Bobby/Billy Smith
Name debate rages, but I'll leave that to collectors of dust-blanketed 45s. (Original 1959 Fox vinyl bears name "Bobby." Factory printing goof? Temporal pseudonym?) Spare, twanged, Country bloodline unashamedly evident. In line of obscure-but-jumpin' gems put down in wake of revolutionary EAP and the Blue Moon Boys.
Video: "Bevy Mae"
Hayley and the Crushers
It may well be that the "headcase" spangled Hayley castigates in explosive tones is kin to Heidi of Ramones infamy. (Though lyric "With the white lines all over your jewel case" suggests that illicit medication factors in prominently.) Headbanging animation bursts up and out, like party-fun confetti with incisors.
Video: "Jewel Case"
Hayley and the Crushers
Unsubscribe from the Underground EP
(Kitten Robot)
The moment is pregnant with prospects. The cotton candy-tressed purrer* and her cohorts-in-kicks are poised to etch treads on the tour highway. Audiences are in for stormy spectacle. Erupting omnidirectionally (and sending bricks into orbit) is alternative Pop that leaves one dangling on its hooks, its supporting, Punk-jawed structure as subtle as a flying mallet. A 1970s D. Edmunds chestnut romps jauntily. (And tucked in amid mad frolic is a stepped-down, couples-only ballad; you can all but see the ceiling's mirrored ball.) Fold in the fact that a crisp full-length platter in presently being plotted, and you'll suss out why coming days wink with promise.
* Have a care; this kitten has claws.
Recommended: "Unsubscribe," "Blood and Treasure," "Let Go," "Queen of Hearts"
Videos: "Unsubscribe" "Blood and Treasure" "Queen of Hearts"
Koffin Kats
s/t reissue
(Ring of Fire / Koffin Kats Records)
Might there yet breathe persons ignorant of the Kats' habitation on Psychobilly's storm-ravaged, topmost plateau? It is a land where mis-spirited and noisome blasties roam, snorting disdain at normalcy's staidness. Koffin Kats' free-for-all spectacles - be they grooved or atop performative floorboards - are ones from which recovery is both unobtainable and undesired.
Their 2006 debut waxing has been re-released in two versions. One was issued by the feral ones, themselves. Ring of Fire dispensed a European limited edition. 500 copies of Ring's were cobbled, with random vinyl colorations and a four-color insert cast into the bargain.
Recommended: "Graveyard Tree," "Red Alert," "V8 Nightmare," "Koffin Kat Rock," "Sleep"
Videos: "Graveyard Tree" (live 2013) "V8 Nightmare" (live 2012) "Sleep" (live 2006)
