DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

Capsule reviews by a jury of one: Iowa journalist/author DC Larson. Rockabilly, Psychobilly, Blues, Alternative, Western Swing, R and B, Punk, Swing, Hillbilly, Glam, Americana. DC Larson's retro science fiction writing blog, from which the Eddie Atomic Space Adventures are available, is RETRO RIFF BOOKS. And his political writings one is AMERICAN SCENE MAGAZINE. Both are also on Blogspot. All original content on these three blogs is under author copyright.

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Cactus Riders

Skulls Out

(Cactus Riders Prod.)

Stiffs must be given the air straightaway, that freewheeling rousers of anything-goes disposition have elbow room for roll-back-the-rug spectacle. Full-on brashness blares, its happy blast goaded by dancing 88s, a beat that infects irrepressibly, and voices raised in cheery exuberance. Add in guitar swagger and broad-shouldered upright negotiations, and small wonder windows shatter as the whole joint shakes.

Recommended: "Lalala," "Welcome To Lemonum," "Crazy Big Andy," "The House Is On Fire," "The Boogie Cemetery Lanes," "Tonight You're Mine," "The Cuddly Toy," "Why Should I Go?," "Plucky Potion," "Circus Riders," "Spicy Stout"

Video: "The House Is On Fire"

Dixie Fried

Can't Find My Baby

(Sleazy Records)

Those on the scene in germinal Ike days are scarce today, but they and fresh devotees of dusty wax know of turbulent times in which drum-free Hillbilly combos availed themselves of jumped-up rhythms and, by the doing, begat a fresh sound that at once crammed nightspot dancefloors and enflamed popular music. Guitarist and singer nonpareil Marcel Riesco (our era's Wink Troubadour) has long produced recordings faithful to pioneers' plain-folks ethos. And in his newest incarnation as leader of this crackerjack trio, he crafts limber-legged, economic tunes buoyed by ingratiating melodiousness.

Recommended: "Can't Seem To Find My Baby,," "Pretending," "This Is the Night," "Blue Just Like Me," "You're a Heartbreaker," "Right Or Wrong," "No Lie"

Video: "Can't Seem To Find My Baby"

Voodoo Zombie

Teatromorfosis

(Self-issued)

Stalking in Chilean nighttimes are technicolor creatures of Rock'n'Roll blood. They revel in chosen Psycho delirium, and from it produce sinister rumblings alternately headlong and maliciously measured. As dark strains thunder, a stitched cadaver jerk-dances, its unseeing eyes bugged grotesquely.

Recommended: "Hellp," "Niño Monstruo," "Maldita," "No Me Regales," "Tarantulina," "Cosas de la Vida"

Video: "Niño Monstruo"

The Playtones

"My Little Baby" single

(Atenzia Records)

One would be on solid soil when declaring Sweden's Playtones to be estimable upholders of the roots rock heritage. But no solemn undertaking that, as within the music's marrow breathes celebratory spirit. There can be no fretting over adversities when picking 'em up and putting 'em down.

Video

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Sammy Kershaw

Cross Road Blues

(Cleopatra / Goldenlane)

Mr. Kershaw shines. With his strapping, weathered delivery and the accompaniment of always flabbergasting fretboard prestidigitator Danny B. Harvey (who also produced and plays organ), Country icon Sammy cracks the American Blues Songbook and reinterprets classics of boundless majesty. He reveals an adeptness at the genre that will further embellish his artistic reputation. Covers of Albert King, Johnny Winter, Robert Johnson, Otis Rush, and Little Walter are but some of the grand moments embraced by a man clearly of music.

