DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Astracán

"Siempre Sale el Sol" b/w "El Futuro"

(Beatclap)

Sure, Milton wrote of Astrakhan. But he neglected to mention slouches, sneers, and buzz-blade barre chords. Charging from speakers is feral evidence of the Forest Hills Carbona-huffers' eternal imprint - the headiness of kicks-amped young guerillas fronted by a nasal wise-ass who rails against maturation.

This approaching August 12, a total solar eclipse is predicted to sweep Astracán's homeland of Spain. Like they care.

(Full-length Lethal Puberty is scheduled for next month, Friday the 13th issuance.)

Videos: "Siempre Sale el Sol" "El Futuro"

The Vossa Rebels

Live at Rockefeller

(Kvarts)

Each June, Voss, Norway hosts the Ekstremsportveko extreme-sports fest. Local-boys-made-gone Vossa Rebels qualify as "extreme Rockabilly." The trio write like masters, play like demons, and are so of the wildcat sound you'd suppose it supercharges their surging crimson. And by the time they've covered globally mourned, tattooed rocker Nick Curran, you've already given up the geetus.

Recommended: "A Little Confused," "Psycho," "As Good as It Gets," "Strapless Dress," "California Sun," "Like a Rocket"

Videos: "A Little Confused" "Strapless Dress" "Like a Rocket"

The Jackals

Feeling Greasy 4-track EP

(Vinyl Fetish)

As I put pen to paper, 300 copies from the initial 500 pressed in 2025 have left shelves. 1980s Portland aggressionists The Jackals cut these tracks in '84 and '87. Vintage juke boogie from the '57 Bel Air class is resurrected, mixed liberally with bellicose fret-swipes and brazenness owing to twentysomething breakneckery Bacchus would've drunk to.

Reports tell of members being active in 2026, sometimes performing as Los Hackals.

Recommended: "Feeling Greasy," "Someone's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In" (live)

Videos: "Feeling Greasy" "Someone's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In"

Back in the Day, 2001

Al Dexter

Pistol Packin' Mama

(Roots of Country)

Voices credit Texan Al not only with crafting imperial '30s/'40s/'50s Western Swing, but for perhaps being the first to employ term "Honky Tonk" in song. So don't be put off by the cheapjack cover art; though this important music may not have gotten top-drawer handiwork it deserved, reward ambles into view when stylus touches down.

Al penned 1943's jocular "Pistol Packin' Mama." From it, he accrued an abundance of cheddar, and it became his best-known contribution to American Music. (The pleasant ditty inspired a host of covers, as well as a Republic comedy of like vintage.) But it was far from Al's sole worthy. Also populating this wax are several numbers (like "Poor Little Honky Tonk Girl," "Down at the Roadside Inn," "Honky Tonk Chinese Dime," and "Fisherman's Boogie") that merit similar evergreen situation.

Assembled players the Troopers proved themselves clod-kickin' crackerjacks. Often, violin-and trumpet-bounce sprang winkingly, with guitars (both electric and steel varieties) holding forth in affable tones.

As can be anticipated, given this compendium's spanning decades, stylistic evolution is apparent. Early tracks tend toward spareness and loveable crudity, whereas later ones enjoy fuller instrumentation and more production attentions.

(My one quibble concerns the mysterious exclusion of early 1946 instrumental "Guitar Polka." It settled into charts' #1 slot for a reoported 16 weeks, and boasts more big-grin animation than a barrel of digital music plugins.)

Recommended: "Poor Little Honky Tonk Girl," "I Learned About Love from You," "Down at the Roadside Inn," "There'll Come a Time," "Why Did It Have To Be," "Honky Tonk Chinese Dime," "Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry," "A Good Man is Hard to Find," "Pistol Packin' Mama," "Honey Do You Think It's Wrong," "Fisherman's Boogie," "New Broom Boogie," "Hi De Ho Boogie"

Videos: "Poor Little Honky Tonk Girl" "Down at the Roadside Inn" "Pistol Packin' Mama" "Honky Tonk Chinese Dime" "Fisherman's Boogie"

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Vernon Reid

Hoodoo Telemetry

(Artone / The Players Club)

As was vividly paraded by Vernon's contributions to Living Colour - impossibly alacritous fretboard fingerings that fused notes into kalaidescopic configurations and left jaws hanging - within the man pulsed vision and prowess beyond that of rank and file axemen. But "the past is prologue," as Willy Shakes quilled. Hoodoo Telemetry portrays Vernon's phenomenal bent in far advanced stage, finding breath-stopping animation in unmapped Jazz, Rock, and Funk mileaus. (Edgar Winter's "Dying to Live" and Cream's "Politician" are reanimated with due regard.) Occasional vocals by Vernon and guests are well-turned and wreath movements with body-and-soul essence. A host of hues, textures, tempos, and startling declarations cascade down and around. One is 18 kinds of happy about getting drenched.

(A personal favorite of this author's is the jagged smokestack lightning Reid added to the Ramones' "Cabbies on Crack," from 1992's Mondo Bizarro.)

Recommended: "Freedom Jazz Masque," "The Haunting," "Bronx Paradox," "Or Knot," "Dying to Live" (feat. vocalist Miche Fambro), "Politician" (feat. vocalist Bruce Mack), "Black Fathom Five," "Meditation on the Last Times I Saw Arthur Rhames," "In Effigy" (vocals by Vernon)

Videos: "Freedom Jaz Dance" "Politician" "Meditation on the Last Times I Saw Arthur Rhames"

Collectors' Choice Music

Discogs

Amazon

The Vampires of Kopenhagen

"Vampire World Domination" digital single

(Gothic Underground Records)

It's with ebony finality that this Goth/Psycho horror tale unfurls, its triumphance stately and bordering on maliciously majestic. Cloak swept to one side, it arches in Stoker-apocalypse fashion. The narrator, pasty-featured and trilling vixen at his elbow, issues morbid pronouncements in tones that signal Earth's conclusion is set in marble. Exactly how "daylight misbehaves" isn't explained, but it's doubtful any mortal would wonder, when all around crumbles and wickedness assumes the universal throne. As Criswell once intoned: "Future events such as this will affect you, in the future!"

Video

Half Dizzy

Yard Sale

(Punkerton Records)

All tunes were crafted, either entirely or partially, by Daniel Marchelewski; he honestly reports human circumstances and has the gut-fistedness to wield his guitar like the battle-axe all surly Punks know it was meant to be. The live-wire rowdies with whom he's thankfully fallen in careen through escapades, not unlike back-alley torpedoes on a thrill-ride straight to some sideshow-mirror 80s Skatepunk target. Splitting voice tasks with Daniel is esteemed pinup title-holder Dizzy Doll, which means there's pulchritude along with the bashings.

Recommended: "Yard Sale," "Fade Away," "Turn This Up," "Darkest Days," "Sidelines," "Late Nights," "Easton," "Starting to Believe"

Videos: "Fade Away" "Darkest Days" Live (1/10/2026)