Rockats

Make That Move: The Best Of the Rockats

3-disc set

(Sonzaishinai Records)

No cover photo is available as this 3-disc set does not exist; it's a product of my imagination. (Sonzaishinai is Japanese for "nonexistent.")

In anticipation of the upcoming Rockats Cleopatra release (which will be real), I've decided a "Best Of" collection is needed. The band has released many indispensible songs over the decades. Especially, 1981's Live At the Ritz deserves CD issuance. 

The Rockats are seated in the neo-rockabilly pantheon. They were possibly the first to popularize rockabilly with English punk crowds, often playing before throngs of loudly appreciative razored-and-pinned pogoers.

Their career (so far) took them from the Louisiana Hayride to punk clubs to American Bandstand to Hollywood to sold-out Japanese and other international venues. Tour-mates included The Clash, Iggy, KISS, Tina Turner, and David Bowie.

With a trademarked sound that mixed classc rockabilly moves with cheeky, modern-day inclinations, the group left a mark on contemporaries (ask Brian S. where he got that Strut).

Here, then, is my imagined compendium. (When fantasizing, one need not be concerned with contractual niceties). The line up endured several permutations over the decades, But usually included mainstays Barry, Dibbs, and Smutty.

Disc One: 1979's "Live At the Louisiana Hayride" (Posh Boy). This is the Levi Dexter-led incipient version of the band, just in from England. Originals include "A Note From the South," "Other Side Of Midnight," and "Rockabilly Idol." 

1980's "Tanya Jean" b/w "Rockabilly Doll" (Kat Tale).

1981's Live At the Ritz (Island) This was the classic band's introduction to the record-purchasing world. 

Disc Two: "Burning," "That's the Way," "Go Cat Wild," "Never So Clever," "Make That Move." 1983's Make That Move (RCA). 

(The Rockats briefly rechristened themselves Secret Hearts.) "Living In the Shadows," "Illusions Of Grandeur," "Get You Alone," "Kool and Krazy." 1984's Secret Hearts (MCA). 

"Downtown Saturday Night," "This Time Tomorrow," Hold On Tight" 1994's Downtown Saturday Night (Jimco). 

"The Good, the Bad, the Rockin'," "Say You're Mine," "Tattooed Lady," "Rolling Like a Wheel," "Love You Anyway," "Off Your Rocker," "Too Bad She's Bad" 1995's The Good, the Bad, the Rockin' (Fury). 

Disc Three: "True-Hearted Woman," "Rollin' Thunder," "Rocky Road Blues" 2000's Rollin' Thunder (Downer). 

"Cold Outside," "Trouble Maker," "Dyn-O-Mite" 2003's Wild Love (Blues Leaf). 

"Rockin' Together," "Pink and Black Cadillac," "Red-Headed Rockin' Doll," "Tear the Roof Off," "Reckless Rebel" 2013's Rockin'Together (Lanark).

Again, the above review is a work of fiction. Don't rush to your local wax vendor. Once the forthcoming Cleopatra disc is issued, I'll review it on this blog.

Arkey Blue

Classic Recordings

Neckerchief and cowboy hat; fiddle, pumping piano, and bent-string guitar; cheating spouses and inspirational spirituality -  endearingly familiar, old-timey honky tonk. And it beats today's over-produced pop country by a red-clay backroad mile.

SonicHits calls Arkey "A legend in the Texas hill country...real cowboy rancher and owner of the historical Silver Dollar Bar," which was featured in the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

And many would argue that a murder was indeed committed on Nashville's Music Row.

Recommended: "Lipsick On My Shirt Again," "The Back Of My Mind," "Scarlet Water (Known As Wine)," "Shakin' the Blues Tonight," "What's the Use," "Teach My Daddy How To Pray," "Too Many Pills," "Daddy's Sick Again," "Misty Hours Of Daylight," "There Was No Murder Committed."

Video: "Too Many Pills"

Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon Facebook page

Voodoo Swing

Made In the USA

(Cool Cat / Chromodyne)

The blues basis is wide and deep. Whether they are rocking nimbly or slowing the proceedings for atmospherics, their firm foundation in American musical culture is spiritual and palpable. This is potent substance.

