Linda Gail Lewis

Rockabilly Queen

(Cleopatra)

Were it claimed by another, the titular sobriquet would fall as unmerited braggadocio. But Linda had the genuine article embedded in her marrow when callow aspirants were wailing through crib bars. Seasoning absorbed through countless onstage nights rendered her wise to the ways of the boogie; she can work it up into something earthy. Visceral. Provocative.

Some cuts were put to tape at Memphis's storied Sun Studio. Talents that lent further luster included Danny B. Harvey (who also produced), Djordje Stijepovic, and Slim Jim Phantom. Accomplished themselves, and thus eligible to accompany American Music aristocracy, all excelled in manners remarkable.

When Linda turns loose her signature Louisiana drawl and whales daylights out of 88s, know that you're digging an original who's never met the joint she couldn't close.

(Cleopatra is making this available in both CD and pink-vinyl formats. Purchasers can also select between signed and unsigned copies.)

Recommended: "Funnel of Love," "Baby Please Don't Go," "Friday's Child," "Train Kept A-Rollin'," "Flipsville," "I Knew That You Were Leaving," "Diggin' My Way Out of Hell," "Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Moe," "Bang Bang," "Seven Long Years," "Don't Give Me No Lip," "Boogie Woogie Throwdown." (Note: Four bonus selections were not available for review at this writing.)

Video: "Bang Bang"

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Hillbilly Casino

"Red On the Line"   single

(Self-issued)

Their capacity for deftly dispensing incitement is cheered by sideburned and Bettie-banged legions the world over. As can be expected and favored, the ever-ebullient four punch in with finger-popping dash. Ronnie Crutcher's encyclopedic roots knowledgeability and irrepressible frontman Nic Roulette's cartwheeling hardihood are only two qualities that entice. Enthusiasts will find jaws slack and feet ablur. 

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Rockpile

Seconds of Pleasure   LP

(Yep Roc)

Freshly returned is this 1980 cult-favorite that presented rave-ups and gently crooned movements, instilling in its era (and beyond) masterclass lessons in musicianship. Judicious teen cats who'd only recently unearthed dust-blanketed wax sat forward. 

As a combo, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner, Nick Lowe, and Terry Williams were celebrated for ripping up stages as they blasted rousers accessible to all hip ears. (And their gifts had helped Edmunds's 1979 Repeat When Necessary [Swan Song] become the treasure-chest it was.)

It was to the day's New Wave fashion-sense that the four cleverly tailored Pub Rock, Rockabilly, and Power Pop inclinations into party-time finery. Seconds of Pleasure was and remains a delight for discriminating turntables.

Yep Roc's LP rerelease includes a 7" 4-track titled Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds Sing the Everly Brothers. A scant 1000 yellow vinyl copies of this LP were pressed. Haste is counseled. 

Recommended: "Teacher Teacher," "If Sugar Was As sweet As You," "Heart," "Now and Always," "A Knife and a Fork," "Play That Fast Thing (One More Time)," "Oh, What a Thrill," "When I Write the Book," "You Ain't Nothin' But Fine," "Take a Message To Mary," "Crying In the Rain," "Poor Jenny," "When Will I Be Loved?"

Videos: "You Ain't Nothin' But Fine"  "Heart" "Take a Message To Mary"

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Fast Food Fairies

Can't Agree On Anything

(Koolbutt Records)

Because the Ramones are the gold standard, no one should kvetch that their battle strategy guides Quebec's FFF. Peculiarities abound: Abruptness, battering dynamics, Joeyesque voicings, a Mosrite, Pop seductions laced into aggressive song-volleys, "1-2-3-4s"...

But this is not rote duplication. While four shadows do obviously loom, these Canadian agitators shrewdly ensure their distinctive personalities exercise discretion over avenues taken; not to an overwhelming degree -- it would be counterintuitive to corrupt a sterling paragon -- but in manners subtly distinctive, still. Sporadic soloing evidences engaging particularity. Lyrics insinuate novel perspectives. 

Too, no matter how rigorously one strives to adhere to a model's pattern, individuality makes itself apparent in dispatch. Here, winningly so. 

Besides, when sparkling and hard-lashed mini-anthems fly past, group-harmonies buoyed by swerving buzzsaw chord-changes, every day is a sun-strobed beach party one and every night demands howling at the moon.

