Western Swing Project

Stampede City Swing

(Independent)

The elegance of polished tones and genteel expression are best suited to pleasant moments. This is just such music, a jovial effort that gladdens the heart and adds a lilt to the constitution. This is playing that will cure whatever ails you; it's beyond possibility to remain glum when airs so lissome waft past.

Recommended: "Old Alberta Moon," "Let's Go Sparkin'," "Sioux City Sue," "South," "The Western Medley," "

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Psycho Bats

Demented Tale

(Independent)

Everything about this project reeks of sinisterness, from the ghastly material to its raucous conveying to the screamed vocals. Even the packaging signals dire consequences shall befall those who crack it open. And that's perversely spectacular.

Recommended: "Old Times," "Conquistador," "Bats and Roll," "Hot Rod Bats," "Make Psychobilly Great Again"

Video: "Make Psychobilly Great Again"

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The Surfin' Wombatz

Night Bus To Skaro

(Western Star)

They recall David Edward Sutch, both sterling inspiration and indicator of disposition. A similar risability runs throughout, as they broach oddball sordid topics. But that they also offer economical and breezy rock'n'roll must be observed. Well-carpentered package.

Reommended: "Nobody Wants To Wreck With Ray," "Hey Poe Diddly," "Bank Holiday Punch Up On the Planet Of the Apes," "Monster Raving Loony," "Tattooed Trash," "Spicy Brains," "Undead Doll," "Pickman's Pin-Up Model"

Video: "Monster Raving Loony"

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Western Star

The Incredible Staggers

Zombies Of Love

(Nette Alte Dame)

Had this combo been extant in the 1960s they so revere, you can bet they'd be included in Greg Shaw's Pebbles LP series. The Farfisa organ, fuzz guitar, and strangled vocals of quintessential garage punk are all present; all that's missing are the multi-hued discothèque strobes.

Recommended: "That's the Beat," "Zombies Of Love," "Trip With Me," "Peg-Legged Pirate Twitch," "Wooly Mammoth," "Just Listen and See," "Little Latin Lupee Loo"

Video: "That's the Beat"

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Graveyard Bashers

Wreck 'em Dead

(Lycans Den Records)

Three diabolical Finns stitched feverishly lashed delirium and the vilest narratives locatable above ground. Spin in darkness.

Recommended: "Graveyard Brothel," "66 Cuts," "Psychobilly Sleazebags," "Straitjacket," "Set You On Fire," "Twisted Nightmares," "Fun & Games"

Video: "Psychobilly Sleazebags"

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Lycans Den Records

Gasoline

s/t

(Independent)

With no pretensions at profundity to hinder their momentum, Gasoline members speed nimbly through a carbonated set in which fun is the sole ambition. Toward that end, communicable rhythms drill prominently. Mission accomplished.

Recommended: "Be Mine," "Burnin' Rubber," "She's Not Stupid," "Dead By Now," "My Baby," "Be Your Girl"

Video: "Burnin' Rubber"

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Evil Daltons

Psycho Dad

(Independent)

When trapped with a helter skelter chauffeur, all one can do is brace against the inevitable smash-up and thrill to the spree. For some, bedlam is titillating.

Recommended: "Psycho Dad," "Demon Breed," "Shark Lady," "This Way," "Highnoon," "Desert Trail," "Girls," "Surfin' Witch," "Coffin Surfer"

Video: "Psycho Dad" (live)

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Punkabilly Orchestra

Kick Me Away

(Independent)

This Croation group pulled its own plug, but a three-track EP survives. "Don't Be Alone" by itself is worth the cost. And who knows what future days might present? Stay tuned...

Recommended: "Kick Me Away," "Don't Be Alone," "Every Night"

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Psycho Devilles

Night Prowler

(Rumble Road Records)

They shake rooves as jarringly as any combo you could specify. A dapper and flamboyant live attraction, they also set aside moments to undertake sedate country material, replete with bar-veering steel guitar. Then, it's back to kicking ass.

Orignally released in 2010, this was recently reissued by Rumble Road.

Recommended: "Victory Curls," "Addicted," "Out the Door," "What Comes Around Goes Around," "Better Man," "Flames," "Burn Baby Burn," "Doin' Fine," "Long Long Way To Go," "Chopped Down and Hopped Up," "Ask"

Video: "Flames" (live)

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The Raters

s/t

(Independent)

At turns, incisive and as ponderous as a methodical stalker. Ominousness pervades each groove. A muscular and sharply defined disc. 

