DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

T-Becker Trio

Second Round

(Crazy Times)

With tunfulness ever in mind, this nimble triad lopes through amiable selections. One couldn't ask for greater union. They exude good-natured charm, whether essaying reposeful hillbilly stylings or more frantic cuts. The authenticity is palpable.

Recommended: "I Wanna Bop," "Cloud 9," "Baby Look At Me," "Bop Bop Bop," "Tell Me," "Luckiest Guy," "Why Does She Never Look At Me?"

Video: "Cloud 9" (live)

Los Gatos Rockabilly

Inadaptado

(self)

No self-indulgence will be located on this recording. Instead, members emphasize only essential factors. The resultant product speeds past milemarkers in streamlined fashion.

Recommended: "Inadaptado," "Usa Condón," "Pelear," "Me Quieren Casar," "El Calaverita," "Mil Heridas," "Interior Exterior," "Gozando El Boogie"

Video: "Inadaptado"

Black Hearse Getaway

As Above So Below

(self)

Of less repute than fellow psychos the Meteors and Demented Are Go, Black Hearse Getaway are no less obsessed with their ominous undertakings. Laser attention to accellerated rhythms etch this enterprise, which also incorporates horrific punk-inflected imaginings.

Recommended: "Searching High, Looking Low," "Creatures Of the Night," "Under His Spell," "Vanquished Shadow," "Together Forever," "Blood and Lust"

Video: Side A

Audio clips/Purchase

Friday, May 26, 2023

The Brains

Hell N' Back

(Cleopatra)

That these psychos improve with each successive waxing impresses all the more, when one considers they began on a lofty plane. It's a jaw-dropping journey. This latest leg attests to ominous bloom unfolding.

Recommended: "Scream For Me," "More Brains," "Blood," "Bones," "No More," "Lost"

Video: "Blood"

Atomic Music Group

Cleopatra

The Malpass Brothers

Lonely Street

(New Day Ent.)

Evocative of bygone country, before corporate pop-rock persuasions infected hand-tooled Americana. The Malpass Brothers stand tall against contemporary market-focused inclinations. They are mindful of the importance of unpretentious folk art, and heft high its banner. Real country endures unmolested.

Recommended: "Paying For the Dream," "The Man I Ain't," "I've Got Her On My Mind Again," "Love Is a Lonely Street," "Sleep When the Party's Over," "Road of Memories"

Video: "Road of Memories"

Amazon

Deathcaps

Brain Dead

(self)

An efficacious exercise that balances sinister imagery and rapid-fire dispatch. When those essential elements coalesce in scrupulously measured quantities, quality of presentation ascends beyond the pedestrian.

Recommended: "Braindead," "Barbara Lee," "Freak Wave," "Alien Biopsy," "Snakes," "Vile Repeat"

Video: "Alien Biopsy"

The Alopecia Trio

Unkle Yummy and other lullabies

(self)

As go punk paradigms, one could do far worse than the storied Forest Hills brudders. The influence is overt, but there's also novelty a-lurk. And therein lies noteworthiness.

Recommended: "Hippo," "All My Friends Are Wankers," "Pidgeon Hole," "Billy No Mates," "Unkle Yummy," "Sick and Tired"

Video: "All My Friends Are Wankers" (live)

Spotify

Friday, May 19, 2023

Blame Betty

Big Betty's Alright!

(self)

Blame Betty's members represent a noble, albeit undersung, phenomenon. Much of consequence can be attributed to rank-and-file Rock'n'Roll standard bearers. They slog away in bars and modest clubs, not arenas, but are as close to the spirit of the music as is humanly possible. Perhaps intimacy breeds connection to the sound, one that seems to diminish as audiences swell and mass spatially further from bands. It is a hale manifestation and one meriting plaudits whenever espied.