Recommended: "Born Under a Bad Sign," "I Can't Quit You Baby," "Be Careful With a Fool," "If I Had Any Pride Left At All," "Going Down," "On the Road Again," "Crossroads," "My Babe," "Blues Man"

Video: "Going Down"

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Ichi-Bons

"Leopardskin," "Outsider" singles

(Rollin' Records)

Here storms evidence of the potency possible in a stripped-down rockin' trio. The teasingly slow menace of "Leopardskin" and "Outsider's" gassed flight rivet with blood-stirred personalities. Faith in plainly rendered music's power beats tons of equipment and garish tech artifice every day of the week.

Video: "Leopardskin" (live)

Video: "Outsider" (live)

Doug Seegers and Eva Eastwood

"What You're Saying To Me" single

(Ninetone)

Per Sweden's Ninetone, a full-length release by Doug and Eva will be issued in the Fall. Meanwhile, this single attests to their winning chemistry. Handclaps join relentless snare to propel six-string swagger and tinkling ivories unto limber-legged Country roof-rattling. Eva's endearing sauciness and Doug's equally commanding tone ride high in the saddle.

Video

Facebook (Doug)

Facebook (Eva)

Ninetone

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Back In the Day, 2003

The Tremors

The Scourge Of the South

(Brain Drain Records)

Their credibility was (and remains) beyond dispute. Leader Jimmy Tremor and his backwoods cohorts tore up stages with illustrious fellow sons of the soil, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Hasil Adkins, and storied mountain dancer Jesco White. They've knocked back audiences in both clubs and festivals, the Oneida Rockin' 50s Fest, Nashville Boogie, and Heavy Rebel Weekender numbered among the latter.

And in 2014, North Carolina's Tremors were inducted into the Hillbilly Hall Of Fame. An introductory post described them as "Hillbilly rock stars" whose "back story includes both zombiefication and alien abduction."

Out-of-print The Scourge Of the South was the trio's debut CD, and a barnburner it was. Theirs was a helter-skelter personality, one of feral cats howling at the fractured, midnight blood moon from the red clay tobacco roads of America's lost-hick dimension.

The disc didn't wipe its feet or cover its coughs. It was a rumbustious howdy-hi to Big Beat disciples who hungered for crude and manic Rebel Sounds. Each fiery, good-time freight just barely stayed on the steel. That songs never flew from the track was testament to the band's prowess.

Jimmy's emotionally-tilted hayseed implorings -- punctuated now and again by strangled yelps recalling Adkins -- and white lightning-speed treble note squallings reached dizzying plateaus of backwoods psychosis.

Four additional Tremors discs followed; each maintained the maiden endeavor's heady abandon while making new dirt fly.

Good news: In 2024, with a different slap-bassist, the febrile combo is still storming stages. (Jimmy, who recently dealt successfully with health concerns that required hopitalization, also maintains a side gig with swinging Country quartet Kelley and the Cowboys.) Tremors CDs yet in print are available at their site, as well as from Amazon and other vendors.

And one never can tell - new wax may one day materialize.

Recommended: "100 Proof Blues Boogie," "My Kitten Is Up a Tree," "Danny Blade," "It'll Be Me," "Riot," "Call To My Reward," "Manifestation," "Tremors Bop"

Video: "100 Proof Blues Boogie"

Monday, June 10, 2024

The Carnivals

Fiesta Time

(Rum Bar Records)

Class this as a new phase in an already celebrated career. Frontman Kevin Patey is more widely acclaimed as strings-maestro Jittery Jack, whose dirt-under-fingernails Americana oeuvre ( a delightful melange of Rhythm and Blues bounce, git-rockin' propulsion, and loose-limbed back-country accenting) is now augmented with swaybacked New Orleans styling. Crack good-times purveyors to a man, the assembled players are themselves worth admission cost.

Recommended: "Moonlight On the Levee," "Low Tide Society," "My Key Don't Fit," "Tropicana Joe," "Well At Your Age Blues," "Out Of This World," "Wontcha Dontcha"

Video: "Moonlight On the Levee"

Bandcamp (Rum Bar)

Dave Del Monte & the Cross County Boys

"Rockin' and Wreckin'" single

(Self-issued)

Dave's admirers know viscerally appealing Rockabilly in spare, orthodox character -- with agreeable ladling of witty outlook -- is to be expected from him. (His basso imitation of a heap peddler recalls Eddie's senator.) Esteemed guest picker Crash mashes pedal to metal as tune bops from curb to curb.

