The Cain Pit
Sorrow EP
(Self-issued)
Dust would swirl 'round the porch, should hill-folk buck dance to "Punkgrass" so velocitous. Doghouse hightails it forward, direct drums abreast. Guitars both electric and acoustic hustle. Voices fuse in sublime union, while blurred fingers pluck banjo strings of fury. Mohawks in the Appalachions? Moonshine made music.
Recommended: "Alder," "I Just Thought You Should Know," "White Lines," "Platform," "Roses"
Videos: "Alder" "Platform"
The Prannies
Prandemonium!
(Self-issued)
Not without cause does this backflip combo assert they reflect English '60s rock and '80s New Wave, among other touchstones: elements like jangly guitar, sprightly rhythms, and quirkily accented vocals punch in. The Flamin' Groovies and Skeletons ("world's greatest bar band") also are summoned to mind. This sprang from the middle-American state of Indiana, meaning eccentric gestures are balanced with substantial ones.
Recommended: "You Tell Me," "Modest Ride," "When I Was Your Age," "See Where It Goes," "Begging You," "Something Like That," "How To Be Happy"
The Holy Hand Grenades
"Goodbye Orion" single
(Self-issued)
A threesome that, per their Facebook bio, began as a Punk cell but transmogrified into a Power Pop one (as advancing age can bring redefinition). Amendment, though, was not all-consuming. While accessible construction draws, performance remains headlong and, after a fashion, pugnacious. Their hearts are in the charge. This new racer follows February's Times Like These EP.
Amazon (UK)
Huck It
"Sinister Girl" single
(Self-issued)
Success is grabbed by surly back-street guerillas armed with instruments set on demolition and the smarts to keep it simple and short. Lyrics bespeak warped adoration: "Your mouth is like a pretty scar / painted with crimson blood." Slams into pile-up collision.
The Soapbox Saints
Play It Cool
(Studio C-57D)
Gracing the disc at hand are roots-rock tunes that jump happily and with ingratiating grins. Rockabilly's twang appears, as do Country inclinations (those being of the Real variety, not the insipid and commercialized counterfeit ones others peddle). Agile guitar sparks the enterprise and grips with purposefulness, but all players leap to the brisk task. Sonorous harmonies are plentiful; they lend heft to shrewd constructions. Action is incribed in ten-story letters.
Recommended: "Looking For Love," "No Time," "Rose-Colored Glasses," "Please," "Shake," "Let's Stroll," "Troublemakers," "Soapbox"
Video: "Looking For Love"
Kevin Daly
Under My Cadillac
(Fervor Records)
Without so much as a "howdy-hi," Kevin and hands explode into jumped-up, down-home musicalizing that romps eagerly and in beloved old-ways character. Nimbly picked, steel-guitared Country with double-time rhythm and high spirits in its pumping blood. When ensuing numbers moderate (slightly) the ecstatic pace, they do so in manners that underscore redoubtable capacities; only players who know their business can excel instrumentally while shaking the roof with fun fun fun.
Recommended: "Under My Cadillac," "Lap Dog," "Won't Start"
Video: "Under My Cadillac"
Hewhocannotbenamed
Ghost Ride EP
(Rad Girlfriend Records)
It's glorious when Rock'n'Roll busts out in all directions. In this instance, fervor is communicated tunefully and with fleet-footed ebullience. For all its engaging vim, it minds accessibility's requisites - never to the detriment of robustness, but always toward its benefit.
Recommended: "Ghost Ride," "Three Chords," "Barto's Bliss," "Torneo Del Purgatorio"
Video: "Three Chords"
Second Hand
Demo #1 digital release
(Self-issued)
Per guitarist/singer Matthieu, this demo was put to tape in an afternoon. That abruptness and the trio's youthfulness account for fresh, bold onrush. Material predominently consists of familiar covers, but that in no way disqualifies the combo's maiden effort from appreciation; they selected crackerjack numbers and rendered them sharply. Attraction to classics illustrates players' heartfelt bond to world-shaking music. Intimations of distinction flare.
Recommended: "Second Hand Presents," "Long Tall Sally," "Have Love, Will Travel," "Slow Down," "The Witch," "Train Kept A-Rollin'"
The Playtones
"Let Her In" single
(Atenzia Records)
Swedish vintage-fashion rockers The Playtones first gained acclaim as the 2009 runaway winners of TV competition showcase Dansbandskampen. As unspools in these jaunty 3:47, ensuing years of toil brought the rewards of seasoning plus still-broader capacity for dispensing roots-music gladness. This tale of a callous temptress with notches on her garter steps out with a vivacity that happifies even the forsaken.
