Richie Ramone
"Entitled" (DC-JAM)
CJ Ramone
Last Chance To Dance" (Fat Wreck Chords)
by
DC Larson
I first glimpsed the Ramones in a b/w cheap paper Rock Scene magazine photo essay. 1975. It chronicled the filming (in what I later learned was Arturo Vega's loft) of their pre-Sire video audition tape.
The music was jarringly monochromatic. So were they - stark in black leather before a draped bedsheet. 1-2-3-4, and the world was made a cool place for misfits, outsiders, and assorted irregular psyches.
Drummer/singer Richie and bassist/singer CJ would pass through the punk juggernaut in its later years -- Richie replacing Marky for three albums (Marky returned), and CJ taking up the bass after Dee Dee's 1989 departure.
The two never did appear together on a Ramones LP, but each added something distinctive to the group.
And they offer distinctly individual solo works. Therin lies the key to appreciating these new CDs. Not comparing their Ramones-consistent traits to the originals (a competition no one could win), but rather listening for what might distinguish them from their august predecessors.
Richie's Entitled tends to be the angrier and more aggressive. Its militant guitars are set on 11, Surly riffs stalk amongst the chunky power chording fury, and a rhythm section probably wanted by authorities for disrupting global peace rages ever forward.
Ah, the songs. Direct progressions are layered with intriguing melodic additives, and invigorating instrumental ambition jumps up from the chaos, only to duck back into shadows to plot new attacks.
Atop the whole is Richie himself, his unique sneered vocals alive with attention-riveting attitude. Loud. Defiant. Detonative. A whipsmart presence in black leather.
Back in the day, he penned several notable tracks for the Ramones proper. Three are reinterpreted here (closer to the author's own vision, one assumes).
Of these, "I Know Better Now" and "I'm Not Jesus" are in the familiar headlong-dive style. But they incorporate novel twists and
newly minted textures. ("I Know Better Now" benefits from a gang-yelled "Nobody can tell me!")
As the youngest Ramone, CJ brought a freshness and energy to their presentation. Last Chance For a Dance is welcome for the same reason. Its athletic energies speed through cut after cut of ebullient flame. Arrangements, even those tending toward the elementary, surprise with unexpected curb jumps into head-spinning change territory.
Keeping all percolating above the storm is an infectious optimism. Not as in happy-go-sappy, smiley faced obliviousness. But rather a lopsided grin-through-untoward experience that refuses to cede the battle.
As demanded by CJ's top-drawer original material, the playing here is uniformly strident and declarative. It surges, true, but with winning amiability, The pounding comes with a hearty handshake.
Variety is served with the inclusion of pensive balladeering, For these, CJ's otherwise muscular singing settles back into an agreeable introspectiveness.
My advice? Buy both.
Recommended Richie "Criminal," "Entitled," "Smash You," "I Know Better Now," "Into the Fire"
Recommended CJ "Understand Me," "Til the End," "Long Way To Go," "You Own Me," "Last Chance To Dance"
https://www.facebook.com/RichieRamoneOfficial
http;//www.richieramone.com
http://www.dcjamrecords.com
VIDEO "Entitled" http://youtu.be/_tVPTFb-G_c
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialCjRamone
http://www.cjramone.com
http://www.fatwreck.com
VIDEO "Last Chance To Dance" http://youtu.be/REG75pFucRQ
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Restless
"Seconds Out..." (Bluelight)
by
DC Larson
UK neo-rockabillies loose 80s energies with vibrant style. Few were their equals back in the day: such remains the case. Clever songcraft, whipsaw dispatch, arresting vocal presence. Fresh expression with experience as concrete-solid foundation.
Recommended "Black Kane," "Abracadabea," "There I Was Gone," "She Used To Love Me,""She Was My
Baby, He Was My Friend," "I'm Going Home"
https;//www.facebook.com/bluelightrecords
VIDEO "Black Kane" http://youtu.be/vZwp7zj08Lk
"Seconds Out..." (Bluelight)
by
DC Larson
UK neo-rockabillies loose 80s energies with vibrant style. Few were their equals back in the day: such remains the case. Clever songcraft, whipsaw dispatch, arresting vocal presence. Fresh expression with experience as concrete-solid foundation.
Recommended "Black Kane," "Abracadabea," "There I Was Gone," "She Used To Love Me,""She Was My
Baby, He Was My Friend," "I'm Going Home"
https;//www.facebook.com/bluelightrecords
VIDEO "Black Kane" http://youtu.be/vZwp7zj08Lk
Clint Bradley
"Riding After Midnight" (Bluelight)
by
DC Larson
Gentle-voiced Clint knows well his way around winsome western airs of the sort that Marty Robbins rode to the trail's high end. And that he ambles good-naturedly, an occasional bounce in his giddy-up, allows the appropriately mainly acoustic players to stretch and interpret at hand-tooled leisure. A relaxful satisfaction.
Recommended "Riding After Midnight," "Six Strings," "Call of the Far Away Hills," "A Fine Horse," "We Are Shane," "My Rifle My Pony and Me"
http://www.clintbradley.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/bluelightrecords
VIDEO "Riding After Midnight" http://youtu.be/mcyhLTezHWs
"Riding After Midnight" (Bluelight)
by
DC Larson
Gentle-voiced Clint knows well his way around winsome western airs of the sort that Marty Robbins rode to the trail's high end. And that he ambles good-naturedly, an occasional bounce in his giddy-up, allows the appropriately mainly acoustic players to stretch and interpret at hand-tooled leisure. A relaxful satisfaction.
