Testors

Prime Primitive 1976 - 1977

(Green Noise Records)

It was Criminal (and I don't mean Syl's band) that Sonny's surly cell was lost in the late-1970s rush, during which labels large and small scrambled to sign anyone growling counter to rock-product orthodoxy. The NYC-prowling Testors' from-the-shoulder wallops peeled paper from walls of CBGB's, Max's, and sundry other loveable pits. Chords left contusions. If they didn't threaten eral top-billed attractions, Testors certainly ran in the same pack. Green Noise has carpentered both silver and black vinyl variations.

Recommended: "Primitive," "You Don't Break My Heart," "Hey You," "Let's Get Zooed Out" (live), "I See," "Don't Tell Me," "Remembrance," "Madra's Prison"

Videos: "Hey You"   "Let's Get Zooed Out"   "I See"   "Remembrance"   

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Hillbilly Rick

"Dancing My Way to Heaven"  "Hillbilly Moonshine"    singles

(Richard B. Meyers / CDX)

Fresh diversions from the prolific stump-hopper who, in 2022, saw over 12,000 Japanese set a Guinness record by dancing en masse to his cover of The Tractors' "Baby Likes to Rock It." "Dancing My Way to Heaven" jumps from tent-bench, whirling in the Spirit and throwing hands and feet in every direction at once. Only the enraptured will fully dig. But glad tidings: an endless supply of applications awaits. Circling jig "Hillbilly Moonshine" exemplifies the simple joys inherent in banjo/fiddle/backwater harmonizing. Gimme a swaller and I'll pay you back someday.

Videos: "Dancing My Way to Heaven"   "Hillbilly Moonshine"

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Colonoscopia con Maquina de Coser

Demo 2025   digital album

(Self-issued)

All participants gnash. In quintessential Punk manner, miniature bombardments hurtle over finish lines nearly before starting flag has dropped. Panama Affair. "Junk music for trashy people," says them.

Recommended: "Mono Con Pistola," "Ke Vida," "Marginal," "Colonoscopia (con Maquina de Coser)"

Videos: "Mono Con Pistola"   "Marginal"   

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Art Gallery

The Opportunist (demo)

(Self-issued)

Fine ambition, these Lancaster fantasts have cross-haired: "To give Goth rock a good kick up the arse.” Toward that end, the three merge that eldritch subgenre with stern dollops of Punk, Metallism, and foot-plantings onto experimental acreage. The imperious, booming pronouncments recall every megalomaniac mad-doctor in every moldering castle in every drive-in scare celluloid grappling teens never saw. (On Bandcamp, Art Gallery claim ignorance as to backing cut "Filth 1's" backstory and even sireship.) Atop all that sits proof Snidely's still afoot. 

Video: "The Opportunist" (live audio)   

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Carolina Chocolate Drops

Genuine Negro Jig

(Nonesuch)

"The mission of the Carolina Chocolate Drops was always to preserve the music of our mentor Joe Thompson and to honor the Black string band traditions that helped create American roots music," multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons wrote recently, on Facebook.

First issued in 2010, Genuine Negro Jig won that year's "Best Traditional Folk album" Grammy. Nonesuch has announced plans to re-release it next January. Clap hands, bend knees, and know that it's good to breathe. Raise dust 'round the porch to these upturned, string-band souls. Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, and Justin Robinson anthemize jump-down, turn-around people -- and that's all of us, this being a chunk of America's heart. Yesterday/today seamlessness locates actualization via banjos, fiddles, leg percussion, and "computer hard drive 'triangle.'" Humanity steps it down.

“There’s magic in the excitement and drama and the wealth of culture that is translated through a live performance,” Flemons told PineStrawMag, last March.. “It’s something beyond just music. It’s a feeling as well and, if you’re deep in the culture, you understand the nuances of that feeling. In the ’50s, they talked about old-time music and analyzed it a certain way. So, when you read books about it, you can understand it to a degree. But once you’re in it, that’s when you can take on a whole other quality.”

Recommended: "Peace Behind the Bridge," "Trouble in Your Mind," "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine," "Cornbread and Butterbeans,"  "Snowden's Jig (Genuine Negro Jig)," "Why Don't You Do Right?," "Cindy Gal," "Sandy Boys," "Reynadine," "Trampled Rose," "

Videos: "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine"   "Cornbread and Butterbeans" (live)   "Snowden's Jig (Genuine Negro Jig" (live)   "Reynadine"

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The Exotic Ones and Cha Cha Heels!

"Cha Cha Heels (for Christmas)" b/w "Female Trouble"   digital tracks

(Self-issued)

These tributes to trash auteur John Waters were likely birthed in some dingy midnight movie house, one wherein congregate trench-coated headcases with googly eyes and rap sheets as long as Dawn Davenport is wanton. The A-side's jangly Pop confection is offset by the flip's enshadowed noirishness. Ornamented trees tumble.

(Trivia collectors note: Director Waters penned Female Trouble's theme lyrics, which were set to Jazzman Cookie Thomas's "Black Velvet Soul.")

Videos: "Cha Cha Heels (for Christmas)"   "Female Trouble"

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The Western Distributors

"Chasing Chickens" "Let the Compass Decide"  digital tracks

(Self-issued)

Stringin' instruments' clod-kickin', of the sort that lit many barndances, shivarees, and town-limits joints in fondly recalled eras. Swing-yer-partner inspiration spry-foots from each plucked passage. Refreshingly plain reels high-step athwart straw-strewn hardwood, raising up a hoo-rah the likes of which city folks can't touch. 

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