.jpg)
The Car Bombs
2004 Demos EP
(Your Mom Records)
"So after digging through old files while I was salvaging the Sangre tracks, I [Jerr] found these," the flamethrowing guitarist recently told Facebook followers. "I said 'Fuck it! Release them!'" Well into germination back then were the hectic rush and full-bore abrasiveness that made their 2023 Half Life, Half Death an exercise in devastation.
Recommended: "Radioactive War," "Dead By Night," "Get Fucked Up," "Thrashpit"
Video: "Radioactive War"
Nülydedz
Back From the Dead
(Self-issued)
Recommended: "16 Zombies," "Attack Of the Dead," "Daughter Of the Devil," "Demon Girl," "Hang On," "Oh Zombies," "Zombie Whiskey," "Zombies On a Plane"
.jpg)
Low Ranger
"Susy" single
(Self-issued)
Banjo plucking this rapid surely raised blisters. Headlong harmonica, backbeat animation, and vocals of such kicked-back dispatch as to seem right neighborly combine in a brisk stepper that evokes barn dance imaginings. Despite its hand-tooled Americana personality, though, this boot-stomping entry is of Italian origin - illustrating that music's door opens for everyone.
Brandon Wayne & His Lonesome Drifters
Richmond Sessions
(Self-issued)
The crops are in and supper's over. Time to get slicked up, crank out your sharpest duds, and head to town hall. (You look good enough to take to a fireworks display.) Music can be heard from blocks away -- simple Country with dash in its glide. The folksy affability of the regular-joe players onstage is shared by friends and neighbors as they cruise over the hardwood. Get into the swing.
Recommended: "Hey Hey Mama," "Big Howdy," "See Ya Later Honey," "Moonshine Shuffle," "All Tired Rockin'," "Dirty Dan"
Video: "Hey Hey Mama"
Supermodel Taxidermy
At What Cost
(Punishment 18 Records)
Masses can only imagine the fun that was had making this thrashing mongrel. Smashed into one colossal being are oppressive metallic thunderclaps, Punk bellicosity, and lyrical awareness of thoughtful rank. Of course, there's no reason one can't suspend cogitation and become the happy hostage of uproar. Agile riffs are torn off at velocitous rates, crashing chord-slabs overwhelm, and every inhibition in sight is demolished by volleys that respect none. Wager that crunched car-glass growls surf the onrush, and prepare to collect.
Recommended: "Wake Up," "Exorcist For Beer," "Clinics," "Lipstick," "Blood Painted Dash," "Kevlar," "The Hanging Tree," "Death Dealer"
Video: "Lipstick"
Facebook (Punishment 18)
Bobby Oakes
B Sting
(Mr. B Real)
We are here confronted by two phenomena, both of upper station. Immediately apparent is the amphetemine sparkle possible in spartan Rock'n'Roll awash in Punk priorities; never underestimate its draw. Further reflection uncovers the backbone required for a man to seize up a guitar and shout his inventions onto the airwaves. Such has always been emblematic of significance.
Recommended: "Never Get Out Alive," "She Makes Magic," "Ride Of the Century"
Video: "Never Get Out Alive"
Used Goods
Hey There Human
(Self-issued)
Every chord a thrown fist. Should any man be so foolish as to step into these flying drumsticks, he would be pummeled beyond identification. Hurtling into ears are bombardments devastating to public order. The listener can all but see tensed veins raised on the necks of yowlers as they arch into action.
Recommended: "Sweet As a Nut," "Donahue," "Deliverance," "Caboose," "And I Like That," "Twizel Terror," "Tick Tock Time"
Video: "Sweet As a Nut" (live)
The Jackson County Kills
Honky Tonk Beast
(Belt Drive Record Club)
To feel in your heart and guts Country this Real -- a music raised up by home-folks and against whose strains, tales of the cold hard facts of life are spun in unassuming candor -- it is necessary to have done some living. To have struggled your way through hardships and loves both agonizing and salvatory. Only then, as steel-guitar swayings and booted six-strings are befriended by dogged rhythms and drawls of common aspect, will you appreciate how magnificent Country can be when market subservience is kept outside the door.
Recommended: "Man Riding a Train," "Drinking To Remember," "Love's Lost Quarter," "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)," "Bright Side Of the Veil," "Red Gravel Road," "Can't Smoke 'em Anymore"
Video: "Bright Side Of the Veil" (live)
Bee Dee Kay & the U.F.O.ZZZ
"You Move Me Baby" b/w "Wake Up Honey!"