Recommended: "Nursery Rhyme Boogie," "Drinkin' My Life Away," "She Don't Love You," "Pow Pow Pow!" (live), "Hillbilly Rock N Roll" (live), "Pass That Bottle" (live), "Rich Man's Blues" (live), "West Coast Boogie" (live).

Video: "Drinkin' My Life Away"

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Pink Cadillac Scat Cats

Half Way To Memphis

4-track disc

(Dead Bones)

Clean production ensures instrumental distinction. Vocals, too, are sharp and precise. Reliably rock-ribbed material of blues and country lineage. But with that beat that motivates. A muscular production.

Recommended: "Half Way To Memphis," "Joleena," "Little Red Rooster," "Ain't No Rest For Elvis"

Video: Full disc

Bandcamp

Ghoultown

Bury Them Deep Vinyl re-release

(Wrecking Bones)

Eyes wide and ears a-ring, townsfolk marvel at the spectacle: Driven guitars, sinister invocations, and a beat so resolute as to lash all bearing stunned witness into grand mal paroxsyms. 

This bears out my thesis that the most important music is to be found on smaller labels. Package includes the eight tracks contained on the original CD, plus four-cut Boots Of Hell EP and previously unreleased "Stronger."

Recommended: "Tekilla," "Mexican Moonshine," "Revoluciőn," "Texas Bound," "Walkin' Through the Desert (With a Crow)," "Boots Of Hell," "Killer In Texas," "Southern Witch," "Stronger."

Video: "Revoluciőn" (live)

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Wrecking Bones

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The Patina Turners

What's Rust Got To Do With It?

(3760045 Records DK)

In this 2022 surf instro disc, solos are light and melodic. Reverberating chords cleanly carry the tunes. Minimalistic and arch, but ingratiatingly straightforward.

Recommended: "Saraphina," "Have Gun - Will Travel," "Vinegar Strokes," "Rough Chrome," "The Eddy," "Sourmash Kids," "The Negotiation / Spanglish Princess."

Video: "Sourmash Kids" (live)

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Son Demon And His Holy Boys

s/t 4-track EP (Bluelight Records)

No attempts are made here to violate regulation rockabilly; they evince proper reverence for genre canon. And, by that doing, wreak affable rollick. Drop needle and dig.

Recommended: "When My Baby Passes By," "Blues Stop Knockin' (At My Door)," "Too Hot To Handle," "Wait For Me Virginia."

Video: "Too Hot To Handle"

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The Dice Cubes

Rockin' At the Edge Of Town

(Independent)

The working-class originators of the rebel sound, grounded in the country music that surrounded them, may not have guessed their creation would endure to this day. They may not have even fully understood what they were birthing. But, endure it thankfully did. This disc is the latest ripping evidence.

Recommended: "Mary Lou," "Oh Yeah," "I Shouldn't Have Did What I Done," "Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Moe," "She's a Square," "Hillbilly Rock."

Video: "Mary Lou"

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Demented Are Go

Welcome Back To Insanity Hall

vinyl re-release

(Katabomb)

Behold, if you dare, these bug-eyed and bellowing lost souls forsaken by all that men hold holy:

Their faces streaked with garish ghastliness and bloody claw-tracings, they jerk-dance like epileptic puppets in multi-technicolored, bombastic spectacle, vomiting lunatic gallows humor. These twisted creatures are equally assured plundering final resting plots or wallowing in bawdy degradations. 

Songs jet at crazed speeds, lope to low-slung pulsations, and rocket into uncharted deliriums. This must forever remain locked away in its own criminally psycho rank.

We listen and dig, time and again. But may none of us know this abhorrence save from safe remove.

Recommended: "Bodies In the Basement," "Engine Trouble," "Epileptic Fit," "Out In the Dark," "The Life I Live," "Welcome Back To Insanity Hall," "Retard Whore," "Heads On Poles," "Lucky Charm"

Video: "Bodies In the Basement"

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Katabomb

Bloodsucking Zombies from outer space

see you at disneyland (Schlitzer-Pepi)

It's fitting that the present author is reviewing this on a Friday night, as that's Creature Feature night at my home. The Wolfman, zombies, Frankenstein's monster, and phantasms of all descriptions lurch across my video screen.