Recommended "Riding After Midnight," "Six Strings," "Call of the Far Away Hills," "A Fine Horse," "We Are Shane," "My Rifle My Pony and Me"
http://www.clintbradley.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/bluelightrecords
VIDEO "Riding After Midnight" http://youtu.be/mcyhLTezHWs
Brian Setzer
"Rockabilly Riot! All Originals!" (Surfdog)
by
DC Larson
Some thirty years since the Stray Cats declared themselves "Runaway Boys," and still the wildest party in town rages on. His twangy Gretsch unholstered, host Brian raises his voice in bacchanalliac ebullience while the rest of us -- veterans and initiates, alike -- hoist our sudsy glasses in celebration of relevance everlasting.
Recommended "Let's Shake," "Lemme Slide," "Rockabilly Blues,"
"Vinyl Records," "Stiletto Cool," "Blue Lights, Big City"
http://www.briansetzer.com
http://www.surfdog.com
VIDEO "Let's Shake" http://youtu.be/xQaSBw_LEtM
"Rockabilly Riot! All Originals!" (Surfdog)
by
DC Larson
Some thirty years since the Stray Cats declared themselves "Runaway Boys," and still the wildest party in town rages on. His twangy Gretsch unholstered, host Brian raises his voice in bacchanalliac ebullience while the rest of us -- veterans and initiates, alike -- hoist our sudsy glasses in celebration of relevance everlasting.
Recommended "Let's Shake," "Lemme Slide," "Rockabilly Blues,"
"Vinyl Records," "Stiletto Cool," "Blue Lights, Big City"
http://www.briansetzer.com
http://www.surfdog.com
VIDEO "Let's Shake" http://youtu.be/xQaSBw_LEtM
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Vote for Jinx
one man's rockabilly election selection
.
by
DC Larson
In February, new peer acclaim may well be extended to Jinx Jones. The California-based singer/guitarist, a popular fixture at Viva Las Vegas, has been nominated for Rockabilly, Male in the 2015 Ameripolitan Awards.
Competition will be stern. Also nominated in that category are Paul Pigat, Eddie Clendening, James Intveld, and Jason D. Williams.
"I’m feeling very honored to be nominated," Jinx recently said. "I also have to say that I really appreciate the work that they do in supporting an important America art form, which celebrates a place in the musical landscape that may not receive a lot of attention from the mainstream media."
(Nominees for other distinctions include Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys, Kim Lenz, the Derailers, Marti Brom, Miss Ruby Ann, and Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-Fonics. Though voting begins on December 6, the Awards themselves will be held on February 17, in Austin. http://www.ameripolitan.com/index.html)
Consider this both my vote for Jinx and effort to sway you to his cause.
To date, he has four crucial CDs to his credit. But Jinx's road began long before them, and was marked by impressive sideman turns. Beginning in 1976, he backed legend Solomon Burke, as well as Howard Bomar. From 1979 through much of the 80s, he worked in one of Chuck Berry's regional touring bands. During the mid-80s, Jinx backed Roy Buchanan in concert.
Undertaking studio player work, he appeared on various recordings. This ultimately led to his playing both studio guitar and bass on the 1992 En Vogue hit, "Free Your Mind."
He developed a musical voice at once inclusive of the finest of Americana past and his own novel articulation. Abandoning work as an auxillary man, he set out to carve his name in the sun.
With seeming ease, he divines the blood fraternity of rockabilly, western swing, blues, jazz, and honky tonk, dazzling with furious note-bursts one moment, and in the next spinning glorious, intriguing strands of wondrous and untethered imaginings.
Imagine an advanced guitar textbook on 10. Listeners all will doubtless be thunderstruck by Jinx's authoritative command of labrythinian note aggregates, lightning-fleet navigations, and esoteric chordal modes. One intuits they are in the twang-upholstered, jazzy Court of a flat-gone Monarch, one for whom fair Aoede is a favored midnight-hour ship.
2000's License To Twang (Red Rogue) introduced the virtuosic Jinx by name to countless listeners who might already have dug his side and studio work. From the opening, a rapidly descending flurry of treble notes, it was apparent that he deserved remark in the same six-string pantheon already home to Danny Gatton. Honky tonk twanged expressiveness and riotous rockabilly exhortations are colorfully integrated with ebullient bursts of jazz-inflected phrasings. Recommended: "License To Twang," "Big Daddy Bop," "I Need a Good Girl Bad," "Tailor Made Woman."
A follow-up appeared in 2007. On Rumble & Twang (Home Braend), Jinx continued the hardwood-trippin' genre-bending he'd unveiled on "License." Undeniable now was his status as fretboard royalty. Ecstatic notes were bent, jabbed, and fired off at rocketship velocity. While there was plenty of fierce and wooly barn-dancin' bop on hand, gentler moments, too, enjoyed audience. Jinx's every-string-aflame evocation of old boss Roy Buchanan's "The Messiah Will Come Again" alternately ached, pummeled and seared. Recommended: "Flat Gettin' It," "Swedish Pastry," "Either Way I Lose," "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White."
The next year saw Jinx's Live In Finland (Home Braend) turn up on shelves. Originals "Mr Right Now," and "Honky Tonk Playgirl" pointed up spring-heeled bop's reeling country accent. Further rousing the crowd were three commanding Rock'n'Roll Trio covers --"Honey Hush," "Tear It Up," and "Rock Billy Boogie." Insofar as he was that night representing America abroad, Jinx did it with appropriate swagger in the type of international incident that leaves all drained. In fact, this on-the-scene document may well have been more frenetic and happily freight-paced than its studio predecessors.