Recommended: "Fast Food Fairies," "I Wanna Be With You," "I Want You," "She Don't Know I Love Her So (I'm Afraid To Let Her Know)," "Yellow Brick Road," "Move Away," "She Wants More," "Her Mom's So Hott."

Video: (live, 13:40)

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Boomplay

The Ugly Lovers

You Should Have Killed Me   EP

(Very Ugly Recordings)

Vitality races with shrewdness at its elbow. The pair blast insistent expression in smart songcraft that enjoys slamming deploy. Forthright boy-girl poetry reaches conciousness only after you've smashed the bottle.

Recommennded: "White Lies," "Forget," "Don't Know Why," "Dirty Eyes," "Nowhere To Go," "You Should Have Killed Me"

Video: "Don't Know Why"

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Atomic Psychos

"Daleks Attack"   single

(Self-issued)

Know that while momentum scrambles, a strained guitar-amp pushes 10, and standup is slapped mercilessly -- qualities common to quiffed berserkers -- a phantasmagorical account issues. Squat robotic mutants familiar to Dr. Who afficianados terrorize ubiquitously, extermination their sole ambition. Riveting wreckage.

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Back In the Day, 1997

Sonny Vincent and His Rat Race Choir

Pure Filth

(Overdose Records)

By the time Sonny joined with Captain Sensible, Cheetah Chrome, and Scott Asheton for Pure Filth, he'd already crusaded through CBGB's (and a Dead Boys tour) with the Testors and spent some nine years recording and touring behind Velvet Underground alumna Maureen Tucker. As portrayed in this scorching tumult, he assailed his six-string with knowing intensity; bar-chords battered and hacksaw solos tore delightedly. Stridency demanded Sonny's caustic vocals.

Recommended: "Down On Me," "Always a Catch," "Life To Life," "Epic Ripped-Up Letter," "What Do You Call That?," "War Party"

Videos: "Down On Me"  Joey and Dee Dee Ramone on Sonny's answering machine

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Back In the Day, 1994

Jeff Dahl and the Spiders from Uranus

Leather Frankenstein

(Triple X Records)

Flaunted with fuzzed-into-recklessness riffs and tossed-off sneers is the devotion to Dolls/Stooges dirty-party Rock'n'Roll that surges through the veins of devotee Jeff like some flamboyant agitator. The ardor cavorts in originals that thrill-veer beyond whatever button-down sorts counsel. Even when Jeff pulls up short for a ballad, you just know there's a stilleto in his back pocket.

Recommended: "Leather Frankenstein," "Surf TV," "Only Lovers Left Alive," "Stars and Moons," "European Vacation," "Dead Heroes," "I Think I Lost My Mind"

Videos: "Surf TV" , "European Vacation"

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Neighborhood

"Pride Song"   single

(?)

Righteous Oi! exultance hurtles past, its aggression fired by stormers who thoroughly love their kick-ass free living in the way only untamed youths can. They don't give a fuck about anyone's rules.

"Stomping with the boots, we're dancing all night long / Grab your fuckin' beer, no pressure our life! Just enjoy our life and always be proud! / Let's go pogo!"

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Outer Space

Nightwork

(Bad Billy Records)

As warfare tears at their Ukrainian homeland, Psychobillies stride forth and thrust middle fingers in the mug of devastation. This rebellion is real. When the moon ascends, and with jaws high and iron-eyes squinted, they rip from instruments headlong vitality that avows defiance.

Recommended: "Nichna robota," "Ibash," "Ni," "Ne khochesh," "Vona ne Mozhe," "Pokynute misto," "Kazhany," "Smutok," "Zalyshaieshsia tut"

Video: "Pokynute misto" (live)

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Ends In Tragedy

"Don't Remember Me"   single

(You Will Thank Us Later)

Just when it seems furious cacophony jacked-up on some uncharted amphetemine is arched to vault from the precipice -- declarations scattershot like razory confetti -- its rampage is incised by soloing of jagged urgency.

Investigation turned up this recording was originally put to tape in 2011. The rager so throttling the fretboard was a pre-Koffin Kats "EZ" Ian Jarrell. Newly unleashed, the song portrays a gang spewing promise. 