This provides apt soundtrack. Tales grim yet compelling blast from the speakers, much as angry flames from a cracked-wide furnace. Outlandish science fiction imaginings are spun, as are unspeakable horror narratives, all with the formidably resolute back charge of rock 'n' roll gone far afield into lunatic territory.

To class this as of indispensible timber should go without remark.

Recommended: "Attack From Planet Transylvania," "Space Invaders," "Die Earthling Die," "King Of The Cannibals," "Horrormovie Fan," "Eaters Of The Dead," "Abra Cadaver"

Video: "Die Earthling Die"

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 Ann Margret And Mickey Gilley

Splish Splash single

(Cleopatra Records)

An unlikely pairing, in a slickly executed cover of the Bobby Darin classic. Expert backing from The Rockats and Linda Gail Lewis. Better than might be initially surmised; nothing wrong with hedonistic hijinx for its own sake. Blue or pink vinyl.

Video

Cleopatra

Dave Del Monte & the Cross County Boys

"Barn Door's Open" b/w "Coffee Baby" 

(Independent)

Universally accessible lowbrow humor distinguishes Dave's writing - that, and an innate grasp of traditional rockabilly that sets toes to tapping. Those components combine in genial fluidity.

Videos: "Barn Door's Open", "Coffee Baby"

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Mickey Leigh's Mutated Music

Variants Of Vibe

(Wicked Cool Records)

The iconic Mickey and cohorts vary between jangly, poppish fare and judiciously deployed missiles. Perspicuous production allows instrumental distinction to rise for due regard.

Recommended: "Little Cristine," "It Felt Like Love," "No Fun Anymore," "Go Home Ann," "Stories That Never Got Told," "Standing In The Dark," "I Got A Message For You," "Brave Old World," "Lost In Space"

Video: "I Got A Messsage For You"

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The Rocketz

Lovesick & Heartbroke

(CD Baby)

No longer the callow psychobilly youths as which they initially surfaced, Rocketz now pursue a more orthodox hard sound, though yet with a serrated edge. In exploring the greater creative potential in maturation, they've hit on something outstandingly forcible.

Recommended: "Wrong About You," "Round She Goes," "What The Hell Do You Want From Me," "Sleeping In Your Arms," "Falling Down," "See You Around," "Bit By Bit"

Video: "Falling Down"

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Rumjacks / Flatfoot 56

s/t split EP

(Independent)

Titans joined forces to produce this six-track missive of pugnacious Celtic punk. There can be no non-adherents, given the compelling nature of the sweeping rollick. At every step there's a sense of communal interest. To listen is to be a two-fisted son of the olde sod.

Recommended: "Whitecaps," "Fifth Ward Firestorm," "What Was Your Name In The States" (Rumjacks), "Mud," "Sorry," "Trouble" (Flatfoot 56)

Videos: "Whitecaps," "Mud

Rumjacks site

Flatfoot 56 site

                                             Rumjacks

                                           Flatfoot 56

Lords Of The Highway

More Rock Than Billy

(Independent)

Heavily echo reliant, which suits the material: some heatedly exclamatory, some in intriguing instro styles. Distortion assays feature turn with bellicose emphasis.

Recommended: "Getting Sweaty With The Yeti," "God Damn She's Hot," "Carnival Freak-Show," "Van Or Astro-Van," "Party Plates," "Hot Trash," "Diesel Fuel"

Video: live

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Don Leady

Panther Pink EP

(Independent)

The effect of this instrumental tour de force is like a gentle summer rain. Don didn't merely set out on a road less traveled - he broke the initial ground. Cumbia, surf, and Americana airs mingle in common cause, that of musical impression grande. 

Recommended: "Panther Pink," "Left Of West," "Blue Camino," "Think Link," "Lift The Clouds," "Tres Whammy," "Lemon Drop"

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Haney's Big House

Hiding To Nothing

(Western Star)

If I didn't know better, I'd swear this was wax from back in a collector's dusty bin. Jump blues and 1950s-styled r&b in the mold of storied icons of those genres. What's the action? Satisfaction.

