Rocket J and the 88s
Rocket Baby (self)

A stentorian, skirt-snapping rock'n'roll chanteuse who lights up everything with electric vivacity. Her nervy rockabilly has as its sole ambition a zoom star-ward with sparks shooting and good feelings busting out all over. 

Recommended: "Rocket Baby," "It's the Beat" 

Video: "Rocket Baby"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m21ksVw2B8&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0MUeiLA1Ckh92vPQzPss5Q2VCzM6qUprfGMyjWas3dfR23F6_aQjv-I8M


http://www.rocketjandthe88s.com/

https://www.facebook.com/rocketj88/

https://rocketjthe88s.bandcamp.com/album/rocket-baby

Death By Rodeo
Rock n Roll Bones (self)

Among the cleverest and most brawnily efficacious trios to stomp stages in recent nights, Death By Rodeo is uninhibited in its headlong pursuit of dynamic fun across genre demarcations that hem lessers.

Recommended: "Rock n Roll Bones," "Tight Lines," "Don't Breathe," "Fool To Care," "All That I Know," "I'm Gone," "To Love - Not Love"

Video: "Rock n Roll Bones"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kude0OeCRY


https://www.facebook.com/deathbyrodeo/

https://www.reverbnation.com/deathbyrodeo?fbclid=IwAR02uSuy7cRkqT16pADGqE-wJLju4RQg3P7RDA27u9N2TqeWpggskR1nJeA


https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/deathbyrodeo3

https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Roll-Bones-Death-Rodeo/dp/B07LFR5Z94/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1545502409&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=death+by+rodeo

Seven Mile Lane
s/t (self)

When sounds all around seems superfluous and ostentatious, count on Punk to crash through the door, fire up the rude amps, and remind wonderfully that this whole rock'n'roll business is about kicking out the jams economically and without cares.

Recommended: "Tomorrow Never Comes," "Tension and the Blight," "I'm Out," "Shake and Shiver" 

Video: "Shake and Shiver"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9op0Vq3dRQU


https://www.facebook.com/SevenMileLaneSalem/

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/sevenmilelane2

Piedmont Four
Back To the Bars (self)

Seems like the blues has been always around, like it came up from the soil and is by now so much a part of common humanity that its unvarnished essence no more needs announcement than does anyone on the family tree. And impeccably crafted iterations such as this here portend familiarity into perpetuity.

Recommended: "Rip It Up," "Daddy Was a Preacher," "It's All Going To Pot," "Diggin' My Potatoes," "Crosscut Saw," "Midnight Shift"

Video: "Daddy Was a Preacher"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCHBRXQWJ4c


https://www.facebook.com/piedmontfour/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARBsRS-t53X7aHvEszu05GqJMXDDb-bhew6ppQZk6CtwR0wqFuqjJ1gQ0l_MTdXjeWqwFU8tN4p0cI2L


https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/piedmontfour2

Kings of Nuthin'
Get Wrecked with... (Crazy Love)
7 inch

4-track, 1999 demo that spawned a reeling and swiping rhythm and blues, destroy-the-joint legend still tipped in hip circles. Seed aburst, available in variously colored vinyl.

Recommended: "Let It Burn," "Had Enough," "Boston Bound," "

Video: "Boston Bound" (live 2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDs8lx_kOiQ



https://www.facebook.com/The-Kings-of-Nuthin-154946820364/


https://www.crazyloverecords.de/news/5050/kings-of-nuthin-get-wrecked-with-7-ep-neon-yellow

The Rocket Dogz
Bad Blood 
(PHR Records)

The combination stopwatch/dreamcatcher/police blotter has yet to be invented, that could gauge this mayhem-in-a-blur disc's gale-force merits. 

Recommended: "Bad Blood," "Cemetery Walk," "It's Not You," "Slaves of the Darkness," "Anymore," "Woke Up In the Morgue"

Video: "Bad Blood"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1XVd4FzpkI&list=OLAK5uy_lEzipBggrulNSJHueYs8XU4hLfzH50m7I&index=1


https://www.facebook.com/therocketdogz/



https://phr.cz/rocket-dogz-bad-blood/

https://papagajuvhlasatelrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bad-blood

The Elixirs
Sin Alley (self)

Neo-rockabilly's promise of stomp-down feverishness mindful of ways things once were, in run-loose realization. Equilibrium eruptive. 