On his latest release, 2010's Rip & Run, Jinx ascended still o'er previous successes. By this time globally famed as a breath-stealing, advnturous picker both encyclopedic and devastating, he led new band the KingTones to bop nonpareil. Whereas others might take broadening capacities to assay styles more sanctified by clef-note gray-beards, Jinx stayed put in the rockabilly/country mileau -- though he unburdened himself of serrated jazz thunderbolts. Recommended: "Redneck Barbie," "On Parole and Out of Control," "Never Live It Down," "Hot Rod Heartbreaker," "Rip and Run."
Such impressive wax to one side, Jinx may be the hardest working man in rockabilly.
"I do a lot of performing here in California, (like four to five nights a week)," he told me recently. "But I also have been playing the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend for the past several years, and do an annual Christmas show in Denver, Colorado.
"This coming year." he continues, "I do have some festivals lined up such as the Vintage Torque Fest in Dubuque, Iowa, and the Ink and Iron Festival in Nashville, Tennessee (which are confirmed as of this writing). I have other events in the works as well.
"I’m in the process of recording another studio record, which will be nearly all original material."
But first will come the Ameripolitan Awards. As Andy Griffith would say, 'Let's think about this thing.'
Appreciating great sounds bring great responsibility. Fractured night spot revelers and disc-hoarding adherents are obliged to defy boardroom-choreographed pop culture and support those true-believing musicians who preserve vintage stylings and embroider upon them.
Jinx Jones looms to fight the good fight. Our fight.
We all need to have his back.
jinxjones.com
https://www.facebook.com/jinx.jones.3?fref=ts
VIDEO "Redneck Barbie" http://youtu.be/UDFKu51yaWc
VIDEO "Rip & Run" http://www.kellervision.tv/#/loudville/VideoModule/254
(Parts of this essay appeared previously in the now-defunct Rockabilly magazine, and on my own website, http://www.damnationdanceparty.com.)
* * * * * *
.
.
.
.
one man's rockabilly election selection
.
by
DC Larson
In February, new peer acclaim may well be extended to Jinx Jones. The California-based singer/guitarist, a popular fixture at Viva Las Vegas, has been nominated for Rockabilly, Male in the 2015 Ameripolitan Awards.
Competition will be stern. Also nominated in that category are Paul Pigat, Eddie Clendening, James Intveld, and Jason D. Williams.
"I’m feeling very honored to be nominated," Jinx recently said. "I also have to say that I really appreciate the work that they do in supporting an important America art form, which celebrates a place in the musical landscape that may not receive a lot of attention from the mainstream media."
(Nominees for other distinctions include Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys, Kim Lenz, the Derailers, Marti Brom, Miss Ruby Ann, and Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-Fonics. Though voting begins on December 6, the Awards themselves will be held on February 17, in Austin. http://www.ameripolitan.com/index.html)
Consider this both my vote for Jinx and effort to sway you to his cause.
To date, he has four crucial CDs to his credit. But Jinx's road began long before them, and was marked by impressive sideman turns. Beginning in 1976, he backed legend Solomon Burke, as well as Howard Bomar. From 1979 through much of the 80s, he worked in one of Chuck Berry's regional touring bands. During the mid-80s, Jinx backed Roy Buchanan in concert.
Undertaking studio player work, he appeared on various recordings. This ultimately led to his playing both studio guitar and bass on the 1992 En Vogue hit, "Free Your Mind."
He developed a musical voice at once inclusive of the finest of Americana past and his own novel articulation. Abandoning work as an auxillary man, he set out to carve his name in the sun.
With seeming ease, he divines the blood fraternity of rockabilly, western swing, blues, jazz, and honky tonk, dazzling with furious note-bursts one moment, and in the next spinning glorious, intriguing strands of wondrous and untethered imaginings.
Imagine an advanced guitar textbook on 10. Listeners all will doubtless be thunderstruck by Jinx's authoritative command of labrythinian note aggregates, lightning-fleet navigations, and esoteric chordal modes. One intuits they are in the twang-upholstered, jazzy Court of a flat-gone Monarch, one for whom fair Aoede is a favored midnight-hour ship.
2000's License To Twang (Red Rogue) introduced the virtuosic Jinx by name to countless listeners who might already have dug his side and studio work. From the opening, a rapidly descending flurry of treble notes, it was apparent that he deserved remark in the same six-string pantheon already home to Danny Gatton. Honky tonk twanged expressiveness and riotous rockabilly exhortations are colorfully integrated with ebullient bursts of jazz-inflected phrasings. Recommended: "License To Twang," "Big Daddy Bop," "I Need a Good Girl Bad," "Tailor Made Woman."
A follow-up appeared in 2007. On Rumble & Twang (Home Braend), Jinx continued the hardwood-trippin' genre-bending he'd unveiled on "License." Undeniable now was his status as fretboard royalty. Ecstatic notes were bent, jabbed, and fired off at rocketship velocity. While there was plenty of fierce and wooly barn-dancin' bop on hand, gentler moments, too, enjoyed audience. Jinx's every-string-aflame evocation of old boss Roy Buchanan's "The Messiah Will Come Again" alternately ached, pummeled and seared. Recommended: "Flat Gettin' It," "Swedish Pastry," "Either Way I Lose," "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White."
