Quakes
Voice of America Red or blue vinyl reissue
(Orrexx)
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Included are lyrics, liner notes, and a 4x6 postcard. 500 copies now accessible - 250 red, 250 blue.
Recommended: "Puttin' Out the Flame," "One of a Kind," "Nuthin' Goin' Down," "Chick Hunt," "Stick to Your Guns," "All Messed Up," "Far Away," "Ice-Cold Baby," "Growin' Up Evil," "Strike-Out King"
Videos: Secret VOA warm-up show (June 2025) "All Messed Up" "Ice-Cold Baby" "Stick to Your Guns"
eBay (purchase page)
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Kenyon Lockry
Laughrey
(Self-issued)
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You've located treasure. Being in the mold of marquee Country luminaries, Kenyon presents listeners with a gladsome opportunity to whoop rejoicefully while wild-side ramblers kick like all-get-out ("Hold On," "Already Red," and "I Understand" snorting in that number). The man's possessed of a voice, a spirit, more real than any red-carpet autotuner tarted-up in funny fashion. Though major labels busy themselves contriving curiosities, the good stuff still can be found - right here.
Recommended: "Hold On," "Lawn Boy," "Please Leave," "Wrong Way," "Already Red," "Lonely, Crazy," "I Understand," "Nerve Rackin'," "Broken Heart," "Sugar Dress," "Everything," "Country Music Star," "No Reality to Arrange," "Bad Bye"
Videos: "Hold On" "Already Red" "I Understand"
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The Brains
One More Time single
(Cleopatra)
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Not unlike Chinese Water Torture of which we're gleeful victims, singles from forthcoming full-length Crazy Monster are being issued teasingly. Came first "Evil," a relentless promulgation of wickedness pledged amid spider-webbed dankness. Following in similarly nitro-jacked splendor was "Feel No Pain."
On newest single "One More Time," the splinters-flying Psycho for which Montreal's Brains are infamous remains no less fearsome than when the three stalked studio circumstance for those ghastly antecedents; the Category 5 bluster wreaks wreckhouse devastation. They've leapt from the "Evil" dungeon and now prowl evening city streets, hungering for rat-arsed hijinks.
Videos: "One More Time" Crazy Monster teaser.jpg)
Roy Buchanan
Deluxe Edition digital album
(Alligator)
Scant fretboardists ascend to the heights conquered by Roy. Unlike friendly competitor and fellow cognescenti Danny Gatton -in whose dazzing oeuvre Rockabilly and Country negotiations romped free of tether - Roy's chosen hearth was the Blues. The tone he calculated was impeccable - half celestial harp and half earthy, wee-hours proclaimer. He was able to reach way down and communicate the aches and exultations of every man's soul.
In passages unhurried and lusty, Roy touched off stinging note-flurries none but overlords can produce. Many Buchanan LPs convey his gifts; this is emphatically among them.
A November 1980 newspaper account reported: "Roy Buchanan, in New York to record his new album, My Babe, met a mugger on his way back to his hotel room early in the morning. Apparently, the mugger didn't know that they don't call a guitar 'an ax' for nothing. He found out, however, after jumping Buchanan and being wacked a few times with the $5000 instrument. 'I've always known that the guitar can be used as a weapon,' Buchanan said. 'When that guy found out I wasn't afraid to use it as one, he split pretty fast. That old wood is pretty hard."
Recommended: "That Did It," "Chicago Smokeshop," "Blues for Jimmy Nolen," "Matthew," "Flash Chordin'," "Whiplash," "When a Guitar Plays the Blues," "Hawaiian Punch," "The Last Word"
Videos: "Chicago Smokeshop" "Matthew" "Flash Chordin'" "When a Guitar Plays the Blues" (live)
Facebook (Fan club)
Gorgonis
Choice Paralysis digital and hot-pink cassette
(Fuzzed-Up and Astromoon Records)
Being intrepid, you've elected to venture athwart environs uncommon. A more fittingly variegated vehicle could not be located on the lot. All is motion. Tit-bits fly in all directions, scattered by gusts of creativity. That intellect grasps the whip is clear, even amidst swerving panoramas. Composer/guitarist Aaron Jay Myers assembled players of the first order to breathe animation into his productions electric.
