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Sunday, August 30, 2020

James Williamson and Deniz Tek
Two To One
(Cleopatra)




Famed for stints in the Stooges and Radio Birdman, distorted-chord mongers James and Deniz hurl knuckly garage-punk fists. The deftly dispensed change-up remains ever welcome in the ebullience of the passage.

Recommended: "Jet Pack Nightmare," "Progress," "Good As Gone," "Stable," "Climate Change," "Birthday Present," "Liar."

Video: "Stable" 

Cleopatra



Rat Scabies
P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt)
(Cleopatra)




One might expect a Punk '77 icon to remain within the strictures of that discipline. And splendid moments present themselves. But stylistic marauding far afield makes remarkably lasting prints.

Yes, Benny Goodman.

Recommended: "Chew On You," "My Wrists Hurt," "Sing Sing Sing," "Rat's Opus," "Shivers," "Un Noveau Balai (A New Broom)."

Videos: "Chew On You"
             "My Wrists Hurt"
             "Sing Sing Sing"
             "Rat's Opus"

Site


Stray Cats
Blue Eyes and Fishnets
(HOBO)



Radio-captured in their 1982 salad days, poised for writ-large stateside renown. 

Recommended: "Double-Talkin' Baby," "Rumble In Brighton," "Stray Cat Strut," "Rev It Up and Go," "Runaway Boys," "Fishnet Stockings," "Rock This Town."

Videos: "Rumble In Brighton" (live, 1981)
             "Runaway Boys" (live, 1981)


HOBO Facebook

Amazon


New Rezurex video
Mi Calavera de Amor




This blog reviewed the disc on which the song appears.

Video: "Mi Calavera de Amor"



Sunday, August 23, 2020

the stooges
Live at Goose Lake
(Third Man Records)




Quite in his cups, Nietszche leaned over the bar and pronounced: "From chaos came Iggy."

Recommended: "Loose," "Down On the Street," "TV Eye," "1970 (I Feel Alright)," "Fun House," "L.A. Blues."

Videos: "Loose"
             "Down On the Street"
             "TV Eye"
             "1970 (I Feel Alrightt"


Third Man


CJ Ramone
The Holy Spell...
(Fat Wreck Chords)




Decades have elapsed since Johnny's last crunch chord faded. But the Ramones remain one of rock'n'roll's basic food groups. In both sound and fury, CJ hefts high the torch. And by lacing the wonderfully familiar music with his own attitudes, he sets off  distinctive detonations.

Recommended: "Movin' On," "One High One Low," "Crawling From the Wreckage," "Waitin' On the Sun," "Stand Up," "I'm Disappointed," "Postcard From Heaven," "Rock On."

Videos: "Movin' On"
             "One High One Low"
             "Rock On"


Site

Facebook 

Fat Wreck Chords


Jets
Session Out
(Krypton)




Krypton has re-released the Jets' debut wax, initially issued by Nervous in 1985. And a rewarding disc, it is. The harmonies are kingly, the spartan rockabilly ebullience-lashed, and the package formidable even in this cradle.

Recommended: "Did Anyone Tell You," "Millionaire Hobo," "Jitterbuggin' Baby," "Cry the Blues," "Charlene," "Drunk Again," "Open Up Your Heart," "Dan O'Dell," "Slippin' In," "Bye Bye Baby."

Videos: "Did Anyone Tell You"
"Open Up Your Heart"
"Charlene"


Site

Facebook

To order from 



headcat 13
s/t
(Cleopatra)




The genius here is exquisite equilibrium of combustion and finger-popping. "Let's Go Crazy" should be blaring from beach-party transistors and summer-sun hot rods the world over.

Recommended: "Let's Go Crazy,"  "Wigglin' and a Jigglin'," "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight," "Psycho Daisies," "Reckless Wild and Crazy," "Come Out and Play," "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."

Video: "Let's Go Crazy"
"Wigglin' and a Jigglin'"
"Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight"


Site

Facebook

Cleopatra 



From "Let's Go Crazy" video.

Sunday, August 16, 2020

Elvis Presley 
At the Hayride
Live 1954 - 1956
(Memphis Mansion)




Rockabilly in febrile infancy, before the majors put a rope around its neck. Colored vinyl.

Recommended: "That's All Right," "Blue Moon Of Kentucky," "I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine," "Hearts of Stone," "Little Mama," "You're a Heartbreaker," "Baby Let's Play House," "I Forgot To Remember To Forget," "Paralyzed," "Hound Dog."

Audio: First Elvis Hayride gig, 1954

Memphis Mansion site
Elvis Presley
From Elvis In Nashville
(Sony Legacy)




In the summer of 1970, Elvis took a break from Vegas. He and the "Nashville Cats" (including James Burton) spent five days and nights recording spectacular material. The production eschews overdubs, spotlighting Elvis's singular power. Damn.

This is a 4-CD set, also issued as a 2-LP volume. Outtakes and alternate versions are contained on discs 3 and 4.

Recommended: At press time, this release was not yet issued.

Video preview: "I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water."

