Dead Jack and his Dry Bones

Dead Jack in the Box   digital album

(Self-issued)

Previously, I interpreted "toy music" as an epithet; I'm now reassessing that judgement. All by his lonesome, Dead Jack (Bone Machine's Jack Cortese) wields a galaxy of gadgety gizmos - including toy snare, toy maracas, sheet metal, and toy wooden xylophone - in addition to more orthodox sound implements like guitar and banjo. His Bandcamp page advises recording was perpetrated "with a cheap Chinese smartphone without using microphones." The resultant Lo-fi carnival-mirror melange of twisted silhouettes at once turns one's conception of music feet-over-head whilst flinging to one side the curtain dividing normalcy from its freakish opposite. A buffet for trashmen, eggheads, and misshapen grotesqueries all.

Recommended: "Dead Jack is Back from the Grave," "Scary Night," "Dead Jack in the Box," "Dead Blues," "A Bottle Full of Broken Dreams," "Down in My Hell," "Bad Jack," "Dead Jazz," "I'm the Masked Man in Your Porn Movie," "The King of Twist (Ultra Lo-fi version)"

(No video accessible at presstime)

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Angela Hoodoo

Outlaw Girls

(Sleazy Records)

Realizing that she had estimable gifts indigenous to barn land, Angela gathered players of equal disposition. Together, they carpentered a work of nothin'-hifalutin' splendor. There's enough Real Country underway here to knock flat every Pop-Country popinjay that ever primped his blow-dried locks.

Recommended: "I've Got Soul for My Enemies," "Snakes in My Head," "Fugitivo," "Don't Get Into Trouble," "Wild Horse"

Video: "I've Got Soul for My Enemies" / "Don't Get Into Trouble" (live)   "Snakes in My Head" (live)   "Fugitivo"  (live)

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Brioles

Voodoo Eyes    12" vinyl

(El Toro)

All the robust locomotion one would envision from veterans of stout capacity. The Rockabilly leaping from this wax learned well the teachings of modernity. While it retains classical outline - offering familiar and much-prized strut - it also features chain-swinging grit of crisper vintage. Three cats put shoulders to the task and raise a ruckus cracking.

Recommended: "Fly Face," "My Toys," "No Descansan En Paz." "Arriba," "Voodoo Eyes," "Downstairs," "Flyin' Tortillas"

Video: "Fly Face"   "Voodoo Eyes"

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The Spacewasters

The 7-Legged Groove Machine

(Trash Wax)

For some 25 years, these boulevard guerillas have been bashing in craniums, and they've picked up considerable instrumental know-how in the process. In no way does that detract from bombardments; in fact, such assume greater demolishment capacity for the skillfulness. Still additional merit owes to songcraft smarts.

Limited blue-vinyl edition of 300 copies. 

Recommended: "Born to Die Old," "Roll Over," "Shadow Man," "Bad Bet," "Bone Music," "See Me Cry," "Twisted Nerve," "Dead Ringer"

Videos: "Bone Music"   "Twisted Nerve"

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Trashwax 

Chaputa! Records

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Marcel Riesco

Wild Kisses

(Sleazy)

Renowned as the Twinkletones' leader, Marcel can rightly be ranked in Rock'n'Roll vocalists' topmost station - alongside Robert Gordon, Dibbs Preston, and Levi Dexter. Others take inspiration from Mr. Presley. But in Marcel's majestic voicings - at times ascending to impossibly high planes - one detects a profound Wink Troubadour imprint. (Indeed, Marcel is also an esteemed Orbison authority.)

A voice of such distinction merits class-A material. And such is present in these grooves. Songs are crafted with executive finesse, their impacts assured by interpretive musicianship of suitably high caliber.

Here unfurl poised and polished sounds that offer finned vogue of the later 1950s, with sincerity of evergreen quality. None rush to announce import; such just indisputably is.

Recommended: "You Gotta Love Me Too," "Wild Kisses," "Pucker Paint," "Daydream," "Waitin'," "Why Can't We Just Make Up?," "She's OK"

Video: "You Gotta Love Me Too"   "Wild Kisses"   "She's OK"

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Sleazy Records

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Early James

Medium Raw

(Easy Eye Sound)

Producer and Easy Eye Records suzerain Dan Auerbach told Tinnitist in January that James recorded his third release in an olden Nashville manse dubbed Honky Chateau. Appointments were of dated quality. Vintage equipment was employed, and players operated from separate rooms (see videos below). That attention to primitivism yielded bounteous reward; ambient spaciousness facilitated starkness that rightly located Blues arrestingness at the center of everything. Battle-ribboned accompanists lodge directness born from real-world scarrings. Lacking their firepower, James wouldn't burst as effectively. And burst, he does - his plaintive, grained voicings and resonator strikes resound movingly. He has the faith.

Recommended: "Steely Knives," "Nothing Surprises Me Anymore," "Tinfoil Hat," "Gravy Train," "Rag Doll," "I Could Just Die Right Now," "Unspeakable Things," "Dig To China," "I Got This Problem"

Videos: "Tinfoil Hat"   "Rag Doll"   "I Could Just Die Right Now"

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Grimey's Records

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The Fat City Rockers

"Destination Love"   single

(FCR Music)

Not being a songsmith myself, I can only speculate that composing an uncomplicated tune that eschews profundity, so that carefree and swinging fun can be exclusively served, is among the more trying tasks demanded of pickers who take up pens. Here romps success. Neo-Rockabilly deftly administered travels at a crisp pace, leaving upbeat, twanged kicks-aplenty strewn in its jovial wake.

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