Recommended: "Six Stones Of Fury," "(You Got Me) Reelin' And Rockin'," "I Must've Dropped Dead," "Milky Tea," "Ten Feet Of Rhythm," "Solo Cuttin'," "Mesmerised," "You'd Better Thinnk Twice," "

Video: "Mesmerised"

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Western Star

Atomic Leopards

Double Jinx

(Independent)

From 2021. Spiritedness pervades the proceedings, which alone is enough to recommend the record. Of course, there's also the not inconsequential matter of skillful administration of hepness via sounds; amalgamated skins and strings buoy tunes on riptides.

Recommended: "When The Moon Is Bright," "Take A Trip," "I'm A Total Jinx," "Nothing Is Like It Was Before," "Tanca la Boca," "M'agrades, També Em Canses"

Video: "Nothing Is Like It Was Before"

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Last Chance

s/t (Independent)

The guitar is kept in front, which is proper for the hardened, riff-laden material. As all assembled successfully contrive to abet it, that guitar assaults remorselessly. Power incarnate, quadrupled.

Recommended: "Light The Fire," "Sick Of It All," "Breakin'," "Gotcha Back," "Tattoo," "Tough Titty," "Kamikaze"

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Susie Blue and the

Lonesome Fellas

Blue Train

(Seraphic Records)

Pop your fingers and dip your hip when entering this courtly, jazzy house of blues worship. There can be no agnostics when the winds of cool blow this convincingly.

Recommended: "I Wanna Rock," "Lucky Lips," "Forever Yours" (feat. Dominic Halpin), "Chills And Fever," "Blue Train," "Give Up That Honey," "The Peter Gunn Theme," "Oh How I Miss You Tonight"

Video: "Blue Train"

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The Ragged Roses

do me right

(Rootz Rumble)

Their songcraft includes attentiveness to phenomena like hooks and intriguing progressions. Which is not to disregard forcible assertivness in the august cause of ensuring good times.

Recommended: "Hoodoo Voodoo," "Crying Over You," "Do Me Right," "Tell Me," "Falling Out Of Love," "Never Gonna Break My Heart," "Right Track"

Video: "Do Me Right"

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Rootz Rumble

The Hot Rod Gang

Rollin' Down the Hill

(Independent)

Terming this medial is commendation; some never ascend to that plane. Besides, hints are of upward mobility. It jitters and jolts in all the right manners, leaving listeners happier for the experience. 

Recommended: "Rollin' Down the Hill," "Double D Daisy," "M. Peter Boogie," "Big Bull Fiddle," "Stolen Gal," "Mojo Kid"

Video: "Rollin' Down the Hill"

Lattie Moore

Juke Box To Juke Joint

The Anthology 1952 - 1962

(Jasmine)

Lattie was notable among those exploring honky tonk swing and bop in the years before rock 'n' roll's birth. Recording for King and Starday, among others, he often featured fiddle and steel guitar in material of country blood. But the prominence of drums made it another matter entirely; some songs verged on rockabilly, hinting at the burgeoning sound soon to electrify the world and leave it forever changed.

Recommended: "Juke Joint Johnny," "Baby, I'll Soon Be Gone," "I'm Not Broke, But I'm Badly Bent," "Don't Trade The Old For A New," "I'm going To Tell You Something," "A Brand New Case Of Love," "Pull Down The Blinds," "Why Did You Lie To Me," "Juke Box Johnnie," "Pretty Woman Blues," "Too Hot To Handle"

Video: "Juke Joint Johnny"

Jasmine

 Galluping Vincents

Go Go Cat Woman

4-track 7" EP

(Normal / Crazy Love)

Even were the band name not a roaring clue, the sounds immediately tip that these originals are ala The Catman and Cliff. And so reverentially wrought, in fact, as to merit storage next to hallowed Blue Caps' wax.

Recommended: "Go Go Cat Woman Go," "Jelly Bean," "The Gentle Breeze," "Whole Lotta Lovin'"

Video: "Jelly Bean"

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Crazy Love

Legacaster

Doin the Truck With...

Vinyl 10" 

(Kathrina / Sleazy)

One marked distinction is the prominent infusion of Spanish accenting into an otherwise orthodox rockabilly presentation. The solos are indeed something to behold -- as are the mellifluous harmonies.

Recommended: "Back In the Alley," "Do the Truck," "I'll Never Get Rich" (feat. Lynette Morgan), "Little Thelma," "Let's Do It," "Walking Out," "My Little Girl" (feat. Jake Calypso), "Nena"

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