The next year saw Jinx's Live In Finland (Home Braend) turn up on shelves. Originals "Mr Right Now," and "Honky Tonk Playgirl" pointed up spring-heeled bop's reeling country accent. Further rousing the crowd were three commanding Rock'n'Roll Trio covers --"Honey Hush," "Tear It Up," and "Rock Billy Boogie." Insofar as he was that night representing America abroad, Jinx did it with appropriate swagger in the type of international incident that leaves all drained. In fact, this on-the-scene document may well have been more frenetic and happily freight-paced than its studio predecessors.
On his latest release, 2010's Rip & Run, Jinx ascended still o'er previous successes. By this time globally famed as a breath-stealing, advnturous picker both encyclopedic and devastating, he led new band the KingTones to bop nonpareil. Whereas others might take broadening capacities to assay styles more sanctified by clef-note gray-beards, Jinx stayed put in the rockabilly/country mileau -- though he unburdened himself of serrated jazz thunderbolts. Recommended: "Redneck Barbie," "On Parole and Out of Control," "Never Live It Down," "Hot Rod Heartbreaker," "Rip and Run."
Such impressive wax to one side, Jinx may be the hardest working man in rockabilly.
"I do a lot of performing here in California, (like four to five nights a week)," he told me recently. "But I also have been playing the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend for the past several years, and do an annual Christmas show in Denver, Colorado.
"This coming year." he continues, "I do have some festivals lined up such as the Vintage Torque Fest in Dubuque, Iowa, and the Ink and Iron Festival in Nashville, Tennessee (which are confirmed as of this writing). I have other events in the works as well.
"I’m in the process of recording another studio record, which will be nearly all original material."
But first will come the Ameripolitan Awards. As Andy Griffith would say, 'Let's think about this thing.'
Appreciating great sounds bring great responsibility. Fractured night spot revelers and disc-hoarding adherents are obliged to defy boardroom-choreographed pop culture and support those true-believing musicians who preserve vintage stylings and embroider upon them.
Jinx Jones looms to fight the good fight. Our fight.
We all need to have his back.
jinxjones.com
https://www.facebook.com/jinx.jones.3?fref=ts
VIDEO "Redneck Barbie" http://youtu.be/UDFKu51yaWc
VIDEO "Rip & Run" http://www.kellervision.tv/#/loudville/VideoModule/254
(Parts of this essay appeared previously in the now-defunct Rockabilly magazine, and on my own website, http://www.damnationdanceparty.com.)
* * * * * *
.
.
.
.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Popa Chubby
"I'm Feelin' Lucky - The Blues According
To Popa Chubby" (Cleopatra)
by
DC Larson
There are two ways Popa Chubby can loose the demons that have hounded his every day. One is through the poignant bio he's offered: Abandoned as a child to raise himself, he headed to NYC in hopes of finding something better. All that waited for him, though, was heroin addiction and desperate street living. Blues salvation ultimately lifted him out of wretched bondage.
The other way is to plug in his road-battered Strat and voice tongues-of-flame blues orating,
the sort uttered credibly only by those who've survived. Popa speaks it fluently.
Recommended "One Leg At a Time," "I'm Feelin' Lucky," "The Way It Is," "Save Your Own Life"
http://www.popachubby.com
http://www.cleorecs.com
VIDEO "I'm Feelin' Lucky" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4yAU22QTgc
.jpg)
"I'm Feelin' Lucky - The Blues According
To Popa Chubby" (Cleopatra)
by
DC Larson
There are two ways Popa Chubby can loose the demons that have hounded his every day. One is through the poignant bio he's offered: Abandoned as a child to raise himself, he headed to NYC in hopes of finding something better. All that waited for him, though, was heroin addiction and desperate street living. Blues salvation ultimately lifted him out of wretched bondage.
The other way is to plug in his road-battered Strat and voice tongues-of-flame blues orating,
the sort uttered credibly only by those who've survived. Popa speaks it fluently.
Recommended "One Leg At a Time," "I'm Feelin' Lucky," "The Way It Is," "Save Your Own Life"
http://www.popachubby.com
http://www.cleorecs.com
VIDEO "I'm Feelin' Lucky" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4yAU22QTgc
.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Cheetah Chrome
"Solo" (Plowboy)
by
DC Larson
Dead Boy grown Cheetah merits renown for prized membership in two elite groups, influential-beyond-their-circumstance '70s Punk guitarists (the Johnnys Thunder and Ramone also ranking), and survivors of that same no tomorrow, needle-packin' era. As these '95 and 2000 sessions testify the collision-chording, curb-jumping metallic-treble leads, and occasional pensively picked articulation we all recall from CBGB days of legend rise to rage, still. Special guest in 2000: Sylvain Sylvain.
Recommended "No Credit," "Sharky," "Nuthin," "Stare Into the Night"
http://www.http://plowboyrecords.com/artists/cheetah-chrome/
VIDEO "No Credit" http://youtu.be/BfzH-oGEpKI
"Solo" (Plowboy)
by
DC Larson
Dead Boy grown Cheetah merits renown for prized membership in two elite groups, influential-beyond-their-circumstance '70s Punk guitarists (the Johnnys Thunder and Ramone also ranking), and survivors of that same no tomorrow, needle-packin' era. As these '95 and 2000 sessions testify the collision-chording, curb-jumping metallic-treble leads, and occasional pensively picked articulation we all recall from CBGB days of legend rise to rage, still. Special guest in 2000: Sylvain Sylvain.
Recommended "No Credit," "Sharky," "Nuthin," "Stare Into the Night"
http://www.http://plowboyrecords.com/artists/cheetah-chrome/
VIDEO "No Credit" http://youtu.be/BfzH-oGEpKI
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Drake Bell
"Ready, Steady, Go!" (Surfdog)
by
DC Larson
Should one need reminding that ours is a world without justice, reflect that this little style/zero substance CD will doubtless sell better than many superior efforts - the type produced through blood and sweat by hardworking, true believing musicians who've watched many a-midnight dissolve into grey dawn as they've kept alive American musics, in the rough process touching legacies greater than any one man.