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Back In the Day, 2004

Reverend Horton Heat

Revival   

(Yep Roc)

With each concert or marketed recording, Jim Heath looses flash-fluttering murmurations of licks rooted in tradition but stunning in Today raiment. His jocular lyricism and regular-guy exhortations extend hand-shaking familiarity. Top-drawer cohorts Jimbo Wallace and Scott Churilla marvel onlookers by not just equaling the Rev's neck-snapping pace, but doing so with heated distinction. The two have long merited acclaim for gymnastic exploits. 

Reommended: "Happy Camper," "Revival," "Callin' In Twisted," "If It Ain't Got Rhythm," "New York City Girls," "Someone In Heaven," "Party Mad," "Goin' Back Home"

Video: "The Happy Camper"

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Robert Gordon, Link Wray & the Wildcats

Live At Rockpalast 1978  

(Made In Germany Music)

Straight from the fridge: The audio transmission of this June 8, 1978 Rockpalast television broadcast was previously released by Growling Guitar as the second CD in its 2018 set, The Last Tour. The Voice and The Guitar were a dynamic pairing that jolted vintage Cat Spirit with the crisp animation demanded in the boisterous seventies. Joining them were phenomenal bassist/backing singer Rob Stoner and ace drummer Anton Fig. The rock-ribbed foursome's world-spanning preeminence was such that one speculates countless combos today echo their lessons. 

Recommended: "Rock Therapy," "The Way I Walk," "Mystery Train," "Lonesome Train (On a Lonesome Track)," "I Sure Miss You," "Rumble," "Baby, What You Want Me To Do," "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care," "The Fool," "Baby Let's Play House," "I Got a Woman," "Sea Cruise," "Red Hot," "Flyin' Saucer Rock'n'Roll" (rehearsal version #1)

Video: "Rock Therapy," "The Way I Walk," "Mystery Train," "Lonesome Train (On a Lonesome Track)," "I Sure Miss You" (Rockpalast broadcast)

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Cactus Records

The Tony Slug Experiece

s/t

(Suburban Records/Wap Shoo Wop Records/Alternative Tentacles)

Damnable throat cancer claimed beloved Amsterdam stage-stalker Tony in 2023. Through years of studio-toil and road-doggery with various assemblages on the international underground circuit, he had amassed a miniature army of like-outlooked confederates who today harbor admiring recollections.

A New Noise memorium observed: "Shortly before Slug's illness, he was working on The Tony Slug Experience, his first solo album of 12 new songs, with a slew of friends making contributions..."

Too numerous for cataloging here are the fellow bomb-throwers who so terrorized studio technology. Their number counts among stalwarts Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, Happy Tom of Turbonegro, Poison Idea's Jerry A., Nicke Andersson of the Hellacopters, and more. That should by itself be sufficient to enflame purchaser zeal.

Common throughout are Tony's wily songcraft-pen, destruction-chording, and careening treble squawkings of calamitous caliber. Indeed, the entirety rages spectacularly.

(Note: The limited supply of 12" vinyl incarnations was immediately exhausted. Fortunately, The Tony Slug Experience can still be got in digital aspect.)

Recommended: "Road Goat," "If I Make the Gates," "I'll Never Forget," "Wreckerball," "(Living On) Borrowed Time," "Spy Sattelite," "Puppet Smut," "Loaded"

Video: "If I Make the Gates"

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The Brains

The Monster Within 

(Cleopatra)

Cleopatra now offers The Brains's 2013 The Monster Within, sporting fresh cover illustration, in both red vinyl and compact disc incarnations. (A digital streaming version can also be secured.) In the Montreal trio's bubbling admixture, Punk swerve and onrushing Psychobilly coalesce. Freefall-into-madness constructions incorporate textural passages so profound as to deeply imprint. That songs rip roadway despite architectural complexity indicates acuity exercises songcraft discretion. 

Recommended: "The Monster Within," "Give It All," "Misery," "The Damned," "Bleed," "Stay Back," "Electric Shock," "Rest In Pieces," "Cucaracha In Leather," "Devil In Disguise," "Rolling Down"

Video: "Misery"

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The Trusty Hucksters

Hucksters Hottest Hits

(Self-issued)

Across America tonight (these words are being penned on a Saturday), regular folks with libations in calloused hands pack barrooms and shout for escape from workweek tensions. North Carolina sparkplugs the Trusty Hucksters satisfy that craving. Their original offerings ramble and kick with the head-high spiritedness endemic to American stylings upon which they draw. Daily grinds can't smother hope when Rock'n'Roll breathes around the corner.