Recommended: "Rock Betty," "Love Is Comin' For Ya," "706 (Sam's Kitchen)," "Rockabetty Boogie," "Hot Rod Movin'," "Smoked Paella"

Video: "Rockabetty Boogie"

audio/purchase

Various artists

Hallmark Guitars Presents: The Kustom Kings Ride Again

(Swept Wing Records)

Not to slight other significant instruments, but the electric guitar figures as the primary Rock'n'Roll device. And its wonderfully multifarious applications are here illustrated. At turns obstreperous, strident, and introspectively melodious --but ever riveting -- the six-string mechanism never ceases to command attention. It orates uniquely.

Recommended: "Chuck's T Bucket" (Ronquillo), "Red Baron Theme" (Deke Dickerson), "Ace Of Aces" (Bob Spalding), "Baron A Go Go" (Wasagas), "Peel Out" (Kobanes), "Snoopy's Revenge" (Hot Rod Trio), "Red Devil" (Green Ghost), "Baron Boogie" (Jay Smith), "Pedal To the Metal" (Joe Walla)

Video: "Red Baron Theme" (Deke Dickerson)

audio clip/purchase

Mike Giannini

Well, I Knocked, Bim Bam single

(self)

The equilibrium with which Mike delivers this rocker is as much a factor in its victory as the dexterous dispatch itself. A rollicking time is assured when composure is allowed persuasion.

audio clip/purchase

The Kingsnakes

Live At The Old Waldorf June 5, 1981

(Liberation Hall)

It doesn't seem so long ago, that West Coast rockabillies, blues practioners, and rip-and-sritch punks rubbed shoulders in turbulent nightspots and on independent labels. A scruffy subculture emerged. The Blasters, James Harman, and Dead Kennedys were but three of the pivotal assemblage. Count the Kingsnakes, too, in that number. Guitarist James Ferrell and drummer Danny Mihm both hailed from the Flamin' Groovies, and would go on to join forces with another ex-Groovie, Roy Loney, in the Phantom Movers.

On this date, they opened for pomped icon Robert Gordon. And though the Kingsnakes weren't destined for celebrity writ large, they nevertheless acquitted themselves admirably with standard constructions fired by in-marrow ebullience. It was a magical moment best recalled, if one weren't on hand, by archival recordings such as this.

Recommended: "Rock 'n' Roll House," "You Never Can Tell," "Walking By Myself," "Not Nice," "Look Out Mabel," "Good Rockin' City," "More," "Get Up"

Video: "Good Rockin' City"

Liberation Hall

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Frank Jacket

"Why Me, Lord" b/w "Lord, I'm Coming Home"

(Mula Records)

Multi-instrumentalist Frank expresses spiritual yearning with relaxed country comfort. Gospel as once raised up in America's hill country. It's fundamental to the human condition to seek perpetuity.

"I've wandered far away from God / Now, I'm coming home."

Wanton

Dead Country

(?)

It matters not which stylistic mode is exploited -- and several figure on this hideously cinematic platter -- arbitrary acrimony finds voice and makes its jaggedly scarry impact. Direct, blunt, and pointedly ghastly. For the like-charactered, every night is All Hallows Eve.

Recommended: "Bad News," "Sorrow," "Ghost Town Boy," "Dead Country," "Tick-Tock-Man," "Chronophobia," "I Drive the Hearse," "Death Ratttle Roll," "Roots"

Video: "Tick-Tock-Man"

Reztones

Skoden

(Ghost Rhythm Records)

These Tucson denizens enjoy connection to the global wrecking phenomenon, via an ethos that comprises sinewy psycho silhouette and bellicosity. Ferocity judiciously deployed is its own reward.

Indulgence by weak-ot-constitution sorts not counseled. The stern rest of us can and will indulge without trepidation.

Recommended: "Skoden," "Tears Falling In the Cemetery," "Moni Muňeca," "iiná"

Video: "Tears Falling In the Cemetery"

The Georges

Noble Home single

(Vinyphone Records)

Good songs flow trippingly, and this certainly does that. It should be written that upper-tier songcraft such as here exemplified is too rarely heard. Accordian fills out ingratiating instrumentation, lending piquancy.

Audio clip/purchase

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Buddy Lee

Let's Rock Tonight!