Recommended: "Want, Need," "Choice Paralysis," "Doctor Robotnik," "Some Shit, You Just Can't Punch," "Coffee-A-Go-Go," "Arachnid"
Videos: "Want, Need" "Choice Paralysis"
Site (Aaron)
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King Drapes
You Got It 3 tracks
(Musakonttori)
Since these cuts were put to tape in February, 2024, new drummer Markku Mäikkä Tuomi doesn't appear. But considering that he received the approval of stalwart personnel Sami Savolainen (guitar/vocals) and Jani Kallila (slap bass), one can be assured of his prowess.
It's heartening that the Neo-Rockabilly Big Beat they've traditionally dispatched remains their specialty. No high-gear flamboyance will be located; instead, judicious restraint ensures points be etched emphatically. 2024's Hot Rock Teds smoked down the line and this crisp platter is no less bound to gratify discerning chain-swingers, so laden is it with twanged uppercuts and knucle-crack pulsations.
Recommended: "Good Ol' Gal," "You Got It," "Raggariveljet"
Videos: "Good Ol' Gal" "Raggariveljet"
Deadfallen
s/t EP
(Elliot Abbott)
Sophistication is afoot, but it's not of uppity bearing. Rather, it's the sort in which knowing artistry communicates its fancies with assurance born from just plain purposefulness. Dramatic moments push out artfully. Variety looms in guitar-charged eruptions. Vocals threaten. Book passage on this adventurous journey straightaway.
Recommended: "How the West Was Lost," "Deadfallen," "Nightshade," "Cold & Black," "Gone"
Videos: "Deadfallen" "Nightshade" "Cold & Black"
Back in the Day, 2016
Benny & the Flybyniters
The Many Sides of...
(Rhythm Bomb Records)
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Come in from the alley to the dancehall. He and she couplings dressed to kill are whirling with cool aplomb. The combo arrayed onstage are aces, all, pumping out raw R&B in the manner of storied icons. Edges are appropriately unsanded, for this is honking, strutting human music that has soundtracked innumerable noctunal interactions, and it should be this real.
Here compiled are swing-out blasts from earlier issuances; if they are not already in your stack, lunge for this.
Recommended: "Straighten Up Mama," "Two-Dollar Woman," "The Way You Do," "Jet-Propelled Daddy," "Benny's Bounce," "Party Like Never Before," "She Knocks Me Out," "Huckle Boogie," "Hey Now," "Tell Me Pretty Baby," "Hammerhead," "Loosen Up"
Videos: "Two-Dollar Woman" "Benny's Bounce" "Party Like Never Before"
Drunken Prayer
Thy Burdens
(Dial Back Sound / Well-Kept Secret)
The enriching product of Appalachian-dwelling Morgan Geer's bended-knee, musical heritage and fertile imagination. The man's past, per legend, includes regaling bikers with hymns learned from a great-grandmother. Guided here by Drive-By Trucker Matt Patton and accompanied by unassumingly adroit companions to actualize his marvelous (and broadly accessible) musings, Morgan draws from rural wellsprings. His grained throat bespeaks worldly seasoning as it rises to proclaim Divine adoration and hopes for transcendence.
Recommended: "Selfishness of Man," "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," "When They Ring Them Golden Bells," "Rock of Ages," "Bedside of a Neighbor," "Tramp on the Street," "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," "Soldier of the Cross," "Long Ago, Far Away," "Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine"
Videos: "When They Ring Them Golden Bells" "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" "Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine"
John Lindberg Trio
Best Friend's Girlfriend
(Cosmos)
No hardwood-gliding Big Beat rascal worth his Ricky jacket will judge this at all resistable. John and crack compatriots know well how best to free Rockabilly from leash and press it to extreme raucouness - though they ensure melodic undergirding is an influential constant. Pop the top, and watch the night go frantic.