And then, there's Drake Bell. He hits all the notes, but he's far too callow, bland, and superficial to seem any more than a tourist. Of course, it's possible that he's so under the sway of career choreographers and image manipulators that this calculated disc masks a real rocker straining to stand free. (Recall that John Mellencamp began recording as airbrushed ruffian Johnny Cougar.)
Drake's next CD may prove his vindication. Surprise us all, man.
Recommended "Bitchcraft"
http://www.drakebell.com
http://www.surfdog.com
VIDEO "Bitchcraft" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQYBVPVeQn0
Danny B. Harvey / Mysti Moon
"Hell Cat Stomp" (Rock-A-Billy / Cleopatra)
by
DC Larson
Danny well deserves the acclaim that hails his each waxing. Through decades of chameleonlike stylistic transmogrifications, he has ascended to due in the guitar gods pantheon. Thing is, no matter the genre he's conquered, Danny has maintained the elastic twang and kaleidoscopic hot rodding that fans recognize. Not that many players are instantly identifiable stylists. Easily integrating fleet fingerpicked nods to lauded predecessors like Merle Travis with his own heady ambitions earned Danny 2nd runner up in Guitar Player's 2007 Guitar Hero competition.
And in erstwhile Devil's Daughter Mysti Moon (she of the glad-all-over golden tones) he has found head-turning complement. This lively outing basically follows in the mold of earlier Danny/Lynda Kay Lonesome Spurs efforts, if perhaps more blues-grounded. Danny's sinewy Tele wends its knowing way through the back-country of Americana to the urgings of acoustic strummings, bass, suitcase-kicked beats, and soaring, swooping voices. Mysti's sweet sutriness and Danny's sometimes growled drawlings gambol and sway in fit fashion.
Five rewardingly gritty originals rub shoulders with seven public domain ramblings. Hear America first.
Recommended "(This Train Is Goin') Straight To Hell," St. James Infirmiry Blues,"
"Shake It On Down," "Hell Cat Stomp," "I'm Wild About That Thing,"
"Hard Moon Boogie"
https://www.facebook.com/dannybharvey2
https://www.facebook.com/MystiMoon?fref=ts
http://www.cleorecs.com
VIDEO "(This Train Is Goin') Straight To Hell"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TolhE1wFOw
Hillbilly Casino
"Hang Your Stockings...Say Your Prayers" (self)
by
DC Larson
Hillbilly Casino is celebrated for both its brawny fix on roots sensibilities and principled insistence on pulling hardwood-rockin' into modern times.
"Brutal honky tonk" they call it. .
"I defy you to find five other bands in the U.S. that can play Hank Sr. back-to-back with Motorhead, back-to-back with Ernest Tubb, back-to-back with Tex Ritter, back-to-back with the Ramones," formidable slap-bassist Geoff Firebaugh once delared.
Indeed, the four-man rock boppin' juggernaut has long been a favorite of average working folks, the sort who swarm the honky tonk dance floors of Nashville and beyond, throwing off real-world cares in wild favor of midnight hour rock 'n' roll bacchanalia. They, like Hillbilly Casino, dig the truth that there are only two kinds of songs, good ones and bad ones. Having fun, after all, is more rewarding than obsessing over genre distinctions.
"Hang Your Stockings, Say Your Prayers" was first issued for Xmas 2008, but is again being made available. This captures why Hillbilly Casino is so vital in a music scene that can never have too many sincere street-born minstrels.
Fiery reimaginings of seasonal staples like "Jingle Bells" muscle into taut formation with originals "Santabilly Boogie," "Tangled Up," and "Blue Suede Santa." Ronnie Crutcher's powerhouse guitar crunches and stings, singer Nic Roulette belts out each tune with unfeigned passion, and Geoff slaps in rugged determination. (Note: Also appearing here is former drummer Andrew Dickson, who has since been replaced by Matt Arnn.)
Turns out traditional holidays aren't just for squares!
theHillbillyCasino.com
https://www.facebook.com/TheHillbillyCasino
VIDEO: "Santabilly Boogie" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29-IjckOjTE
"Hang Your Stockings...Say Your Prayers" (self)
by
DC Larson
Hillbilly Casino is celebrated for both its brawny fix on roots sensibilities and principled insistence on pulling hardwood-rockin' into modern times.
"Brutal honky tonk" they call it. .
"I defy you to find five other bands in the U.S. that can play Hank Sr. back-to-back with Motorhead, back-to-back with Ernest Tubb, back-to-back with Tex Ritter, back-to-back with the Ramones," formidable slap-bassist Geoff Firebaugh once delared.
Indeed, the four-man rock boppin' juggernaut has long been a favorite of average working folks, the sort who swarm the honky tonk dance floors of Nashville and beyond, throwing off real-world cares in wild favor of midnight hour rock 'n' roll bacchanalia. They, like Hillbilly Casino, dig the truth that there are only two kinds of songs, good ones and bad ones. Having fun, after all, is more rewarding than obsessing over genre distinctions.
"Hang Your Stockings, Say Your Prayers" was first issued for Xmas 2008, but is again being made available. This captures why Hillbilly Casino is so vital in a music scene that can never have too many sincere street-born minstrels.
