The Brains

Out In the Dark

(Cleopatra)

2023, purple-vinyl reissue of the 2011 CD. As I penned upon its initial issuance:

"Elegantly nightmarish, shadow-shrouded tableaus daubed in splintery rage stormings. All the splenetic fever and fervor of netherworld testimonies shouted at innocents too long unsuspecting. Stumble, stagger, and chase in hectic, blind lunatic desperation, clawing hands scraping the crumbling brick walls of a claustrophobic subterranean hallway arching dizzyingly down to seething celebration."

Recommended: "Out In the Dark," "The Witch," "Need You Now," "Break," "Watch Out," "Wolfman," "It's Alive," "Lifetime," "Octopi," "Say Goodbye," "Killer"

Video: "Out In the Dark"

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Cleopatra

Raygun Cowboys

Fortune and Glory, Pleasure and Pain

(Stomp Records)

Subtlety doesn't breathe here. The Raygun Cowboys are widely reputed as mongers of blast-level manifestos, and it's natural that their latest effort elevates the dynamism. Vivid colors, head-turning changes, and textures imprinting passages with disposition abound.  Joining headlong guitars with equally uproarious horns produces the intended bacchanaliac cataclysm. Gut-punch revelry best heard at topmost volume.

Recommended: "We Want It All," "Strange Times," "Had To Go," "Fortune, Glory, Pleasure, Pain," "Never Walk Alone," "Haunted Eyes"

Video: "We Want It All"

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Stomp

Sirocco Bros.

Stardust

(Rollin Records)

They draw heavily upon rudimentary, old-style country for their works, but it is as blood descendents and not carpetbaggers. Intonations are drawled in union with wonderfully anachronistic musicalizing. Don't be lulled by the casualness - substance pervades.

Recommended: "Stardust," "Jungle Stomp," "Tiki Head Twist," "Tootin' Blues," "Trail Of Tears," "Whisper From the Grave," "The Spell," "Shinebox," "I Can't Quit You Baby," "Thunderbird," "Haunted Guitar" (This track appears only on the CD version), "Interesting Guitar," "That Rock and Roll"

Video: Samples

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Rollin Records

The Nevrotix

Light and Shade

(Crazy Love Records)

Conventional arrangements are animated with brio. That it is governed makes it all the more productive. Eschewing uproar cultivated in other quarters, the Nevrotix offer rockabilly of agreeable personality and assure themselves of wide welcome. 

Recommended: "Bone Rattle Beat," "Blue Again," "Creature," "She's My Baby," "Out Of Sight," "Aviophobia"

Video: "Aviophobia"

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Crazy Love

 Robert Gordon

All For the Love of Rock 'N' Roll

(Cleopatra) 

Even given that all of the late Robert's albums feature his inimitable baritone in flattering manners, this red vinyl rerelease (of a 1994 CD) stands apart as a showcase for it in diverse musical moods. To be sure, there are the 1950s charms familiar to his loyal audience. But in addition are several grittier numbers recalled from his Tuff Darts days (featuring guitarist Jeff Salen), as well as material of profound import in which the singer's delivery was virtuosic. (Those include his longtime partner, the peerless Chris Spedding.) 

As always, Robert is in command. That is definite each step of the path. His comfort with the disparate modes is palpable. And the iconic singer gives vent to memorable performances. Not without valid cause is he hailed as the gold standard.

That Robert could easily have ventured afield stylistically is certain. He possessed abundant capacity. But he chose to remain faithful to the sound in which he most exulted. That speaks to the man's character. 

Recommended: "Attacked, Seduced, and Abandoned," "You Stepped In It Now," "Prove It," "Goodbye Baby," "Movin' Too Slow," "All For the Love Of Rock 'N' Roll," "Love and Trouble," "Slash," "Middle Of the Night," "Beside You"

Video: "All For the Love Of Rock 'N' Roll"

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Cleopatra

The Rockats

Make That Move remastered

(Available on Bandcamp)

"After all these years I finally realized The Rockats' Make That Move album was never mastered properly, or at least not up to today's standards," erstwhile Rockats guitarist/keyboardist Danny B Harvey recently wrote in a public Facebook post. "On the other hand Mike Thorne’s original production and mixes sound absolutely amazing! So I took it upon myself to remaster the original recordings using modern technology and it sounds incredible !! I also added the 4 songs we did for the film “Where The boys Are '84”. Two of these songs have never been released and two were only available on vinyl for a few months back in 1984. Of course Mikes 12” dance mix of 'Make That Move' is included as well. You're going to love this!"

I do. His remastering further clarifies and enhances luster.

Make That Move (RCA) appeared in stores two years after The Rockats first hit with 1981's Live At the Ritz (Island). Whereas the former had portrayed the band's fervid rockabilly in a boisterous concert context, the new disc found them modernizing their sound; it now incorporated Danny's synthesizer (at times prominently) and embraced colorfully alternative arrangements.