Recommended: "Best Friend's Girlfriend," "(There's) No Getting Over Me ," "Cry Cry Cry," "Rock'n'Roll Girl," "Stand By Me"
Video: "Best Friend's Girlfriend" "Cry Cry Cry"
Bloodshot Bill
So Fed Up!
(Goner)
One-wildcat-band Bill illustrates that hep hicks from back-country juke joints can tip jugs with their calloused left hands, flay every tune tool with their rights, and make hillbillies bop like fevered bone machines. Technical trickery can stay the hell away, 'cause inimitable Human Being stylings are in hot-blooded progress.
Recommended: "Talk To You," "Kissin' Underwater," "Rule Book," "Say What You Want To Say," "It Happens," "Emilina," "Please Don't Break My Heart," "The Very Thought of You," "What She Said"
Videos: "Talk to You" "Emilina"
Back in the Day, 1964
Scotty Moore
The Guitar That Changed the World vinyl
(Sony Epic)
Of course, truck-driving kid Elvis loomed highest on the earlier Sun was incarnations of these earthquake, but the late Scotty and his polished, back-country master picking also claimed abundant regard; indeed, so much so that the inspirational flames he ignited then will surely blaze into perpetuity. As the legendary string-maestro enjoys instrumental latitude in these reinterpretations, his soloing is of greater body, its poised pronouncements make idiosyncratic impacts, and consistently adventurous articulations - ones echoing hillbilly persuasions and youthful exuberance - knock cats seasoned and crisp off their feet.
The cover asserts lofty credit: "And at [Elvis's] right hand from the beginning - from ragged rehearsals in a boardinghouse room and first record sessions to barnstorming the flatbed truck circuit, from flat-broke to that historic first appearance with Tommy Dorsey, from roadhouse to the glittering spotlight in Las Vegas, from hillbilly honky-tonk to Hollywood - Scotty was there."
In later years, this 1964 LP was rereleased in CD format.
Recommended: "Hound Dog," "Loving You," "Money Honey," "My Baby Left Me," "Heartbreak Hotel," "Don't Be Cruel," "Love Me Tender," "Mean Woman Blues"
Videos: "Money Honey" "My Baby Left Me" "Heartbreak Hotel" "Mean Woman Blues"
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The Original Alice Cooper Group
"Black Mamba" "Wild Ones" singles
(earMUSIC)
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These singles were excerpted from forthcoming full-length "The Revenge of Alice Cooper." A team of greater thunderclap dynamism than bassist Dennis Dunaway, guitarist Michael Bruce, and drum master Neal Smith could not be solicited. The three would be justified in smirking down at adversaries. Alice's snarl is no less stentorian than when they and late lead guitarist Glen Buxton loomed on Don Kirshner's 1972 In Concert venue.
("What Happened to You?," another cut on the upcoming long-player, features Buxton via a previously unissued recording.)
Producer Bob Ezrin, long a collaborator, ensured the tempestuousness common to the band batters boldly. Through vivid and lofty musical architecture, the Alice Cooper Group was - and clearly remains - among the crop's cream.
Video: "Black Mamba"
Video: "Wild Ones"
The Brains
"Feel No Pain" single
(Cleopatra)
"An undead nation with my favorite ghouls, this song was a blast to write!!," enthused front man Rene De La Muerte, per a Cleopatra blurb. "Getting back to old school Brains songs...I feel no pain!"
Scowling mates Gui Kitty and Colin the Dead abet Rene in realizing to a fearsome metric the rampage he'd dared to conceptualize when putting pen to paper. Wreckers will collide in delirium when this shard from imminent exhaustive disc Crazy Monster carves jaggedly into surrounding ether.