Video

The Heart Alarms

Black Magic EP

(Self-issued)

Those who knew Joey recall that "ya know" was the lanky star's habitual query. His phrasing and tone echo in that tune. Another Ramones element it conveys is fleet chording redolent of ever-scowling Johnny. Elsewhere, tracks construct dissimilar architecture. Arrangements are more likely to incorporate ambitious dynamics than adhere to monochromatic formulae. Scrupulous balance is arrived at between Pop gestures and Punk roundhouses.

Recommended: "Black Magic," "Ya Know," "Headstone," "Kicked Down," "Dream Killer"

Video: "Ya Know"

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Bandcamp

Bloodstains

Stray Bullets

(Drunken Sailor Records)

Per PunkNews.org, the Bloodstains's self-issued debut "sold out immediately with prices for the record selling online at over $80.00." UK label Drunken Sailor rapidly undertook a second pressing (with the new cover depicted above). Appropriately unobtrusive production allows for direct bombardment by the basic line-up. Demolition guitar swerves and slashes as cohorts ravage relentlessly. One can nearly see leading spark-plug Cesar Marin's curled lip.

Recommended: "Last Rites," "Public Hanging," "Nuclear Age," "Combat Shock," "When Men Were Men," "Stray Bullets"

Video: "Public Hanging"

Sunday, June 9, 2024

The Wild Black Jets

Still Rockin'

(Starfish Music)

Every time it seems robust upright slapping is the key here to distinction -- and it certainly lends full-bodied substance -- guitar and drums jump up to remind that without their vigor, this brisk-booted effort wouldn't be outstanding. The three are solidly in the spirit exemplified by novel approaches to crackerjack material. Add in hiccuped professions, and all requisite genre elements are accounted for and in fine health.

Recommended: "Down the Line," "Let's Jump the Broomstick," "Race With the Devil," "Rockin' All Over the Nation," "Peggy Sue," "Rockabilly Fool," "Dressed In Black," "That's All Right (Mama)," "Twenty Flight Rock"

Video: "Dressed In Black"

Grease Creepers

It's Dark In Here EP

(Self-issued)

In a Facebook post, the rampaging ghouls disclose their third full-length disc is set for Halloween issuance. Counting months is unnecessary, though; this EP is a taste of its content. As group adherants dig, no demarcation between Psycho and Punk is discernable. The two hiss in tempestuous union. Its Dark In Here's finest passages are ones in which uncanniness is articulated at neck-snapping velocity and with vehement double-bass abuse. Once the door slams behind you, normalcy becomes only memory.

Recommended: "Zombie Truck," "Man In the White Suit," "Die Alone"

Video: "The Man In the White Suit" (live)

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Bandcamp

Mighty Flea Circus

"The Mini Storm" single

(Self-issued)

Chrystine's pert tones prove apt complement to a broad-shouldered presentation that makes its arresting point in middle tempo. All treasured Rockabilly elements punch in and are of formidable stature. Agile guitar that twangs its flair enjoys the rock-ribbed advocacy of dependable doghouse negotiations and Big Beat smack-downs. Backing shouters make plain their passion.

Video

Site

Facebook

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Trini Lopez

Essential Classics, Vol. 60

(Essential Classics)

An astute adage of disputed authorship holds that only two song types exist: good ones and bad ones. Trini understood that. As truth is liberating, it freed the illustrious performer to make merry in diverse idioms. From Folk to Latin to Pop to Rock'n'Roll, he found and raised up for appreciation magnetic joyfulness. Around the globe, admiring throngs crowded his appearances and returned his name to charts time and again. Small wonder, as his material choices were impeccable and, throughout his celebrated career, he surrounded himself with only accompanists of executive facility. To hear him -- whether then or now -- is to become a sing-along, clap-along, celebrant whose delight busts out all over.