Site

Amazon
The Jets
The Isolation Sessions #1
(self)



Many hail the Cotton Brothers as among the finest rockabilly outfits presently on offer, and this blog raises no objection. The material here was recorded in three different houses during the COVID 19 lockdown. It positively glistens. 

This is available at One Play Stream. A 50-minute DVD may be purchased from the band's own site.

Recommended: "Yes Tonight Josephine," "Razor Alley," "Hideaway," "Talk All Night," "When the Cat's Away," Elvis Medley, "Heartbreaker," "Tonight Will Be Alright," "I'm Just A Score, "James Dean," "Blues Stay Away From Me," "Thunder Road," "Warpaint," "Love Makes the World Go 'Round," "Girlfriend."

Videos: "Blues Stay Away From Me"
             "Yes Tonight Josephine"

Site

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James Intveld and the
Honky Tonk Palominos
"Never Gonna Let You Go"
b/w "To Be As One"
7-inch vinyl
(Sleazy)




Rather than squander his American Musics depth as ostentatious attention-getter, James lends it sublime voice.

Acoustic solo performances: "Never Gonna Let You Go"
                                               "To Be As One"

Site

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Saturday, August 8, 2020

Danny Gatton with
Robert Gordon
Live In NYC
(Shockwaves)




37 tracks (from two radio-broadcast live performances) show why any disc bearing either man's name would be worth investigation. And when both are featured...

Recommended 1981: "Ubangi Stomp," "Love My Baby," "I Love You So," "Lotta Lovin'," "Lover Boy," "Cruisin'," "There Stands the Glass," "Melancholy Serenade."

Recommended: 1982: "Heart Like A Rock," "Someday Someway," "You're Undecided," "Rockabilly Boogie," "Red Cadillac and A Black Mustache," "20 Flight Rock" "Black Slacks," "Red Hot."

Videos: "Ubangi Stomp"
             "Cruisin'"
             "Melancholy Serenade"
             "Heart Like A Rock"
             "You're Undecided"
             "Someday Someway"


Shockwave Facebook

Apple

Spotify

Amazon Japan



Jimmi Accardi
Guitar Slinger (Molehill)
Blues Monster (Molehill)








Erstwhile Laughing Dog Jimmi is reliably solid. For decades, he's produced eminently listenable guitar endeavors of superior class. The catalog stands enhanced.
.

Recommended Guitar Slinger: "Let It Ride," "Candy Apple," "Incomprehensible Blues," "Midnight In Manhattan," "Little Ricky Goes To Mars," "Four String Swing," "Time To Rock," "Out On the Town."

Recommended: Blues Monster: "I'm a Fool About You Baby,," "I Don't Love You No More," "Dance My Blues Away," "Christina," "Good To Me," "I Can't Get Enough of Your Love," "Suzanne," "One More Try," "Cadillac Coupe De Ville," "Boogie With Me."


Facebook page

Amazon Guitar Slinger

Amazon Blues Monster


Rezurex
Skeletons
(Cleopatra)





To establish rapport with the Great Beyond, you can buy either a ouija board or this CD. But only the disc erupts.

Recommended: "Creature," "Ghost," "House On Haunted Hill," "Mi Calevera De Amor," "Sacred Heart," "Nightmares," "Dark Side," "Shadow Man," "Scarecrow," "Tomb," "Go Away."

Videos: "Creature" (live)
             "Ghost"

Facebook page

Cleopatra


Tami Neilson
CHIKABOOM!
(Outside Music)




One never tires of slinkily invoked torch songs. Comes, too, the tempest. Exquisite.

Recommended: "Call Your Mama," "Hey Bus Driver," "Ten Tonne Truck," "Queenie Queenie," "You Were Mine," "16 Miles of Chain," "Tell Me That You Love Me," "Any Fool With A Heart," "Sister Mavis," "Sleep."

Videos: "Hey Bus Driver"
             "Ten Tonne Truck"
             "You Were Mine"
             "Queenie Queenie"

Site

Facebook page

Amazon


Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Guitar Slingers
Playing Favourites
(Diablo)



A woketopian might see the cover and bray "cultural appropriation." But a fiendish neighborhood psycho would chuck said imbecile into the wrecking pit maelstrom. With this blasting.

Recommended: "Red Hot Rockin' Blues," . "CC Rider," "Cut Across Shorty," "Mexicali Baby," "Seven Deadly Sins," 
"Bopalena," "Babylon's Burning."

Videos: "Bopalena" (live)
             "CC Rider" (live)


Diablo Facebook

Bandcamp
Doyley and the Rejects
Isolation Boogie
(Diablo Records)



Prolific is the word for psycho virtuoso Doyley; he's also in Guitar Slingers and the Twanglords. The words tilted and fingers afire also apply. Only 50 copies available, plus 2 bonus cuts.

Recommended: "40 Days," "I Got the Isolation Blues," "Plandemic," "Lockdown Boogie."

Video: "40 Days"

Diablo Bandcamp



Raygun Cowboys
Tales About Life, The Road,
and Life On the Road
(Diablo / Stomp)



Formidable brass daubs striking hues all across and through what already was, in it's own right, downright sweeping rock'n'roll.