Recommended: "Know Remorse," "Knockin'," "Hard To Bite Your Tongue," "Killer Custodian," "Wake Up," "Hot Day," "Good Ain't Good"

Video: "Know Remorse"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1heL1aj2Og


http://www.theelixirs.com/Home_Page.php

https://www.facebook.com/the.elixirs.music/

https://elixirs.bandcamp.com/


https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/theelixirs2

https://www.amazon.com/Sin-Alley-Explicit-Elixirs/dp/B07CLRFKYS

Blood of Android
Sangue de Androide / 
Android Blood (self)

Whatever this mysterion combo's true identity, it's invisible on the internet. No pages, no video. But alurk-in-the-shadows existence is consonant with this binding, instrumental surreality in which surf, punk, and psycho go full Jet Boy amongst portentous star glow while teen dancers shimmy across the universe.

Recommended: "Sangue de Androide," "Bigode de Torresmo,' "Agua de Joelho de Dedo," "Luiza Vendo Visoes," "Sabrina? Nao Conheco," "Abridor de Costelas"


https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/sanguedeandroide

As Diabatz
Nightmares In Red
(Drunkabilly Records)

In a chilling twilit existence where novel detours spring open beneath like unanticipated trapdoors, rest faith in the dead-set doctrinal beat; it will guide through this odyssey fantastique.

Recommended: "Nightmares In Red," "You Go On," "Sucri Song," "Treat You Mean," "Death Lurks On the Race Track"

Video: "Nightmares In Red"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4MwMznsMao&list=PLTLePriSwc3dmTq6e3oZNEhrUnhz6Ykvr


https://www.facebook.com/asdiabatz/


http://www.drunkabilly.com/mailorder/product.asp?idproduct=4676

Babe Miller
The 10 Tears of...
(Sleazy Records)

Sitting alone in one dim corner of a rundown tavern that's been around for generations is a guy nursing his one millionth beer and seeking a few hours' solace from heartaches. He can tell you Detroit's Babe Miller is American country music like it was and still can be: Jumped up in some moments, bitterly reflective or even despairing, in others.

Country music means a lot to that guy. It means a lot, period.

Babe even recalls the man who pledged to paint any car, any color, for $29.95.

Recommended: "1200 Building," "Happy Hour," "Pink Pink Elephants," "Candles and Wine," "My New Guitar," "Earl Scheib"

Video: "1200 Building"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL3C_h68ibk


http://www.babemiller.com/

https://www.facebook.com/babemillercountry/


https://sleazyrecords.com/en/sleazy-records/12925-the-10-tears-of-8436022626027.html

Kryptonix
La 6eme Symphonie 
(Klabautermann Records)

Somehow, somewhere, beneath a hull of harshness that storms into monstrous eves good souls know not, lurks an affinity for melodic allure. Its hooks plunge first in ears, then in wrecking bones' deepest centralities.

Recommended: "Leather Face," "Just Give It," "House of the Sun," "Sin City," "La 6eme Symphonie," "Synthetik Love," "Marche ou creve," "Very Bad Trip"

Video: "Leather Face"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw2BUU1bYI4&t=0s&list=PLrDULAag8HmE8MDlH-2w2PW4DFfNg6fg2&index=3


https://www.facebook.com/Kryptonix-officiel-381582375228882/



https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/kryptonix

https://www.amazon.com/6e%CC%80me-Symphonie-Explicit-Kryptonix/dp/B07JJZZDSD/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1542349556&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=kryptonix

Los Injectors
Rock Apocalypto (self)

Scraped off a downtown sidewalk at 3AM, slapped into furious delirium, and charged with life-threatening toxins. Hurtling upward into tumultuous Reverend Horton Heat/Motorhead ethers. Amplifiers are go.

Recommended: "Raise Some Hell," "Hot Lap," "Rock and Roll, Motherfucker," "Summer Wind," "Bad News," "Rev It On Up"

Video: "Raise Some Hell"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LfT9Df64Fw


https://www.facebook.com/LosInjectors/

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/losinjectors#

Kenyon Lockry
Honky Tonk Noir (self)

I can't imagine anyone more capably turning the wild side of life into an audio-cinematic turn, exploring with first-hand witness its temptations, sorrows, and head-back howls. Nor can more fittingly Americana-grounded accompanists for such an ambitious endeavor be found than this number that includes Dave Roe, Chris Scruggs, and Kenny Vaughn.

