DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Guitar Slingers

Invasion

(Diablo Records)

Were a roundtable gathering of the world's most fleet string molesters convened, buzz cut bomb shot Doyley might well assume the head chair. Eruptive Psychobilly deviance and science fiction fantasies make Rabelais's "beast with two backs." So gaudy is the spectacle of an amphetemine, late-night Creature Feature on Saturn, as to conjure spirits of wreckers fallen, bashing their elbows into faces of more freshy misbegotten. The meeting will come to disorder.

Recommended: "Invasion," "Atomic Shock," "Let's Go," "Ska Trek Krew," "Alien Hooligans," "Martian Stomp," "Plasma Sting," "Rip Roarin' Rocketship," "Planet of the Drapes," "Earth vs Psycho"

No new videos available, so here's one from 2024: "Twangster"

Zombina and the Skeletones

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, B-sides and rarities 2008 - 2024

(Ectoplastic Records)

Advisory: '80s and '90s synthy endeavorings in the New Wave styling popular in those eras are best put behind later Psycho flamethrowers. The latter are the wonderfully ankle-twisting consequences of Alternative Cryptland cavorters, eccentricism mongers, and a gang of jackhammers hopped up on speed, meeting up in a cauldron (with Whit Bissell and Robert Vaughn), and conspiring to wreck the joint. So frantic are the thunderings, so compelling to utter fracture TheBeatTheBeat that, should walls crack wide and flooring crash in, none but the strictly cubic would notice.

(Though presently on break, Mistress Zombina and her morbid accomplices will play a summer show with the March Violets.)

Recommended: "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein," "Touch Me and Die," "Love Like Blood," "Teenage Caveman vs Gargantua," "Zombie Crush," "Sea of Heartbreak," "Last Chance Dance"

Videos: "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" "Touch Me and Die" "Sea of Heartbreak"

Kieron McDonald

Because of You 45 rpm EP

(Sleazy)

Easy-drawling Kieron is as comfortable bobbing to melodies as a crooner can be. (A manner he doubtless absorbed while a youth, listening to his dad's old Country waxings.) He presents affability with understated, black-and-white, pointed-shoe heptitude that puts wise every jukebox-jonesing he and she on deck. The former mic swinger for Melbourne Rockabillies the Flatfoot Shakers, Kieron gains immeasurably from sharp assist lent by ace players, including highly-reputed guitar dab hand Kid James.

Recommended: "Because of You," "All She Wants to Hear is Dean Martin," "Exotic Woman," "At the Bop Hop"

Videos: "Because of You" "All She Wants to Hear is Dean Martin"

The Gasölines

Helldorado

(Speed Club Records)

A reviewer at Germany's Zepher's Odem wrote: "As the band themselves announced, they hadn't intended to create anything innovative. They simply plugged in, cranked up the amps, and played Rock'n'Roll. Loud, dirty, and exhilarating." Nowhere is it scrawled that music must turn virgin sod in order to merit moon-bathed bacchanalia. New wrinkles can certainly be intriguing. But much can be said for knowing what lies ahead. Health care personnel do not recommend this Norwegian Punk-packed Metal for the timid - one reason is that it may well blow innocent ears to shrapnel. Were the PMRC yet in operation, they'd have contrived a warning label by now. Comes in digital, CD, and variously-hued vinyl formats.

Recommended: "Riding Shotgun," "Dead Man's Hand," "Bucking the Tiger," "Ace in the Hole," "Death Rider," "A-Bomb Pinup," "Speed Trap"

Videos: "Riding Shotgun" "Ace in the Hole" "A-Bomb Pinup" "Speed Trap"

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

The Mean Devils

"Make Up for Lost Time" b/w "Pack 'em up, Stack 'em Up, Rack 'em Up"

(Discos Dinamite)

Now and again, one detects a Mickey and Sylvia "Love is Strange" imprint in "Make Up for Lost Time." Not nearly enough to locate the blissed-out track on copycat real estate, just enough to signal true believer literacy. Flipside "Pack" scorches treads on the Rockabilly lost highway haunted by the Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow. Calendar years are as nothing, 'cause fearsome wildcatism ain't goin' nowhere.

Videos: "Pack 'm Up, Stack 'em Up, Rack 'em Up" "Make Up for Lost Time" Live at Hemsby 2025 (9:08)

Milwaukee Wildmen

Blood Fear and Evil digital ep

(Self-issued)

Vicious liquid foams over the lunar-lit monster chalice's rim, pooling about its base. The three Milwaukee Wildmen thrash in ear-splitting, other-side-of-midnight rampageousness, as they long have to the delight of cursed misfits everywhere. Wreckage surrounds. Cold fingers curl about the goblet. Lips gape.

Recommended: "Don't Get Killed," "Unfriendly Visitor," "In My Blood," "Out on My Own" (1992 alternate version)

Videos: "Don't Get Killed" "Unfriendly Visitor" "In My Blood" Live in Spain, 2025 (20:08)

Hipshot Nic

"Rattle Me" b/w "Did You Throw My Letter Away" 7" vinyl

(Wild Records Europe)

Though by now a cliche, descriptive "flat gone" applies to this Aussie wax as soundly as it once did to genre pathfinders' thick PVC platters. No one's checking characters at the 2026 door, the result being a crazy dance floor teeming with sideburned JDs, Eisenhower-endorsing first-generation tear ups, and mohawked wreckers who've belly-flopped into the Murray's Pomade deep end.

Video: "Rattle Me" (live)

ebay (Bear Family)