(Independent)

'Buddy Lee' is the alter ego of proven talent Buddy Dughi, of the Hot Rod Trio. In this clay-road guise, and pearly Telecaster in hand, he deftly dispenses snappily-picked material that illustrates the hay bale-filled barn dance leaning of rockabilly. Couples call: To the hardwood.

Recommended: "Let's Rock Tonight," "Careful Baby," "Digging a Hole To Bury My Heart," "Don't Be Gone Long," "Everybody's Lovin' My Baby," "If I Had Me a Woman," "Here Comes That Train," "Gone Gone Gone," "Have Myself a Ball," "Rock All Night"

Spud Sims and the Beltways

For Lovers Only

(Shed Stomp Records)

Yes, this rocks but it also rolls, which is a necessary component too many auto-tuned clotheshorses miss. In addition, Spud evinces a sincere love for the music that comes through in each note. And that's the highest compliment that can be paid a musician.

Recommended: "Sweet Rockin' Betty," "Lonesome For You," "If You Love Me (I Want To Know Tonight)," "Always Have My Heart"

Video: "Sweet Rockin' Betty"

Marcello & the Flaming Boppers

self-titled

(Marcello Records)

That three men could kick up such a felicitous storm is flabbergasting enough, but that they could do so with apparent offhandedness is estimable. It's this sort of thing that once led parents to (unsuccessfully) shield their offspring from the Rebel Music.

Recommended: "Be My Girl," "Waitin' In School," "Memphis Dream," "One Sided Love Affair," "I'm So Drunk," "Ducktail"

Video: "Be My Girl" live in studio

Nicholas Campbell

Here Alone single

(Independent)

Upon the chassis of an orthodox rollicker, complete with jangly 88s and apt guitar exploits, Nicholas tells of love unrequited.

Audio excerpt/purchase

Monday, May 1, 2023

Viktor Huganet

Rock'n'Roll VO/VF

(Big Beat Records)

This is different and yet familiar: A bi-lingual (English and French), 2-disc set in which honorably-articulated covers predominate. In this writer's estimation, Viktor merits recognition as a six-string maestro of upper distinction; he is that adroit.

Recommended: "Not Get Out," "Brian, Lee, and Jim," "Someday Someway," "Lonesome Town," "C'mon Everybody"

Video: "Not Get Out"

Deezer

Crown City Bombers

Zowie Zam!!

(Independent)

De rigueur vocals certainly sate, but it's when the players luxurate in instrumentals (of which there are two, here) that they are most potent. Those moments evince specialness.

Recommended: "Damage Patrol," "Zowie Zam!," "I Told You So," "Jungle Jam," "Milf Truck"

Video: "Jungle Jam"

Audio excerpts/buy

The Memphis Invaders

No Train At the Station

(Independent)

There are two types of stardom. The first one is familar; it's marked by media celebrity and a dollar deluge. The second is more difficult to achieve and is typified by artistic worth. Tempestuous neo-rockabillies the Memphis Invaders already qualify as stars by the second metric. Whether they realize the first is in public hands.

Recommended: "No Train At the Station," "Turn It Up," "March Of the Invaders," "I'm Driving," "Fool's Gold," "Back On the Scene," "Whiskey and Wine," "Lonely Lonely Heart"

Video: "Whiskey and Wine"

Gorgeous Go Devils

Unlimited Supply (feat. Sebestian Ballesteros)

single

(Independent)

An old saw holds that the only certainties are death and taxes. But comes now a third: The windows will rattle when this is spun. And as provocative as it is - spurring dancers to whirl and leap - the music is sparkingly dispatched and thoroughly bright.

Per the combo: "[T]he Gorgeous Go Devils are a rotating cast of top-notch retro Rock'n'Roll musicians collaborating and recording original songs, cover tunes and reimagined surprises. The results will be released on streaming and video. We hope you'll come along for the ride."

Recommended: "Unlimited Supply" (So far, this is the sole selection they have online)

Video: "Unlimited Supply"