Recommended: "Nightmare," "Monsterbilly Cathouse," "Psychobilly Shot," "Fever," "I Wanna B Bad"

Video: "Nightmare"

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Skinny Carcas and His Bone-Man Band

Rockabilly Breakdown

(Independent)

Heavily echo-drenched rockabilly in the Sun manner. But gritty guitar makes for a rough sound unheard in Sam's Union Ave era. And as a one-man band, Skinny travels to places Harmonica Frank never envisioned. Tempestuous places. Standard enough to gain entrance, distinctive enough to stand out.

Recommended: "Don't Go Out To Mess Around," "Human Wasp," "Let's Have Something," "Punkabilly Breakdown," "Sleeping Out," "Stupid Idols," "Make It Again"

Video: live (in studio)

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Low Life Drifters

Chasing the Devil

(Rumblecat / Missing Fink)

Trio playing carries peculiar responsibility: It means every man must be on deck every moment. No weak links abided. All three here contribute mightily and forge music propulsive and memorably tuneful.

Recommended: "Rooster's In the House," "Clawdine," "Cryin' In My Beer," "Big Train," "It's Gonna End Up Being Me"

Video: "Big Train"

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The Gunsmoke Sinners

Demos For the Damned

(Rumble Road Records)

In each of the four tracks present, ambiant tension predominates. A Western accent reveals itself, occasionally, tempering the songs with loping ruggedness. A determinedly whipped ride.

Recommended: "Where the Widow Raves," "The Navigator," "Drunk Scorpion," "Armadillo"

Video: "Where the Widow Raves"

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Marco Di Maggio and the All Star Gang

s/t

(Area Pirata)

It is only fitting that Marco be surrounded by musicians of global repute. Truly, he is a maestro in whose able hands the guitar becomes a vessel through which expressive intonations announce themselves. Nary a single excess note touched off, but every necessary one reported.

Recommended: "I Don't Mind," "Travelin' Band," "Names and Addresses," "Till the End of the World," "Oh! Lonesome Me," "Give My Love To Rose," "Marco's Boogie"

Video: Promo

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The Heartbreakers

Yonkers Demos + Live 1975/1976

(Cleopatra Records)

As this was the embryonic stage, Richard Hell delivered vocally on occasion. But even at this moment, it was clearly a Thunders/Lure /Nolan proposition. The three brought the noise. The Heartbreakers were one of the most rambunctious Rock'n'Roll bands produced by the mid-70s NYC punk explosion. Now, hear to what the deserved ado was attributable.

Recommended: "Blank Generation, " "I Wanna Be Loved," "Love Comes In Spurts," "Pirate Love," (live) "Goin' Steady," "Chinese Rocks" (live), "Stepping Stone" (live) 

Video: "Pirate Love" (live)

Cleopatra

Thorbjørn Risager & the Black Tornado

Navigation Blues

(Provogue / Mascot LG)

"Something To Hold On To" is so starkly plaintive it hurts the listener. 

Recommended: "Navigation Blues," "Watch the Sun Go Down," "Fire Inside," "Taking the Good With the Bad," "Whatever Price," "Time," "Something To Hold On To," "Hoodoo Lover," "Headed For the Stars," "Heart Crash"

Video: "Navigation Blues"

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Voodoo Swing

Made In the USA

(Independent)

Blues may not top the popularity charts or make profit-obsessed corporate hearts sing, but those of us hip to the genre's essential nature esteem it, regardless. Voodoo Swing carry on remarkably in an earthy and infectious tradition. This music matters.

Recommended: "Nursery Rhyme Boogie," "Drinkin' My Life Away," "Rich Man's Blues," "She Don't Love You," "What the Fuck Was I Thinking" (live), "Hillbilly Rock'n'Roll" (live), "The Rambler" (live), "My Rockabilly Martian Gal" (live), "Pass That Bottle" (live), "West Coast Boogie" (live)

Video: "Drinkin' My Life Away"

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Don Leady

Americana Crossroads

(Independent)

It's long been understood that Don resides in that exalted pickers' pantheon. This instrumental work portrays his acumen in generous light; arrangements allow him much space to impress -- and that, he does. Behold the power possible in understatement.

