Jane Rose & the Deadends

Didn't Know the Devil

(Self-issued)

It's predictable: When Jane hauls off and lets fly a booming shout and her kick-ass allies give it all they've got, walls will quake and shingles will scatter. Heightening the group's appeal is an ability to take it down just a bit to render smoldering hypnosis. Don't mess with this if you can't handle the good stuff.

Recommended: "Lies," "Didn't Know the Devil," "Tuff Teddy Boy," "Jivin' Jim," "Gimme That Sugar," "Petty Betty," "Red Hot Mama," "Spaghetti Jane"

Videos: "Lies"   "Jivin' Jim" (live, Viva Las Vegas 28)   "Red Hot Mama"

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Back in the day, 1959

Lloyd Price

The Exciting...

(ABC - Paramount)

From his 1940s church-choir brethren, to Ed Sullivan's 1960s TV audience, to 2014 Viva Las Vegas rockers, all who were fortunate enough to hear Lloyd knew he was of a voice golden. His debut LP showcased the man to be no less adept at "Stagger Lee" stomp as "What You Do To My Heart" aching romanticism. Difficult to grasp as it surely is for those aware of Lloyd's mastery, there are some today to whom his name rings strange. Their woe.

Recommended: "Stagger Lee," "I Wish Your Picture Was You," "Talking About Love," "What Do You Do To My Heart," "Mailman Blues," "Where Were You (on Our Wedding Day?), "Just Because"

Videos: "Stagger Lee" (live at Viva Las Vegas 14),  "I Wish Your Picture Was You"    "Mailman Blues"    "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (live w/Little Richard on TV, 1994)

Jazz Messengers

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Back in the Day, 2001

Andy G. and the Roller Kings

That Kings County Sound   EP

(Sympathy For the Record Industry)

Brazenness bursts omnidirectionally, its cranked-to-the-extreme volume and headfirst dash appropriate to the splash of Rock'n'Roll orthodoxy that sparkles its vibrancy at the core of every kicking party. Big grins decorate mugs and shoe-leather scuffs at delightful speeds as sax and guitars raise up good ruckuses. The beat cannot be resisted. Rocking Pop gestures recalling transister radios and sidewalk surfing swing and bop with the welcome familiarity of old friends. Kids are even dancing on the roof.

Recommended: "My GTO," "Stay Awhile," "Summertime Girls," "Dance Last Night," "Feelin' So Good"

Videos: "My GTO"   "Summertime Girls"   "Dance Last Night"

I-94 Recordings

Vinyl Bay 777

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Back in the Day, 1985

X Invaders

"Storm Boys" b/w "Lover Boy"   single

(Pinner)

Early 1980s English juggernauts X Invaders did release full-length platter X Sessions, but it was not available for present review. This 45, though, proved sufficient for transporting this writer backward to a time and place in which neo-Rockabilly shouted with gleeful freshness and absolutely no regard for status quo strictures. The crisp style's creators sported natty glad rags and took razors to their heads. And X Invaders' amphetemine reading of classic moves spurred to feral footwork cooler members of their generation. Rock'n'Roll will always be.

Videos: promo   "Storm Boys"   "Lover Boy"    "Out of Line" (unreleased track)   "

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Handsome Dick Manitoba

Back On Broadway   7" vinyl EP 

(Heavy Medication / Ghost Highway / Take the City)

It's clobberin' time.

Since 1975's The Dictators Go Girl Crazy (Epic) first perched on shop shelves, Handsome Dick has been the prototypical Punk band's global visage. Given those decades of branding, surviving members' current attempted relaunch without their storied frontman is as futile as would be a 'new' Stones without Sir Mick.

His 2019 solo debut, Born In the Bronx (Liberation Hall), heralded the larger-than-life, one-man power crisis's return in limber fettle. As affably bombastic as ever, he tossed off brash attitude with pipes undiminished by seasons; it was as if the seventies' wise-cracking Two Tub Man was again charging from a turnbuckle. Dynamic, metallic robustness raged at each turn. It was a colorful opus whose alternating textures and ambitions satiated.

As Back on Broadway attests, he is unmolested still by the calendar. Brusque and blasting. The wall-bouncing life of the party assembled an urban squad of formidable torpedoes. Frank Meyer (Streetwalkin' Cheetahs), Scotty Slam (Circus of Power), Michael Butler (Jetboy), and Craig Berhost (Two-Bit Thief) forge and maintain a hard-line propulsive force no counter could best. Chords crush, changes unspool with lightning-flash drama.

Notable, too, is his clever way with a lyrical pen. The sunglassed brawler can contrive swaggering japes with the finest on offer. Self-penned studio cuts "Back on Broadway" and "DeLuise Nation" split waxen turf with Dictators tune "Savage Beat" and "The Party Starts Now," a free-for-all from the Manitoba's Wild Kingdom era.

Handsome Dick's trophy-belt possession remains undisputed. 

Recommended: "Back On Broadway," "The Party Starts Now" (live), "DeLuise Nation," "Savage Beat" (live)

Video: "DeLuise Nation" (live at Bowery Electric, 2021, w/saxophonist Arno Hecht. Song starts at 1:50)

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Heavy Medication

Ghost Highway

Take the City Records

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Kid James

"Bewildered"   single

(Wild Records)

As he recently evidenced at Viva Las Vegas, Kid James embodies all the flames and crazily hopping dervishness with which classical Rockabilly punched its way through 1950s' staid popular music ethos. "Bewildered" is a sterling stage for him to mount his talents. Throwing out lyrics in growls, jackhammer exclamations, and histrionic whoops, he attacks electrified strings in paroxysmal abandon that befits the flat-gone bop agitator he devastatingly is.

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Zabilly

"Mobilete"   single

(Self-issued)

Issued in the afterdraft of Psycho killers like "Seca Sovaco" and "Acenei e Sorri," Zabilly's crispest barrels with soundly slapped double-bass in its proper upfront location. Of course, it's hardly alone: serpentine guitar strikes, skins battered insistently, and sneers en español proclaim their coarse virtues in 3:27 of ruggedness replete with gang shouts.

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