Recommended: "Honky Tonk Honey," "Five Feet of Lovin'," "Touch of Red," "I'll Show Me," "Nighthawk," "Turn the Hurt Up," "Honky Tonk Noir"

Video: "Five Feet of Lovin'"
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/kenyonlockry4


https://www.facebook.com/kenyon.lockry

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/kenyonlockry4


https://www.amazon.com/Honky-Tonk-Noir-Kenyon-Lockry/dp/B07JKK7G9F/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1542345587&sr=8-1&keywords=kenyon+lockry

Nathaniel Hintz
If You Break My Heart (self)
Single

What initially seems a Halloween lark, given its brisk, spooky arrangement, has an underlying somberness novelty never nears. The combined effect intrigues.


Audio: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBbcn6V15fU


https://www.facebook.com/straycboy/


https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/nathanielhintz2#

Screaming Lord Sutch
Jack the Ripper (Decca)
7 inch

The 2 Burr Bailey cuts feature Ritchie Blackmore and are fine, economical outings with easeful melodies and placid crooning. But it's Lord Sutch that is the main attraction.

At the 1964 moment the Beatles were yeah-yeah-yeahing all over Ed Sullivan, Londoner David Edward Sutch was prowling in swirling cloak and horrific greasepaint as Jack the Ripper. His rock 'n' roll horrorshow costumery and theatrics scandalized sedate Britishers and sent chills down the spines of toe-tapping fans, but also proved influential. 

As Dangerous Minds noted in a profile, Sutch was "an early pioneer of shock rock, garage rock, and psychobilly, who mixed monster movie aesthetics with rock 'n' roll long before Alice Cooper and the Cramps came along."

According to his Wikipedia page, "During the 1960s, Sutch was known for his horror-themed stage show, dressing as Jack the Ripper, pre-dating the shock-rock antics of Alice Cooper. Accompanied by his band the Savages, he started by coming out of a black coffin...Other props included knives and daggers, skulls, and 'bodies.'"

Dangerous Minds: "Sutch appeared to have done most of pop's rebellious things (long hair, the wildest songs, act, etc) but never received the credit for any of it."

Of his two songs here, ghastly original "Jack the Ripper" is probably most identified with him. But his recreation of Huey Smith's "Don't You Just Know It" bounces at convivial pace and is a lighthearted amusement well worth indulgence as well as repeat enjoyments.

Many musicians later renowned on their own passed through Sutch's band, through the years. Included in that league are Blackmore, Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins, and Charlie Watts.

Sutch was by his own admission not a particularly gifted singer. But his enthusiasm was undeniable, his knack for shocking presentation manifest, and his seat in the Pantheon assured. His songs have over the decades assumed ghoulish, revered status, having been covered by bands like the Sharks, Gruesomes, and
White Stripes. 

Recommended: "Jack the Ripper," "Don't You Just Know It"

Video: "Jack the Ripper"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=c2ZsWENob1s

https://www.crazyloverecords.de/news/5006/screaming-lord-sutch-jack-the-ripper-7-ep-ltd.

Voodoo Swing
Nervous Wreck (chromodyne)

Don't ever let anyone tell you that affability can't swing with smooth coolness, or clean muscle make more efficacious determination's invigorating deploy.

Recommended: "I Don't Hate You," "Linda Lee," "The Cleaner"

Video: "I Don't Hate You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKkfVX1nQSU

https://www.voodooswing.org/

https://www.facebook.com/voodooswing/

http://www.chromodyne.com/



https://www.amazon.com/Nervous-Wreck-Voodoo-Swing/dp/B07148XQWM

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/nervous-wreck-ep/1236511382

On Friday, President Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to "American icon" Elvis Presley, among others. Given that, and as the 2018 Democrat Party is following Hillary Clinton's intolerant example, I've updated the below 2016 essay.

Hillary vs Elvis 2016
Did Clinton believe Presley to have been a "deplorable?"

