DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Marcel Riesco

Wild Kisses

(Sleazy)

Renowned as the Twinkletones' leader, Marcel can rightly be ranked in Rock'n'Roll vocalists' topmost station - alongside Robert Gordon, Dibbs Preston, and Levi Dexter. Others take inspiration from Mr. Presley. But in Marcel's majestic voicings - at times ascending to impossibly high planes - one detects a profound Wink Troubadour imprint. (Indeed, Marcel is also an esteemed Orbison authority.)

A voice of such distinction merits class-A material. And such is present in these grooves. Songs are crafted with executive finesse, their impacts assured by interpretive musicianship of suitably high caliber.

Here unfurl poised and polished sounds that offer finned vogue of the later 1950s, with sincerity of evergreen quality. None rush to announce import; such just indisputably is.

Recommended: "You Gotta Love Me Too," "Wild Kisses," "Pucker Paint," "Daydream," "Waitin'," "Why Can't We Just Make Up?," "She's OK"

Video: "You Gotta Love Me Too" "Wild Kisses" "She's OK"

Early James

Medium Raw

(Easy Eye Sound)

Producer and Easy Eye Records suzerain Dan Auerbach told Tinnitist in January that James recorded his third release in an olden Nashville manse dubbed Honky Chateau. Appointments were of dated quality. Vintage equipment was employed, and players operated from separate rooms (see videos below). That attention to primitivism yielded bounteous reward; ambient spaciousness facilitated starkness that rightly located Blues arrestingness at the center of everything. Battle-ribboned accompanists lodge directness born from real-world scarrings. Lacking their firepower, James wouldn't burst as effectively. And burst, he does - his plaintive, grained voicings and resonator strikes resound movingly. He has the faith.

Recommended: "Steely Knives," "Nothing Surprises Me Anymore," "Tinfoil Hat," "Gravy Train," "Rag Doll," "I Could Just Die Right Now," "Unspeakable Things," "Dig To China," "I Got This Problem"

Videos: "Tinfoil Hat" "Rag Doll" "I Could Just Die Right Now"

The Fat City Rockers

"Destination Love" single

(FCR Music)

Not being a songsmith myself, I can only speculate that composing an uncomplicated tune that eschews profundity, so that carefree and swinging fun can be exclusively served, is among the more trying tasks demanded of pickers who take up pens. Here romps success. Neo-Rockabilly deftly administered travels at a crisp pace, leaving upbeat, twanged kicks-aplenty strewn in its jovial wake.

Video

Monday, May 26, 2025

Insanity Later

"World of Seclusion" single

(Long Nap Records)

Blount's 1996 nitro-amped whiplash is resuscitated with negligible alteration, but spiritedness that sears impressively. One can never get too much alacritous ferocity, in this scribe's estimation. Of course it flies past; the sooner then that it can be replayed.

Video

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Bandcamp

Instagram (Long Nap)

Bandcamp (Long Nap)

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Demented Are Go

Welcome Back to Insanity Hall

(Rebellion Records)

Initially issued in 2012 by People Like You, the eighth full-length from DAG can now be got in smoke-vinyl form, sleeved in gatefold cover.

Behold as bug-eyed and bellowing lost souls forsaken by all that men hold holy lurch to blistering cacophonies. Some songs rocket into uncharted deliriums. Others lope as low-slung, sinister pulsations.

Faces streaked with garish ghastliness and bloody claw-tracings, group members jerk-dance like epileptic puppets in multi-technicolored, bombastic spectacle, vomiting lunatic gallows humor. They remain equally assured whether plundering final resting sanctuaries or wallowing in bawdy degradations.

This must forever remain locked away in criminally Psycho rank. May none of us ever know such abhorrence, save for relishing from safe remove.

Recommended: "Welcome Back to Insanity Hall," "Bodies In the Basement," "Retard Whore," "Engine Trouble," "Falling Up," "Epileptic Fit," "Devil Says Kill," "Gone," "Heads On Poles," "Out In the Dark," "Lucky Charm," "The Life I Live," "Dark Angel"

Videos: "Bodies In the Basement" live 2012 (7:17)

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Rebellion Records

Sonic Rendezvous

Sounds of Subterrania

Juno Records

Amazon

Seth Mulder & Midnight Run

Coming On Strong

(Rebel Records)

Come down where the grass is blue. Ain't it a wonder how plain string-pickin,' fiddle-wrasslin', and clod-kickers' throats raised in song can make he-and-she pairings whirl and heel-kick with the same joyousness their elders exulted in, way back when Hector was a pup. It's enough to rid visiting city-sorts of manicured manners and, loose laughter a-bubble, clap hands in celebration. This is how good-times sound when music opens wide.

Little David would surely be tickled by the brim-tip.

Recommended: "Heartbreak Express," "Bells of Every Chapel," "Coming On Strong," "Looking Past the Pain (The Cowboy Song)," "1916," "Rider on An Orphan Train," "I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me," "Church Hill Special," "Rock of Ages," "Mountain Bill," "Gilgarry's Glen," "Old Rueben No. 1"

Videos: "Church Hill Special" "Old Rueben No. 1"

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Facebook (Seth & Midnight Run)

Facebook (Rebel Records)

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Amazon

Apple

Greg Antista and the Lonely Streets

Bastards & Broken Hearts

(Rum Bar Records)

When I speak of "maturity," it's not meant in a negative sense - not at all. The songcraft here yields the passion aflame in a kid's heart, yeah, but with the enrichment brought by years of accrued experiential wisdom. Punks grow up, even if thrashing and squalling. But that's okay, because guitars retain their brawniness and rhythms their urgency. And cards well played produce strutting of which teens can but dream.

(Not all tracks were available for review at presstime.)

Recommended: "Bastards and Broken Hearts," "Black Stars and Cadillacs," "Damaged Goods," "Last Chance," "Black and Blue," "Run This Town"

Videos: "Black Stars and Cadillacs" "Run This Town"

Facebook (Greg Antista/band)

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