Recommended, disc one: "If I Had a Hammer," "If You Wanna Be Happy," "Lemon Tree," "Smile," "Unchain My Heart," "La Bamba," "This Land Is Your Land," "Bananas"

Recommended, disc two: "Made In Paris," "Adelita," "Cuando Calienta el Sol," "Cielito Lindo," "You Are My Sunshine," "Sinner Not a Saint," "Heart of My Heart," "Bye Bye Blackbird," "Goody Goody"

Video: "If You Wanna Be Happy" (live)

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Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Death Wishlist

You Are Next

(Area Pirata Rec)

Fusion of brawny, strapping Metal and Punk back-alley bellicosity wouldn't work as well as it does here, were it not for band-members' 'you talkin' to me?' attitude and head-wrenching talents. Curled-fist chords pummel and Rock'n'Roll's signature Big Beat is pounded beyond next week. Longtime skronk-junkies will recall when the descriptor "high energy" was bestowed upon superior voices; that term has leapt from retirement.

Recommended: "I Get Bored," "Life Is a Gamble," "Leave Me Out," "Your Ego In Total Control," "You Still Suck," "I Hope You Die"

Video: "I Get Bored"

Memphis Rockabilly Band

1979 - 1982

1983 - 1986

(A.V.R.A. Records)

Founders of this Bostonian band selected the name to telegraph their attack fashion. They germinated in a moment of the style's resurgence, a juncture whose other wildcat-sound standard-bearers included Robert Gordon, the Rockats, Dave Edmunds, the Blasters, and the Stray Cats. The successes pocketed by those colleagues eluded the Memphis Rockabilly Band, but they performed the same crucial function: the introduction to crisp record-buyers of vintage American music birthed in the South, one that drew eagerly on Country and Blues inspirations and tore up both dancefloors and popular music, itself. We're still luxuriating in its impact.

Recommended, 1979 - 1982: "Lindy Rock," "Lonely Blue Boy," "Rockin' Daddy," "Guitar Boogie Shuffle," "Draggin'," "Just Because," "Honey Don't," "Hornet's Nest," "Milkshake Mademoiselle," "Sixteen Chicks"

Recommended, 1983 - 1986: "Bertha Lou," "Endless Sleep," "Rock and Roll Fever," "I'm Gonna Tell On You," "Can't You See," "Betty Jean," "I Don't Care Tonight," "Rio Grande Moon," "Pleated Pants," "Take It Slow," "Keep Me Waiting"

Video: "Betty Jean"

The Kingbees

"I Believe In Love" single

(Atenzia Records)

Some songs make you feel glad all over. Here's one. Don't misapprehend - Jamie James' '78-'82 trio, renowned for its lapel-grabbbing way with economical Neo-Rockabilly jumpers, has not reassembled. But this Swedish endeavor shares more than appellation with that predecessor. It, too, is lean and of slingshot animation, tweaking classical locution -- abrim with driving guitars, rollicking 88s, and beaming harmonies -- into contemporary context and thereby rousing kicks agitators. The product will make legs blur.

Video

Cut the Gas

Rock 'n' Roll Alchemists

(Self-issued)

A solid debut magnetizes in its own right while indicating potential. Rock'n'Roll Alchemists fulfills both objectives, and does so with personality. The Rockabilly styling on high-stepping parade owes inspiration to bop-steady genre originators. That's a positive the group makes the most of while injecting crisp dynamism. Years ahead may bring advancements, but this lift-off already proffers bounty.

Recommended: "Rockabilly Radio," "Cut the Gas," "Psycho," "Burlesque," "Flip Your Baby," "Where Rock'n'Roll Was Born"

Video: "Rockabilly Radio"

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