Fiery reimaginings of seasonal staples like "Jingle Bells" muscle into taut formation with originals "Santabilly Boogie," "Tangled Up," and "Blue Suede Santa." Ronnie Crutcher's powerhouse guitar crunches and stings, singer Nic Roulette belts out each tune with unfeigned passion, and Geoff slaps in rugged determination. (Note: Also appearing here is former drummer Andrew Dickson, who has since been replaced by Matt Arnn.)
Turns out traditional holidays aren't just for squares!
theHillbillyCasino.com
https://www.facebook.com/TheHillbillyCasino
VIDEO: "Santabilly Boogie" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29-IjckOjTE
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Rockats
"Rockin' Together" (Lanark)
by
DC Larson
Some cats got it...In my first-hand estimation, the Rockats and Robert Gordon prowled the crest of the 70s/80s revival wave. So it's only fitting that in 2014 they all located at Lanark Records - their presence at the surging upstart imprint elevating it in importance. The original 'Cats are here - world-class singer Dibbs Preston, indefatigable six-string rampager Barry Ryan, ever-boppin' upright-slapper Smutty Smiff, and knock-down-with-precision drummer Lewis King/Curt Weiss. Missing is original second guitarist Tim Scott McConnell, though Texas twang maestro Danny B. Harvey - who'd joined for 1983's "Make That Move" (RCA) - handily ushers memories whilst helping make new ones. Fresh originals race in that welcome old way. This is how rockabilly should be done: fun, freewheeling, and, at turns, gloriously robust. Small wonder that, like Gordon, the Rockats were the toast of Viva Las Vegas.
Recommended "Rockin' Together," "Pink and Black Cadillac,"
"Red-Headed Rockin' Doll," "Tear the Roof Off,"
"Old Hickory Road," "Reckless Rebel," "Bad Love," "The Road To Hell"
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rockats/223175401087003
http"//www.lanarkrecords.com
VIDEO "Pink and Black Cadillac" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tujW3gKK4IM
"Rockin' Together" (Lanark)
by
DC Larson
Some cats got it...In my first-hand estimation, the Rockats and Robert Gordon prowled the crest of the 70s/80s revival wave. So it's only fitting that in 2014 they all located at Lanark Records - their presence at the surging upstart imprint elevating it in importance. The original 'Cats are here - world-class singer Dibbs Preston, indefatigable six-string rampager Barry Ryan, ever-boppin' upright-slapper Smutty Smiff, and knock-down-with-precision drummer Lewis King/Curt Weiss. Missing is original second guitarist Tim Scott McConnell, though Texas twang maestro Danny B. Harvey - who'd joined for 1983's "Make That Move" (RCA) - handily ushers memories whilst helping make new ones. Fresh originals race in that welcome old way. This is how rockabilly should be done: fun, freewheeling, and, at turns, gloriously robust. Small wonder that, like Gordon, the Rockats were the toast of Viva Las Vegas.
Recommended "Rockin' Together," "Pink and Black Cadillac,"
"Red-Headed Rockin' Doll," "Tear the Roof Off,"
"Old Hickory Road," "Reckless Rebel," "Bad Love," "The Road To Hell"
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rockats/223175401087003
http"//www.lanarkrecords.com
VIDEO "Pink and Black Cadillac" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tujW3gKK4IM
Levi Dexter
"Roots Man" (Rhythm Bomb / Dextone)
Levi Dexter and and the Gretsch Brothers
"All Thru the Night" (Indie Japan)
by
DC Larson
Worldwide legend Levi Dexter has two riotous discs to his credit in 2014, and in reaction the crazy rockabilly nightime has burst into endless flame. His famous, authoritative vocals, whether offset by guitarist Buzz Campbell on "Roots Man" or parallel pickers ex-Magic Kenichi Yamaguchi and Katsuo Hino (of Sandra Dee) on "All Thru," resound clearly and with whipcracking passion. When Levi's on, everybody's movin' - though none as marvelously as the stutter-stepping dervish, himself. Truly, a King among kats.
Recommended "Boppin' Bernie," "Roots Man," "Cannibal Party," "Rollin'
To the Jukebox Rock," "Move Around" ("Roots Man")
"Seven Nights To Rock," "You're My Baby," "Oakie Boogie,"
"Everyday" (w/Gretsch Bros.
LEVI: https://www.facebook.com/groups/519235561484369/
LEVI/GRETSCH BROS. https://www.facebook.com/levidextergretschbrothers
RHYTHM BOMB: http://www.rhythmbomb.com
VIDEO: "Boppin' Bernie" http://youtu.be/unghkXduRcI
VIDEO: "Restless" https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=381357048691327&set=vb.100004511042990&type=2&theater
"Roots Man" (Rhythm Bomb / Dextone)
Levi Dexter and and the Gretsch Brothers
"All Thru the Night" (Indie Japan)
by
DC Larson
Worldwide legend Levi Dexter has two riotous discs to his credit in 2014, and in reaction the crazy rockabilly nightime has burst into endless flame. His famous, authoritative vocals, whether offset by guitarist Buzz Campbell on "Roots Man" or parallel pickers ex-Magic Kenichi Yamaguchi and Katsuo Hino (of Sandra Dee) on "All Thru," resound clearly and with whipcracking passion. When Levi's on, everybody's movin' - though none as marvelously as the stutter-stepping dervish, himself. Truly, a King among kats.
Recommended "Boppin' Bernie," "Roots Man," "Cannibal Party," "Rollin'
To the Jukebox Rock," "Move Around" ("Roots Man")
"Seven Nights To Rock," "You're My Baby," "Oakie Boogie,"
"Everyday" (w/Gretsch Bros.