Singer Mary J. Blige's musical successes were commercial and era-bound in nature; she neither turned new creative soil nor was particularly interesting in her revisiting of cliches.

She did, though, slur her artistic superior. In 1997, Blige lied bold-facedly about the late Elvis Presley, deriding him without foundation as "racist."

In 2016, the otherwise irrelevant Blige was a minor player in political news. She made quite the loud spectacle of herself on behalf of Hillary Clinton. 

In a simply tilted video interview spot that ran online, Blige sang questions to Clinton. The candidate wore a pained, 'why in the hell did I agree to this?' expression, the same one she sported during her earlier Between Two Ferns appearance. 

My guess: Some millennial vote-hunting campaign functionary was later disciplined roundly.

But Hillary's opportunistic embrace of Elvis-hater Blige neatly illustrated a larger reality about her campaign, as well as of a foul and nonsensical cultural trend. In that addled movement, everything established, successful, reasonable, and traditional was to be reviled and plowed under. 

No distinction was recognized between positives and negatives. By virtue of vintage, all were considered equally opprobrious. 

To have enjoyed previous cultural cache, went the fury-brained half-thinking, was to be (pick one or more) racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, etc. And, hence, the despised enemy to be strangled by the streets-milling, sign-hefting forces of goodness.

In the undisciplined era of anarchic tumult, Hillary Clinton made manifest her sympathy: Out with the old, and in with the new. Elvis was counted as an 'irredeemable deplorable,' by her rancid arithmetic. 

Given her amoral calculating, it was logical -- albeit still thoroughly despicable -- that Clinton cast her lot with rampaging, violent, and destructive street thugs over law officers representing decent and orderly American society. 

At this point, a stipulation cries out to be acknowledged. No candidate can reasonably be assumed to share every belief of their backers. 

A major misjudgment was made by news media commentators challenging Donald Trump to publicly distance himself from stray unsavory supporters. Such outsiders had without invitation sought greater visibility by attaching themselves to his more popular and spotlighted effort.

It was unreasonable to demand that Trump acknowledge them as legitimately worth attention. But as seen in the 2016 election season, reasonableness was most clearly not a mainstream media ambition.

There was a considerable difference between that and the Hillary/Blige case: The Democratic candidate chose her association with the Elvis-smearing singer of long-since-gone renown.

Hillary did not necessarily share Blige's deceitful, noxious prejudice. But by uncritically availing herself of the faded pop luminary's aid and comfort -- and, in a very real larger sense, with the bedraggled, anarchic assassins of all-that-came-before -- she certainly posited this metaphorical choice:

You could stand with either Elvis Presley or Hillary Clinton. Couldn't be both.


end

The Devil's Daughters
Revelations 
(Devil's Daughters Records)

That this features Danny B. Harvey, alone, makes it attention worthy. But additional merit arrives in abundance via by far the most silkily sonorous throats heard in ages.

Recommended: "Pass That Bottle," "Blue Moon of Kentucky," "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," "Whole Lotta Love"

Video: "Pass That Bottle"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqi3CSGJnds


https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilsDaughters/


https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/thedevilsdaughters2

https://www.amazon.com/Revelations-Devils-Daughters/dp/B07J24NVKP

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/revelations-ep/1438376704

Ruzz Guitar's Blues Revue
The Heist (Rhythm Bomb)

Airtight carousing blues of infectious soul. Every man jack present an imperial crown perpetrator. Sweet brass sweeps, dips, and caroms. Ruzz dominates with fretboard gymnastics that flabbergast as they titillate.

To quote the Treniers: "It rocks! It rolls! It swings! It jumps! Man, it really moves!"

Recommended: "The Heist," "Back Home To Stay," "Juke Joint Shakedown," "Mine All Mine," "I Used To Love You," "High Stakes Hustle"

Video: 52:07 live in Visual Radio Arts studio, including "The Heist," "Juke Joint Shakedown"
https://vimeo.com/294296862


https://www.thebluesrevue.com/

https://www.facebook.com/thebluesrevue/


http://www.rhythmbomb.com/ruzz-guitars-blues-revue-the-heist/

500 Miles to Memphis
Blessed Are the Damned (self)

Guitars crunch madly, spurred to high gallop by the same splendidly indomitable beat that's always propelled rock'n'roll. And robust vocals make fine topping for sometimes Celtic-informed "Americana Punk" disregardful of genre -distinctions and bound to splinter every refinement so unwise as to stand in protest.