Recommended: "Whistle Train," "Fine Lineup," "Hey Augie," "Marionette," "Lost At the Crossroads," "Bells Home," "Hold n' Fold," "McComb Man," "Rock Castle," "Rotogravure," "Giddyup Boogie," "Shake the Box," "Keep On Doin'"

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Five Mile Mountain Road

Swingabilly Swagger

(Independent)

There is abundant joy to be found in the old ways. And much limber-legged fun can be had in the company of inspired players; they not only astound as individual virtuosos, but mesh as a seamless ensemble. Gather 'round the porch and make dust fly.

Recommended: "The Train That Carried My Girl From Town," "Sally Was a Poor Girl," "There Is a Time," "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas," "Wild Horse," "Just When I Needed You," "Pallet On the Floor," "Wild Bill Jones," "Lynchburg Town/Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," "KC Railroad Blues"

Video: "Wild Bill Jones" (live)

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Lesly's Dynamite

Not As Usual

(Tessy Records)

Crack combo provides perfect spotlight turn for skirt-snapping chanteuse with refined pipes. Lesly is equally adept at ravers and sultry torch numbers, as are the players assembled about her. 

Recommended: "Mr. Piggy Bank," "Careful Love," "Give Me Love," "Dance To Find Your Love," "Hop and Don't Stop," "Race With the Devil," "

Video: "Give Me Love"

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Tessy Records

Iggy Pop

Every Loser

(Atlantic)

That he's survived long enough to make a 19th LP is in itself something of a triumph; he's been through the war a couple of times.  But only rarely does this approach the undulating snarl of Iggy's early period. Creative growth is crucial, true. Decades have passed, and it would be boring (for all of us) to record the same album all your professional life. Important to note, though: change isn't necessarily a positive.

Still, those rare moments beat all Hell out of just about everybody.

Recommended: "Frenzy," "Modern-Day Rip Off," "Neo Punk," "The Regency"

Video: "Frenzy" (TV)

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Chinese Junk

Genocide

(Brassneck)

"Playing guitar is my way of screaming at the world," once remarked Dee Dee. There is much of such screaming, on here. Angry release is invigorating. 

Recommended: "Plastic Bag," "You Rattle My Cage," "Genocide," "Coffee Shop Massacre"

Video: Full EP

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Suicidal Sinatra

Los Sinatra 14

(Independent)

To any who might brand this too measured and mellifluous to qualify as actual psychobilly, a salient response would be that conformity gets boring quite quickly. That adventuring afield can merit commendation. And that only the brave create singular art. 

Recommended: "Bernyanyi Sampai Mati," "I Am Soldier," "Rise Up," "Los Sinatra," "Menyerah," "Sampah," "We Are Psycho"

Video: "Rise Up"

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The Circulators

s/t

(Willowhouse)

Shaw said youth is wasted on the young. Maybe. But what if the young are wasted and plugged in? Punk with power-pop tones can result, and here, does. A $5 cassette of hand-clapping exuberance Shaw never knew.

Recommended: "Generation Next," "Broken Mirrors," "Nocturnal Boys," "On the Loose," "It Won't Be Me," "Wired Over You," "Can't Get My Way"

Video: "It Won't Be Me"

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Back In the Day: 1983

American Patrol

Backseat Boogie

(Vanity Records)

Having made his bones at Rollin' Rock and in Jimmy and the Mustangs, guitarist./singer Jerry Sikorski founded this swinging rockabilly quartet. With heavy emphasis on keys and Spyder Mittleman's honking saxophone -- and predating the BSO by years -- American Patrol reeled and rocked like few others were able. That the vibrant, textured combo never received the acclaim due it was an egregious injustice. Fortunately, vinyl lives on for longtime fans and a new crop of appreciators.  

Decades later,Sikorski teamed with Jim Leslie to revive American Patrol as a guitar-centered, Western-inflected unit.

Recommended: "Wildcat Shakeout," "Pretty Baby," "Shake the Roof," "Bewitched By My Baby," "Backseat Boogie," "Three Alley Cats," "Texas and Pacific," "Give It All You Got," "Prowler"

Video: "Shake the Roof"

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Danny B. Harvey

Wave Dancin'

(Independent)

New from the prolific and prodigiously gifted Danny B. is an instrumental that encompasses introspection and observation. It buoys listeners to sandy, sun-strobed cavortings. The accompanying video focuses its attentions on watery wunderkind Victoria Vegara, who gracefully navigates surging waves of precariousness. 

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Purchase: Bandcamp