The crisp endeavor was adventurous, but it was also muscular. Guitars and drums joined shoulders in streamlined onrush through novel facets. Dibbs Preston's voice reached fresh heights of eminence as the singer found his footing in the contemporary material.

Not that they'd abandoned rockabilly entirely. Its essence evidenced itself throughout, giving even newly-minted approaches familiar swagger.

The union was quintessential Rockats. They had never confined themselves to any single fashion, and were popular with both rockabillies and punks. Make That Move underscored their hybrid soul. It was a dashing denizen of its era.

Now, it has reinvigorated appeal.

Recommended: "Burning," "One More Heartache," "That's the Way," "Go Cat Wild," "Never So Clever," "Make That Move," "Slow Down," "Be-Bop-a-Lula"

Video: "Never So Clever" (live 1983)

Bandcamp (Danny B Harvey)

Mario Cobo

Chet

(Sleazy Records)

A plethora of notes bursts into vibrant bloom, as Mario conjures dramatic movements. He articulates with deftness strains formidable in their delicacy. An instrumental iteration of Jazz icon Chet Baker's 1954 Chet Sings would be beyond most, but Mario renders it artfully. Truly, we are in the presence of distinction.

Recommended: "I Fall In Love Too Easily," "I Get Along Without You Very Well," "But Not For Me," "Time Afteer Time," "Look For the Silver Lining," "My Funny Valentine," "The Thrill Was Gone," "There Will Never Be Another You"

Video: "I Fall In Love Too Easily"

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Dex Romweber

Good Thing Goin'

(Propeller Sound Recordings)

Dex has lofty ambitions and all are within his grasp. His writing is of monumental stature. We bear witness to the union of hound dog rhythms and high musical art, as beatdown guitar makes unlikely common cause with majestic passages and august symphonic sensibilities. The contrast between angelic background choruses and his own stentorian exclamations is uniquely winning. Dex is today in a class alone.

Recommended: "Good Thing Goin'," "If You Love Me," "Andrieux Boogie," "For All We Know," "Shape Of Things To Come," "Tell Laura," "I Found My Love"

Video: "Good Thing Goin'"

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The Living End

Self-titled

(BMG)

Even on their 1998 debut, it was evident that Australia's Living End were an embodiment of Punk's promised thunder with invigorating freshness. A crisp generation had its own Clash. Ripsaw chords pummelled without pause, just as rhythms hurtled. Creativity crackled in an anthemic barrage. The effect was made still more intensive by musical faculty and streamlined songwriting. Given surgical precision, the force bludgeoned profitably. (And it continues to do so.)

Along with that original disc, this reissue includes a live CD.

Recommended: "Prisoner Of Society," "Growing Up (Falling Down)" "Second Solution," "West End Riot," "Monday," "All Torn Down," "Save the Day," "Trapped," "Have They Forgotten?," "Fly Away," "Closing In"

Video: "Prisoner Of Society" (live 2005)

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Bo Walton & Red Alert

Well, Here's the Deal

(Self-Issued)

Country accenting predominates, as orthodox rockin' in all its jubilant essence unspools. That has an ingratiating effect. All assembled comport themselves with flair, charging compositions with bounce. But of particular note are the swaybacked lead figures; they further animate the already brisk whole. Comes by likeability organically.

Recommended: "Hand, Foot and Finger," "Come On Over Tonight," "Until We Dance Again," "Ain't No One But You," "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)" (feat. Geraint Watkins), "Sunburst Top," "My Sweet Lainey," "I Come a-Runnin'," "Have a Heart"

Video: "Hand, Foot, and Finger"

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Rock the Old Man

Me Myself and I

(Self-Issued)

As important as it is to rock, some forget that it's just as vital to roll. That's not the case, here. From these grooves spring joyous spiritedness. A salutary quality of traditional Rock'n'Roll is that it gladdens the heart; the listener cannot help but be drawn into the rollicking celebration. It's an old maxim, but one that bears recollection: There's nothing wrong with just plain fun. In truth, it might be the most valuable thing.

Recommended: "The Reverend Rock'n'Roll," "Gonna Rock Gonna Roll," "Rock It Tonight," "We Got Somethin'," "Get Back To My Baby"

Video: "The Reverend Rock'n'Roll"

Audio clips / purchase

Hi-Speed Rockets

Turn Back the Time

(Bluelight Records)

It is with the ease of naturals that players here dispatch classically-versed material, reverential of its golden-age, wildcat Rock'n'Roll heritage. Fires combust gloriously, doubtless compelling dancers to swarm hardwood, only to subside in deference to gentility. (One recalls that balladeering makes sporadic appearances in the canon.) Whatever the atmosphere, though, familiar and well-articulated stylings are constants. 