Recommended: "Limbo," "Fast Machine," "Truth," "Yeg," "The Only One," "Live My Life For Rock 'n' Roll."

Videos: "Limbo"
"Fast Machine"


Facebook

Diablo Bandcamp



Corrin Campbell
& the Election
Gilded
(Mathilda's Choice)



Guitars rage and the beat crashes, as befits punk concussions. Corrin's vocals add exactly appropriate determination. Her lyrics delineate experienced humanity in ways attractive -- even when of its lower range.

Autographed copies available on a "pay what you want" basis, directly from her site.

Recommended: "Just Around the Bend," "Not For Sale," "The Scene," "Truly Untitled," "Heavy," "Equations."

Videos: "Just Around the Bend"
             "Not For Sale"
             "The Scene"


Site 

Facebook

Amazon


Sunday, August 2, 2020

Robert Gordon
Rockabilly For Life
Reference tracks
(Cleopatra)




In my previous review of this CD, I focused on the many guest-star iterations. These reference tracks, included on the disc, warrant
individual remark.

Some are briefer than the celebrity sit-in versions. Brevity multiplies their punch. Bass player Pierre Pelegrin and drummer Paul Vezelis make for a brisk and muscular rhythm section. They prove their worth at each turn.

But the real selling point, in addition to Robert's own impressive vocal talents -- he gives no less robust performances as on the celebrity tracks -- is producer Danny B. Harvey's flabbergasting guitar. He infuses the material with jaw-dropping acrobatics which leap up cheerily from the American roots well.

Harvey is among rockabilly's premier fretboard prestidigitators. But he cleverly ventures across genre demarcations in summoning spellbinding expostulations.

The guest-star versions are significant and possessed of peculiar merit. But some say they prefer these reference tracks. 

Recommended: "Steady With Betty," "Let's Go Baby," "Everybody's Rockin' But Me," "She Will Come Back," "Try Me," "Please Give Me Something," "Three Alley Cats," "Hot Dog! That Made Her Mad," "One Cup Of Coffee," "I've Had Enough," "Knock Three Times."

Cleopatra Records


Saturday, August 1, 2020

The Joeys
I'll Be Just Fine
(self)




Upstart sparkplugs gave out with cool retro. And the joint went wild.

Recommended: "I'll Be Just Fine," "Phantom Bride of 13 Curves," "Bad Intentions," "Planet Z."

Videos: "I'll Be Just Fine"
             "Planet Z"


Facebook

Amazon

Spotify

Reverb Nation


Hank Sundown and
the Roaring Cascades
Rock and Roll Power
(Rockaround Records)




At first aural glance, this juking seems complaisant enough. And an easy-good vibe does inform. But careful listeners will intuit that the players dig the music is serious business. And they are devoted to it. More calling than craft.

Recommended: "Teddy Boy Party," "Hank Was Here," "Don't Touch My Guitar," "Cool Like A Ted," "British Rock and Roll," "Boppin' Up North," "Greg the Ted," "Hail the King."

Video: Online release party (30-minute set)

Facebook

Spotify

Amazon



Eightbomb
High-Heeled Devil
(self)



The glorious result of speed reading grimoires and back issues of Wrecking Pit. Rockabilly thrust up from midnights combustible.

Recommended: "Empty Heart," "Every Kiss," "High Heeled Devil," "Killer Babe," "Lost the Fire," "Two Things," "A Scar."

Videos: "High Heeled Devil"
             "Killer Babe"
             "A Scar"


Facebook

Itunes

Amazon

Bandcamp


Sickscrew
Final Plague
single (self)



T.S. Elliot was wrong. The world is not going out with a whimper, but a surplus of metallic grinding and a virus from whose death-grasp no man can hide.

Videos: "Final Plague"
             Live in Austin 2/6/2020


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FORMER staff writer for Rockabilly and Pin Up America magazines. FREELANCE credits include Daily Caller, American Thinker, Free Republic, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Independent Political Report, USA Today, Des Moines Register, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Waterloo Courier, Cedar Falls Times, Marshalltown Times Republican, Cincinnati.com, IndyStar, Arizona Republic, No Depression, Goldmine, Blue Suede News, Rock and Rap Confidential, Crackerjack, Blues News, Wrecking Pit, Punk Globe, Prairie Sun, Music and Sound Output, BAM, New Music, and 1980s NYC fanzines Shake, Rattle, and Roll, Rebel Rouser, and Off the Wall. AUTHOR: Shake, Rattle and Rocket!, Ghost Saucers in the Sky!, Stratosphere Boogieman!, Flesh Made Music, That a Man Can Again Stand Up: American spirit vs, sedition during the incipient Trump Revolution, and Ideas Afoot: Political observations, social commentary, and media analyses. WORKED as 2004 Iowa coordinator for Ralph Nader independent presidential campaign; co-founded Iowa Green Party, also served as statewide media coordinator; press coordinator, 2002 Jay Robinson (Green) IA gubernatorial effort. Wrote extensively re Trump campaign..