(Soundflat Records)
Trash-Rock shaman Bee Dee Kay ditched the same square-school as Mack Stevens, Lux Interior, and pioneer Hasil Adkins. Jerking spasmodically, his gesticulations erratic, the crazed-eyed summoner of spirits that circled vintage jukeboxes and JFK-era garage rave-ups looses an avalanche of hiccups and whoops that bespeak edge of precipice. His offbeat spectacle is powered mightily by cohorts whose crash-bang rampagings indicate shared fever.
Recommended: "You Move Me Baby," "Wake Up Honey!"
Video (live, non-single)
Rey Kalavera
"Gato Loco" single
(Salvador Lisjuan)
While some other singles waxed by the combo at hand offered reserved musings, "Gato Loco" finds the men opening wide the throttle and racing unstoppably with twin-pipes snarling. All players hustle. The counterproductive weight possible in over-instrumentation was wisely kept off. Its absence enables sleekness to burn rubber in land-speed liberty.
Jordans Drive
"Big Black Betty" single
(Self-issued)
In which bright and frisky horns collude with rugged Rockabilly impetus, crafting finger-popping jive to which seas of pomps and ponytails whirl. Slapped double-bass, guitar sweeps, and snapped snare complement vocal insistence (including shouted group choruses) that compel surrender. No one resists.
Brian Bell
"Tourist Seventeen" 717
(Self-issued)
Some who heft guitars ravage them until blood spurts, and their exertions elate. But Brian selects a dissimilar course. With the fingers of an assiduous jewel-cutter, he rings notes impactful for their understatement. Melody issues in graceful arcs. Elegant formidibility towers.
Artist Brian is enigmatic. He maintains no online presence other than on Bandcamp. Musical acquaintanceship, then, is the sole option available.
.jpg)
Eastside Suicides
Streets Got Your Baby
(Desolate Sounds)
Recommended: "Panic In My Pants," "How Much For Nothin'," "Pink Personality," "Tell Me...I Gotta Know," "Booker T. Projects," "Eastside Suicide," "Bad News," "Don't Kiss Me...I'll Kiss You," "Center Of Destruction," "Black Leather Boots," "Tear Me Apart," "Justa Lookin'," "All Dressed Up," "Streets Got Yo Baby"
Video: "All Dressed Up"
Facebook (band)
Facebook (Desolate Sounds)
The Defiant Ones
A Sewer Full Of Phonies
(Crazy Love Records)
In furious, bare-boned bursts, these mongers of speed-bomb Neo-Rockabilly barrel lopsidedly into upper reaches. Careening instrumental proficiency proves a powerhouse, sparking helter-skelter spiral. Tilted crown is fashioned by vocals whose dizzying whoops, subterranean plunges, and general histrionics indicate teachings absorbed at the hallowed University Of Lux.
Recommended: "Sewer Full Of Phonies," "Rosemary and Sweet Whiskey," "Melancholy," "I Like the Wild Stuff," "The Cassanova In Me," "Juice Box Baby!," "Get Here Quick," "Hello Agoraphobia," "Johnny"
Video: "Juice Box Baby!"
.jpg)
Fornhorst
Leben ohne Scheiss
(Self-issued)
Nietsche wrote from chaos comes order. But in this bust-down account, the two commingle productively. For all its headlong feralness, this construction embodies a preciseness that ensures each note stabs its target. Governing acuity raises assaultive agitation to high value. These men know what they are doing, and they do it well.
Recommended: "Vielen Dank für Deine Angst," "Alles so schön ruhig hier," "Juli im August," "Tommi," "Leben ohne Scheiss," "Warum du wütend bist," "Liebeslied"
Video: "Liebeslied"
Los Crujídos
"Suspiro Final" single
(Diente de León Music)
Throughout this shadow-swathed trek, expressed in mesmeric slow motion, effectiveness enthralls. A determined bassline rumbles and drums augment its authority. Hushed vocals underscore the song's dreamlike personality. Treble notes are touched off sparingly; that less-is-more wise judgement accentuates with subtle majesty.
King Size Drag
La Via Della Morte
(Self-issued)
Most songs raised up by this guitar/standup pair weave understated atmospheres in serenity, as old-ways Country slow-dances with Mexican airs. Bass-string guitar amblings and low-voiced resonance accord with purposeful doghouse. Sporadic passages in which tempos are spurred animate, but discreetly.
Recommended: "Snake Line," "The Devil's Seed," "Of Roses andd Of Wine," "I Hang My Head Down Low," "La Via Della Morte," "Lucy In Vain," "18 Wheels"
Video: "Of Roses and Of Wine"
