar. On his debut LP (which hits stores tomorrow), Will the Guns Come Out, he channels all his feral energy into a 30-minute blast of raucous rock 'n' roll.


When did you get your first guitar?
I probably got my first electric guitar at 11. Back then, I didn't know too much about music. I mean, I thought Jimi Hendrix was rad.

Your songs contain a lot of nods to early rock 'n' roll. What about proto-rock and rockabilly appeals to you?
The great thing about records from that era is how forward thinking they were. Even though it's super straightforward, simple and raw music, they were really experimental. Those guys invented distortion and overdrive and tremolo. I've read that they used to jam forks into their speaker hubs to get gnarly sounds.

What three bands throughout history would you love to share a bill with?
The Cramps and Gene Vincent, because those two are just wild, and then maybe Nirvana. That would be a crazy show. Everyone would go psycho.