Reilly
What Else Ya Got? CD / digital
(Self-issued)
Laboratory slide-rule sharpies hypothesize that crafting sublime Rock'n'Roll both stalwart and mindful of its Poppish responsibilities is a matter of scientific calculation. This release illustrates their veracity. String-bending auteur Richard Reilly (erstwhile 1970s NYC Victim, a band whose whose Punk members included future Rockat Barry Ryan) has honed economical, trippingly fluid compositions that entrance with lissome lilts. Mannerly beat interpretation is of victory circle caliber. Visible here are twelve specimens of sideways-grin elegance that bound on limber legs.
Recommended: "The Cure," "What Else Ya Got?," "Linda Lee," "Girl on the Radio," "I Still Want You," "Memphis DQ," "So Mixed Up," "Boomerang," "Nothing of My Own," "You Won't Be Around," "Voice in My Heart," "Talk Too Much"
Videos: "What Else Ya Got?" "You Won't Be Around" "Voice in My Heart"
Amazon (IN)
51 Boneyard
6 Songs EP
(Self-issued)
The absence of frills communicates the stark validity of undiplomatic Punk. Fury bursts most alarmingly when surrounded by miles of empty airspace; chords, voices, and percussive wallops thunder violently. The agile aggression of all culpable renders this as glaring as ramming some yobbo's braincase through plate glass.
Recommended: "Golfcart Bobby," "Summertime Brain Surgeon," "Late For the Party," "Breakaway," "Behind the Black Curtain," "21st Century Vampire"
Video: "Golfcart Bobby" "Summertime Brain Surgeon"
Amazon (UK)
Cliff Richard & the Drifters
Essential Classics Vol. 823
(Essential Classics)
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In 2020, Cliff told Callum Crumlish, of England's Express: "God bless him, but John Lennon said: ‘Before Cliff Richard and Move It there was nothing worth listening to in England.’”
As represented on these two compact discs, crooner Cliff was more than as good as the task he'd selected: lending British bouyancy and his own rave-up flourish to American Rock'n'Roll hits by Elvis, Gene, Little Richard, and similarly rough-hewn luminaries. Add to those songs' number originals (like Ian Samwell's Move It) that possessed their own jump'n'jive hearts. Cliff's marquee features ensured sales figures would know no hindrance. And the deal was sealed by his spring-heeled stage manner and hiccuped dynamism. Too, Donna and Living Doll showed he knew how to render a gossamer melody with due gentility, a gift that proffered particular attraction.
Cliff is rightly regarded as in England's bygone vanguard of teen idols. Lennon was bang on.
(Listen to No Turning Back's narrative to know what surely inspired Jumpin' Jack Flash.)
Recommended, Disc One: "Move It," "Donna," "Reddy Teddy," "Be-Bop-A-Lula," "Apron Strings," "Baby I Don't Care," "Danny (Lonesome Blue Boy)"
Recommended, Disc Two: "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," "Down the Line," "I Got a Feeling," "Jet Black," "Don't Bug Me Baby," "Living Doll," "No Turning Back"
Videos: "Move It" "Living Doll" "No Turning Back"
Back In the Day, 2014
TV Tramps
Rip It Up!
(Little Dickman Records)
Among salient aspects (of which there are several - vivacity, brevity, and economy also being present) that this writer finds magnetic here is the gladsome absence of protracted commencements. Get in/make your point/get out is the superior teaching the Ramones schooled. The torn messengers here casting furiously veering chords waste zero moments on introductions, instead launching themselves (and us) on abrupt sound-sprees that end gloriously. All emergency rooms should pipe this for the tittilation of crimson-spraying basket cases.
Recommended: "Vampires," "Baby Girl," "Keep Your Mouth Shut," "No Ransom," "Rip You Up," "The Stuff," "Party Animal," "Whiplash"
Videos: "Vampires" (live) "Keep Your Mouth Shut" (live)
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Back In the Day, 1985
Breathless
Bad Bad Boys
(Big Beat)
Of course there's electricity in the moonlight. Of course you're in cool danger. This is Teds Alley, and the boys are havin' a night. You'll find the bop snaps tight here. The beat springs to the ready like a flick knife. No one prowling 'round here has patience for squares' tightly wound strictures. Guitar pounces, upright figures stalk, and collar-up sneers proclaim with violent cheek. 1-2-3-4.