Recommended "The River," "Bonnie," "Hold On Tight," "No Doubt About It," "In My Chest," "Save Me," "I'm a Bastard"

Video "Bonnie" (live)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YfDLQCnLxQ


https://www.500mtm.com/

https://www.facebook.com/500milestomemphis/


https://500milestomemphis.bandcamp.com/album/blessed-be-the-damned

The Rebellion
We Know What We Want (self)

Somewhere, someone may think melody and the unstoppable beat can't be lovingly preserved in just four sinewy cuts that compel eruption. They are wrong.

Recommended: "I Know What I Want," "Goodbye Josephine," "Oil and Gasoline"

Video: "I Know What I Want"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsfxkjsPDls

https://www.facebook.com/rebellionjoensuu/


https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/therebellion2

Mitch Ryder
Christmas (Take A Ride)
(Cleopatra Records)

Rules are meant to be broken.

It's long been a personal rule of mine to avoid Christmas song collections. Many of the tunes are like cherished friends who remind of halcyon times and seem to have been around forever. Reinventions are unnecessary. They often pale in comparison to the originals. And such efforts can indicate artistic decline and unbecoming dollar-consciousness.

But (and this can't be asserted too loudly) rock'n'roll legend Mitch Ryder is exceptional. The freshness, bold affection, and unfeigned enthusiasm with which the Detroit master supercharges beloved seasonal chestnuts make them well worth eager attention.

And the wonderousness of Ryder's gold-standard vocal talent comes across not only when the pace is hot-rodded, but intriguingly so during more pensive turns. 

That he reached deeply within himself and produced this top-drawer reiteration merits a great big, late night houseful of hand claps.

Rules are meant to be broken.

Recommended: "Santa Claus," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "What Christmas Means To Me," "Put a Little Love In Your Heart," "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," "Let It Snow," "Sleigh Ride" 

(No videos yet available)


https://www.facebook.com/therealmitchryder?ref=br_rs

https://cleorecs.com/store/shop/mitch-ryder-christmas-take-a-ride-cd/


https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Take-Ride-Mitch-Ryder/dp/B07GJ4FSC8

Neal Smith
Killsmith Halloween 
(Neal Smith Music / Kachina Records)

1970s classic rock has a wonderful secret: The riff-heavy monster-style that, as perpetrated eminently in shell-shocked arenas by Smith's Alice Cooper Group, remains today as immediate, loudly formidable, and jaw-high defiant as when pre-Watergate RMN first broached Chinese shores.

The beat. The hooks. The snarl.

Recommended: "Strychnine," "Squeeze Like a Python," "The Killsmith Overture," "Dynasty of Darkness," "Monsters In the Attic," "Die For the Night," "Pandemonium," "How Do You Bleed"

Video "Strychnine"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaE_wG0M4o0&index=10&list=OLAK5uy_kvBseEiQgHMM0nCI6NitHQmpXV0EUAWoM


http://nealsmithrocks.com/

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/killsmith

Walter Lure and the Waldos
Wacka Lacka Loom Bop a Loom Bop Boo
(Cleopatra Records)

Coolness that gives no fucks announces itself with swagger in early days. Sometimes, it is so beyond the planet it implodes. But once in a lucky while, it hangs around to tell of a better life possible.

And when it gets its meat-hooks on an instrument, it's every man for himself.

Recommended: "Crazy Kids," "Where Were You (On Our Wedding Day?," "You Talk Too Much," "Bye Bye Baby," "Damn Your Soul," "She Doesn't Love You Anymore," "Lazy Day," "Wham Bam Boo," "Little Black Book"

Video: "Crazy Kids"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU1o3cC2RRU&index=1&list=PL4bD5PX2R6ALhCSXNkPShHh6jtVFItsDc



https://www.facebook.com/theWALDOS/


https://cleorecs.com/store/shop/walter-lure-the-waldos-wacka-lacka-boom-bop-a-loom-bam-boo-cd/

https://www.amazon.com/Wacka-Lacka-Boom-Bop-Loom/dp/B07DKWJWZS

(photo credit: Alan Rand)