Recommended: "Weeping Heart," "Lonesome Joe From Kokomo," "Rockin' Bones," "Green Emerald Eyes," "I Love You," "Man Of Steel," "Don't Come Back Knockin'," "Dragged Into"

Video: "Weeping Heart"

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Chemical Valley Mutants

Poisoned

(Self-issued)

Michigan is burning. Again.

Back in the day, the state incubated the MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges. It boasted a vital scene composed of young, angry musicians fired by a yearning to voice the angst that churned within. Their works helped recharge a Rock'n'Roll in danger of obsolescence.

Today, the Great Lakes State is stomping ground to virulent Punk upstarts who, like those predeccessors, have come up from the streets with but one desire: to carve their own defiantly individual imprints on the face of popular culture.

The Chemical Valley Mutants are of that DIY scene. Songs collected on their newest disc rage against worldly injustices via fierce assault on polite-society notions of musicality. 

The pacing is alacritous and the effect one of battery. But -- and herein lies the truest value -- tracks are permeated by a sincerity that makes for greater worth than mere chords. Though those buzzsaw chords are flung in neck-wrenching manner.

(And too much cannot be said of the generally brutish onrush. It is a conquering mayonnaise tidal wave that leaves only happy casualties in its wake.) 

The present writer, an Iowan, doesn't know if Michigan's Punk scene hosts many venues or recording opportunities. As has always been the case with Rock'n'Roll instigators, it may be a bootstraps situation. If so, watching it self-actualize will be rewarding.

Whatever the case, Chemical Valley Mutants constitute a  pugnacious part of it. Long may they thrash.

Recommended: "Charles Bronson," "Left Hand Path," "Didn't Feel a Thing," "F.Y.P.," "Vigilante," "Failed To Mention," "Anarchy Equality," "No Brains," "Speedy Q," "Poisoned"

Video: "Port Huron Whore" (live)

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Ghoultown

Best of the Dead West, Volume One

(Monstro Productions)

Few bands have accomplished that which distinguishes Ghoultown: the formulation of a truly singular persona. Who else unites powerful, guitar-fronted blasts with spaghetti western-flourishes and beyond-boot hill sagas (and does it with dash)? Concussive thunderation on this 17-track retrospective never relents, pressing its dominative ways with urgency. All the frenetic while, Count Lyle holds court as only he can -- ominously, and with declarative forcibleness.

Recommended: "Southern Son," "Werewolves On Wheels," "Bullets Don't Argue," "Dead Outlaw," "Against a Crooked Sky," "Mistress Of the Dark," "Bury Them Deep," "Drink With the Living Dead," "Bood, Bullets, and Whiskey," "Evil Eye" (digital single), "Walkin' Through the Desert (With a Crow)," "Under the Phantom Moon," "Devil, Liquor, and Gunsmoke" (new)

Video: "Devil, Liquor, and Gunsmoke"

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Blue Valley Boys

The Curtain Call

(Nasty Music)

Modern science has never produced a more efficacious respite from real-world troubles than good music. And especially palliative is this home-folks roots-music. It puts on no airs, in its uptempo blend of bluegrass, country, and rockabilly. But it's effectiveness lies in its simplicity. Warmth shuffles on this porch.

Recommended: "No Time For Heartaches," "Hey Jim," "Alley Cat," "Where There's a Will (There's a Way)," "Hypnotized," "My Gal Mary Ann," "Livin' For Your Lovin'," "Game of Love," "Rock Crazy Baby"

Video: "Livin' For Your Lovin'"

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The Primitive Finks

Cave Party

(Hi-Tide Recordings)

While most surf combos favor the sun-and-fun angle, and locate much of worth in same, this foursome shovels into a more monstrous plot. Surf's up, six feet under. Think of 1960s drive-in fare like "The Horror of Party Beach" or "Beach Girls and the Monster." On this orange-colored pressing, the Primitive Finks unveil redoubtable deftness both as songsmiths and players. They creep amidst the wiggiest of shadow shrouds.

Recommended: "Cave Party," "Mash Potato Party," "Everybody Limbo!," "Fink a Go Go," "I Got My Eyes On You," "The Thirsty Hearse," "Whirlwind," "Dark and Stormy," "Dawn Patrol"

Video: "Cave Party"

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Hi-Tide Recordings

Messer Chups

In the Horrifying Church of Reverb

(Hi-Tide Recordings)

A decade since its initial issuance, this compendium of surf-splashed instrumentals remains arrestive. From its grooves cascade disparate paces, shadings, and novel passages, all of which transport listeners to environs intriguing. Hi-Tide Recordings wisely intuited that a fresh generation would benefit from exposure.