Recommended: "Bad Bad Boy," "Waiting At the Station," "She Wasn't Listening," "Letting Off Steam," "She's Bad Company," "Do What You Want To Do," "Burning Up," "Cooking and Washing," "Jenny"
Video: "Bad Bad Boy" "Letting Off Steam"
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Back In the Day, 2002
Backdoor Betty
Demo 2002
(Self-issued)
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Crafty production reminds of Motörhead sentiment "Everything louder than Everyone Else." Slabs of Punk sinew were heaved here at perilous velocities; shrewd studio-knob manipulation (at Iowa City, Iowa's MAX studio) ensured each perpetrator could be heard to persuasive extreme.
Backdoor Betty's agitators are ravaging audiences to this day. Given that, it is hardly unthinkable that future releases might transpire.
Recommended: "Daddy Gave Me An F," "D.T.S.," "Alcoholic Hobo," "I Want You," "Stabbing Song"
(No video accessible)
Dead Jack and his Dry Bones
Dead Jack in the Box digital album
(Self-issued)
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Previously, I interpreted "toy music" as an epithet; I'm now reassessing that judgement. All by his lonesome, Dead Jack (Bone Machine's Jack Cortese) wields a galaxy of gadgety gizmos - including toy snare, toy maracas, sheet metal, and toy wooden xylophone - in addition to more orthodox sound implements like guitar and banjo. His Bandcamp page advises recording was perpetrated "with a cheap Chinese smartphone without using microphones." The resultant Lo-fi carnival-mirror melange of twisted silhouettes at once turns one's conception of music feet-over-head whilst flinging to one side the curtain dividing normalcy from its freakish opposite. A buffet for trashmen, eggheads, and misshapen grotesqueries all.
Recommended: "Dead Jack is Back from the Grave," "Scary Night," "Dead Jack in the Box," "Dead Blues," "A Bottle Full of Broken Dreams," "Down in My Hell," "Bad Jack," "Dead Jazz," "I'm the Masked Man in Your Porn Movie," "The King of Twist (Ultra Lo-fi version)"
(No video accessible at presstime)
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Angela Hoodoo
Outlaw Girls
(Sleazy Records)
Realizing that she had estimable gifts indigenous to barn land, Angela gathered players of equal disposition. Together, they carpentered a work of nothin'-hifalutin' splendor. There's enough Real Country underway here to knock flat every Pop-Country popinjay that ever primped his blow-dried locks.
Recommended: "I've Got Soul for My Enemies," "Snakes in My Head," "Fugitivo," "Don't Get Into Trouble," "Wild Horse"
Video: "I've Got Soul for My Enemies" / "Don't Get Into Trouble" (live) "Snakes in My Head" (live) "Fugitivo" (live)
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Brioles
Voodoo Eyes 12" vinyl
(El Toro)
All the robust locomotion one would envision from veterans of stout capacity. The Rockabilly leaping from this wax learned well the teachings of modernity. While it retains classical outline - offering familiar and much-prized strut - it also features chain-swinging grit of crisper vintage. Three cats put shoulders to the task and raise a ruckus cracking.
Recommended: "Fly Face," "My Toys," "No Descansan En Paz." "Arriba," "Voodoo Eyes," "Downstairs," "Flyin' Tortillas"
Video: "Fly Face" "Voodoo Eyes"
The Spacewasters
The 7-Legged Groove Machine
(Trash Wax)
For some 25 years, these boulevard guerillas have been bashing in craniums, and they've picked up considerable instrumental know-how in the process. In no way does that detract from bombardments; in fact, such assume greater demolishment capacity for the skillfulness. Still additional merit owes to songcraft smarts.
Limited blue-vinyl edition of 300 copies.
Recommended: "Born to Die Old," "Roll Over," "Shadow Man," "Bad Bet," "Bone Music," "See Me Cry," "Twisted Nerve," "Dead Ringer"
Videos: "Bone Music" "Twisted Nerve"