LEVI: https://www.facebook.com/groups/519235561484369/
LEVI/GRETSCH BROS. https://www.facebook.com/levidextergretschbrothers
RHYTHM BOMB: http://www.rhythmbomb.com
VIDEO: "Boppin' Bernie" http://youtu.be/unghkXduRcI
VIDEO: "Restless" https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=381357048691327&set=vb.100004511042990&type=2&theater
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Robert Gordon/Link Wray
"Cleveland '78" (Rock-A-Billy/Cleopatra)
by
DC Larson
I'm not sure why, but the band (Gordon/Wray/Jon Paris/Anton Fig) sounds less cohesive, less enthusiastic, on this March '78 live recording than they had some two months prior. (See disc 2 of "Somethin'Else," on Victrola).
Maybe road fatigue. To give them their due, they more often than not deliver powerful rock 'n' roll of the type that blasts into irrelevancy polite cultural standards. And when they are hot, make no mistake, none can compare.
But the consistency of quality that generally marks Gordon's output is lacking here. This is spotty.
Completists will want this. For all others, better can be had.
RECOMMENDED "Lonesome Train," ""The Fool," "My Baby Left Me"
http://www.cleorecs.com
"Cleveland '78" (Rock-A-Billy/Cleopatra)
by
DC Larson
I'm not sure why, but the band (Gordon/Wray/Jon Paris/Anton Fig) sounds less cohesive, less enthusiastic, on this March '78 live recording than they had some two months prior. (See disc 2 of "Somethin'Else," on Victrola).
Maybe road fatigue. To give them their due, they more often than not deliver powerful rock 'n' roll of the type that blasts into irrelevancy polite cultural standards. And when they are hot, make no mistake, none can compare.
But the consistency of quality that generally marks Gordon's output is lacking here. This is spotty.
Completists will want this. For all others, better can be had.
RECOMMENDED "Lonesome Train," ""The Fool," "My Baby Left Me"
http://www.cleorecs.com
Robert Gordon
"I'm Coming Home" (Lanark)
by
DC Larson
As an RG fan who first heard The Voice on 1975's "Live at CBGB's" double LP, I couldn't be happier with this disc - a strapping reaffirmation of supremacy.
Robert has for years percolated on undersung releases (like 2006 Last Call disc "Rockin the Paradiso," and 2007's "It's Now or Never," on Rykodisc.) For those, he was paired with longtime accompanist Chris Spedding, the world-renowned guitar master.
Here, he's backed by a new line-up, a change that only advances the freshness. Storming guitarist Quentin Jones of the Reach Around Rodeo Clowns, and Lanark impresario, is joined by drummers Dave Ferrara and David Uosikkinen (visiting from the Hooters). Marshall Crenshaw, who contributes "Walk Hard," sits in on guitar for 2 tracks. Veteran Gordon band A-lister Rob Stoner brings the bass on all but one cut (Quentin handles that one), and even picks up a guitar twice.
Along for the crackling fun joyride are various top-drawer pedal steel, saxophone, and B3 players, as well as ace background vocalists whose presence lends further authority. (Among the ambient voices on one track is Gordon's fellow vocal legend, Rockat Dibbs Preston. Dibbs wrote 2 of the songs, here.)
But Robert is the star of this show. He can blast a lyric or swell majestically to whatever heights are demanded. Indeed, to hear his confidence-to-kill delivery and deep force-of-nature baritone, it's as if the last few decades never happened -- except that they imprinted his voice with substance gained only by good and bad living.
Something I was only beginning to understand as I stood outside a closed 1975 record store, gazing through the plate glass at newly-delivered, shrink-wrapped copies of "Live at CBGB's."
( One quick prediction: The bouncy, fun "Little Pig" may well become Robert's new "Red Hot," demanded by audiences the world over.)
Recommended "I'm Coming Home," "Walk Hard," "Little Pig," "Mountin of Love," "Low Down Weekend," "Under Your Spell Again," "Quit This Big Old Town"
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006673967362&fref=ts
http://lanarkrecords.net/
VIDEO "I'm Coming Home" http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1r2r4v_robert-gordon-i-m-coming-home_music
"I'm Coming Home" (Lanark)
by
DC Larson
As an RG fan who first heard The Voice on 1975's "Live at CBGB's" double LP, I couldn't be happier with this disc - a strapping reaffirmation of supremacy.
Robert has for years percolated on undersung releases (like 2006 Last Call disc "Rockin the Paradiso," and 2007's "It's Now or Never," on Rykodisc.) For those, he was paired with longtime accompanist Chris Spedding, the world-renowned guitar master.
Here, he's backed by a new line-up, a change that only advances the freshness. Storming guitarist Quentin Jones of the Reach Around Rodeo Clowns, and Lanark impresario, is joined by drummers Dave Ferrara and David Uosikkinen (visiting from the Hooters). Marshall Crenshaw, who contributes "Walk Hard," sits in on guitar for 2 tracks. Veteran Gordon band A-lister Rob Stoner brings the bass on all but one cut (Quentin handles that one), and even picks up a guitar twice.
Along for the crackling fun joyride are various top-drawer pedal steel, saxophone, and B3 players, as well as ace background vocalists whose presence lends further authority. (Among the ambient voices on one track is Gordon's fellow vocal legend, Rockat Dibbs Preston. Dibbs wrote 2 of the songs, here.)
But Robert is the star of this show. He can blast a lyric or swell majestically to whatever heights are demanded. Indeed, to hear his confidence-to-kill delivery and deep force-of-nature baritone, it's as if the last few decades never happened -- except that they imprinted his voice with substance gained only by good and bad living.