Recommended: "Cemetery Beach," "Less Playboy, More Cowboy," "Mickey Rat," "Padre Pizzicato," "Black Saddle," "Hula Tikula," "Harlem Nocturne," "Popcorno Revenge"

Video: "Cemetery Beach"

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Hi-Tide Recordings

Coffinshakers

Graves, Release Your Dead

(Svart Records)

Tempos are largely measured and movements forboding, the best to provide sympathetic tableaux for Iggyesque bard of dark narratives Rob Coffinshaker. Alacrity has its place, but that place is not here; all about, lost souls writhe in exquisitely prolonged agony.

Recommended: "Graves, Release Your Dead," "The Siren's Call," "Holes of Oblivion," "The Great Silence," "Down In Flames," "River of Souls"

Video: "Graves, Release Your Dead"

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The Heck

"Detention" b/w "Attention"

(Self-issued)

Benign pop brightness imbues these infectious odes to youthful cares. Wondefully insubstantial, having zero regard for the weighty travails of adulthood, they buoy spirits for transient durations. Impacts are immediate, in the finest tradition of garage rock.

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Hunting Moose's

Facts, Faults & Fools

(Self-issued)

Sometimes lost in fury is that song structures -- verses, choruses, bridges -- remain important, even when one's intention is uproar. To these men's credit actual compositions emerge here, just as detonations send their flame-tongues and sparks flying in all directions. Fury focused is productive.

Recommended: "Next Generation," "Punkrock Show," "LL & LL," "These Are the Days," "Thanks and Apologies," "Empty Hands," "Man I Hate," "Vigilante," "Your Own Worst Enemy," "Gossip Ship"

Video: "Empty Hands"

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The Havoc

Our Rebellion Continues

(Voltage / Dismantled)

The Havoc are formidable enough by themselves, as intelligent as they are forcibly bellicose. But no band is an island. They are also part of a united and globe-spanning Punk street-army that rallies indefatigably against ills. And that they ignite devastation into the bargain only further enriches them.

Recommended: "With a Vengeance," "Our Rebellion Continues," "Infected Society," "Who's To Blame," "Legends Never Die," "2003," "At the Allen," "Unsung Hero's Song"

Video: "Our Rebellion Continues"

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Voltage

Knock Off

Side By Side

(Self-issued)

Like the world-angry '80s punks from whom they absorbed much, Knock Off lace socio-economic criticism through fleet projectiles. Every thrown fist connects. But whereas distemper alone accomplishes nothing, its potential is here enhanced by regard for melody. Singalong voices of defiance.

Recommended: "Take His Eyes," "Tear It Down," "Working Class Boy," "I Don't Fucking Care," "Side By Side," "Back With the Band," "Streets of Gold," "No One Gets Out Alive," "Brave New World," "You Won't Change Us," "Just Fuck Off"

Video: "Back With the Band"

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Walk, Don't Run

Loud Enough

(Self-issued)

So quickly do these tracks rage past, that by the moment you've got hold of one's structure, the subsequent cut blasts off. Such brevity  (plus heaping dollops of aggression) reminds that punk began as a much-needed rebuke of interminable jam-band noodling.

Recommended: "Suspended Thoughts," "Dehumanized," "Refuse," "For the Future"

Video: "Suspended Thoughts"

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Erich Von Erik and the Stranger

Castle Life

(Self-issued)

Minimalist in construction, spare in ambience, yet of strange magnetism. Balanced atop a surfboard, Erich and the Stranger smash through a suburban garage wall with Crampsian banner aloft. This is not for pedestrian audiences, only listeners who crave the quirkily idiosyncratic.

Recommended: "Cracker Factory," "Along With Ghosts," "Squatching," "Off With Their Heads," "Castle Life," "Emergency," "Murder Burgers," "Daddy Was the Zodiac Killer," "Igor's Party," "Security Cameras," "The Random Hums"

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Black Ball Boogie

...Meet Bobby Solo

(Fonoprint Studios)

Tilted-brim cool doesn't need to proclaim itself. Observers dig that it's straight from the fridge. Come now six first-class paragons in the form of smoothly rolling songs suited to the finest and most hip of night spots. All that's missing is a martini - you'll have to mix that yourself.

Recommended: "One-Sided Love Affair," "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry Over You," "Fool Such As I," "Rock Around the Clock," "That's Alright," "Suzie Q"

Video: "One-Sided Love Affair"

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Fonoprint

Spotify

Relax Trio

Payback Time

(Jungle Records)

Everything about this band connects; the brisk material is magnetic, and the playing cohesive. Spiritedness enlivens consistently. Vocalist / contrabass grappler Linda Terånen possesses a dominative presence. She carves her imprint boldly. Will endure in your memory long after concluding notes subside.

Recommended: "So Bad," "You're Not Alone," "Freakshow,"Self-Control Wanted," "Take Take the Money," "Secret"

Video: "Take Take the Money"

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