Something I was only beginning to understand as I stood outside a closed 1975 record store, gazing through the plate glass at newly-delivered, shrink-wrapped copies of "Live at CBGB's."
( One quick prediction: The bouncy, fun "Little Pig" may well become Robert's new "Red Hot," demanded by audiences the world over.)
Recommended "I'm Coming Home," "Walk Hard," "Little Pig," "Mountin of Love," "Low Down Weekend," "Under Your Spell Again," "Quit This Big Old Town"
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006673967362&fref=ts
http://lanarkrecords.net/
VIDEO "I'm Coming Home" http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1r2r4v_robert-gordon-i-m-coming-home_music
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Resurex
"Dance of the Dead" (Fiendforce/Live Dead)
by
DC Larson
I was not surprised when Resurex leader Daniel Deleon informed me that they'd sold out this disc's first printing, and were arranging another. Their detonative, guitar-to-the-fore horror/punk/
romantic/psycho mash has always enjoyed acclaim. Now even more certain of themselves, the leather-jacketed night-stalkers roam the graveyards of the mind - and tear off enviably melodic racket into the dark bargain.
Recommended "Vampire Kiss," "Dead By Dawn,""Rockin' In Your Coffin," "Return of the Living Dead," "Bride of Frankenstein," "Ghost Town"
BAND PAGE https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rezurex-official-band-page/173657572666475
"Dead By Dawn" VIDEO http://youtu.be/cxcyCEk8ugo
Monday, October 27, 2014
by
DC Larson
The Tremors
"Old Fashioned Hillbilly Feud" (Brain Drain)
(IMPORTANT: If you have yet to actually hear the raw, ragged, and manic Tremors, put away these words and get thee to the record store!)
Jimmy Tremor and Johnny Ramone have more in common than battle-scarred pickguards. A lot more.
Johnny had a theory: when a band changed, it got worse, And throughout that seminal NYC punk assault combo's remarkable and lastingly influential oeuvre, buzzsaw-chording commando Johnny fought to keep the Ramones on familiar footing, both image and sound-wise. Some others in (or around) the group might have entertained occasional notions of creative roaming, especially in the 80s, when tastes were in flux and success writ large remained elusive. But Johnny was adamant. The economical shock trooper sound, the leather jackets/jeans uniforms, the surly, 'You-talkin'-to-me?' attitude -- as they had been in the Bowery beginning, so they would remain into Blitzkrieg perpetuity.
Just so, Jimmy Tremor (nee Gardner), leader of North Carolina's hell-bent-for-moonshine hillbilly rockers the Tremors, has ensured that they varied little over the course of 10 years and 5 CDs. There was and is no need; he was right from the start. The feral cats howling at the fractured, midnight blood moon from the red clay tobacco roads of America's lost hick-dimension have stayed true to Jimmy's original vision.
There has been one change: the Tremors grow more confident and able with each exuberant waxing.The title cut and "Cabin Fever" are trademark Tremors; good-timey rampages that just barely stay on the steel. That they never fly from the track is open-faced testament to the band's top-drawer prowess.
Drummer Stretch Armstrong and slap-bassman Slim Perkins wreak one of the surest and most frenetically rollicking rhythms on present offer. The two rock-ribbed stalwarts have been at Jimmy's elbow since 2004 debut Scourge of the South. And better complement cannot be located.
Jimmy's own jittery, impassioned, psychologically-tilted hayseed implorings -- punctuated now and again by strangled yelps recalling Hasil Adkins -- and white lightning-speed treble note squallings reach ever-higher plateaus of backwoods psychosis. (When Jimmy stalks the bass strings on the fevered cover of "Wreck of the Old '97," you'd swear that he'd lost his religion.)
Back to th Mobeus Riff: Watch old Ramones video clips -- the same fierce, possessed, jaw muscle-flexed visage Johnny profferred as he thrashed his Mosrite clenches Jimmy's features, too.
But like Johnny, Jimmy is much more the knowing businessman than his crazed, stage-lit demeanor might suggest, From disc one, he has imprinted the band's output in manifold ways, not only writing most of the songs (or collaborating with Stretch and Slim) and holding down the guitar and lead vocal duties, but also producing, and designing cover art. Jimmy even oversees the band's label, Brain Drain.
Another Jimmy/Johnny similarity can be found in the songs, themselves. Many cross the finish line in less than two minutes. Built for speed, their minimalist constructions allow for unloosed rocketship delivery.
Most importantly, Jimmy and Johnny share the same proudly defiant certainty of identity - of purpose, of direction, of one's only appropriate place in The Scheme - that distinguishes the iconic and crucial maverick driver from the driven rabble that follow.
Because maybe the world digs you and yours, or maybe only the few are hip to the tip, but the point is that it is your Frankenstein. You imagined it, and made it so. You raised it up, a singular noise that delivers bodies old and young into writhing epileptic paroxsyms of carbonated ebullience.
In that spittle-flecked, confessional exhortation lies the truest baring of self. Jimmy, Johnny -- it's a Mobius
thing.
Recommended tracks: "Old Fashioned Hillbilly Feud," "High Time," "Why I Cry," "Cabin Fever," "Wreck of the Old 97"
http://www.tremorsrockabilly.com
VIDEO: http://youtu.be/E3WMVxj7cnA ("100 Proof Blues Boogie," from previous CD)
TO BUY:
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Fashioned-Hillbilly-Feud-Tremors/dp/B00JWW17R2
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thetremors3
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