Recommended: "Breathe Easy," "Rosalee," "Scrapes With Divinity," "The Huckster Strut," "Might Get Lucky (Might Get Dead)," "Sunshine," "El Huckstadero"

Videos: "The Huckster Strut" , live (2:10:01)

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Zabilly

"Seca Sovaco"   single

(Self-issued)

Rendered at loping pace, "Seca Sovaco" magnetizes. Long will the tune resound in consciousness. Slapped doghouse and skins collude to form core steadiness around which echo-shadowed six-string wraps itself. Lyrics are spat brusquely, a robust chorus-gang chanting abettance. Aptly curt solo rips.

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NOFX

Half Album

(Fat Wreck Chords)

Per the band's label: "NOFX's first and only double album has a 5th side!" Explained is that these five tracks were put to tape in the same days and should be considered epilogic. Brawny chord-sprees predominate; hurled like cement-chunks, they smash against everything. Amid uproar, melody has its say.

Recommended: "I'm a Rat," "The Queen Is Dead," "The Humblest Man In the World"

Video: "I'm a Rat"

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Tony and Sal Trio

"Sweet Relief"   single

(Salomone Music)

Motivatonal in a way only authenticity can be. While digging this stalwart Blues testimony -- in which serious string-strangling, precise percussion, unassuming vocals, and organ sweeps persuade to earthy communion -- one intuits that the players enunciate hipness because they cannot do otherwise.

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Back In the Day, 2015 

Roy Brown

28 Big Ones - Original King Records Recordings  

(Gusto Records)

Roy's is a natural-kicks catalog treasured by both old folks with recollections of crepuscular interactions and fresh collectors of hep, post-WWII wax. At Sun in 1954, Elvis, Scotty, and Bill helped themselves to Roy's exultant "Good Rockin' Tonight," injecting the uptempo raver with Hillbilly exuberance. But the King Records icon was as adept at smoldering Blues laments as rockin' shouters. Anyone with doubts about that need only drop this into some sound machine, grab a good-time doll, and crack open a flask. Convincement will roll up in a big-finned Cadillac.

"You wanna be clown, you wanna be a goof / Let's get together and tear off the roof!"

Recommended: "Boogie At Midnight," "Bar Room Blues," "Miss Fanny Brown," "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Ain't No Rockin' No More," "Trouble At Midnight," "Fanny Brown Got Married," "Love Don't Love Nobody," "Cadillac Baby," "Big Town," "Brown Angel," "Mighty Mighty Man," "Shake 'Em Up Baby," "Rock-A-Bye Baby," "Wrong Woman Blues," "Up Jumped the Devil," "Ain't It a Shame," "Black Diamond," "Double Crossin' Woman"

Videos: "Boogie At Minight", "Brown Angel"

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Frank Jacket

FingerStyle - A Salute To Chet Atkins     EP

(MULA Records)

As well understood by both storied Chet and present-day exponent Frank, puissance need not roar its capacity. In the hands of shrewd artists, it can unspool in graceful quietude. Witness in these passages strength profound. 

Multi-instrumentalist Frank took up guitar, bass, and snare to uprear finesse possible only from humanity; no cold machine is capable.

Recommended: "Beer Barrel Polka," "Besame Mucho," "Moonlight Serenade," "Nuages"

Video: All selections

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Choking Susan

Punk and Shameless

(Self-issued)

Give no credit to voices insisting 1977-grounded Punk venom is without present-year relevance. The fiery yearning to drop-kick strictures and thrust fighting fists upward are ageless. Executed here with pugilistic focus are sneers, Cheetah-sideswipes, and devastating obstreperousness. Battery worth paying for.

Recommended: "It's Not Me, It's You," "Butterface," "Rock'n'Roll Boys," "My Own Mistakes," "Love Me"

Video: "It's Not Me, It's You"

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Joe's Cousin One Man Band

Bad Plastic Surgery

(Self-issued)

With but skeletal accompaniment, Joe's Cousin intones narratives whose imageries linger. His vocals are appropriately unpolished. Six-string thrums determinedly, scrupulous negotiations resonating, Insistent poundings rivet all to mission.

In a Bandcamp note, the internet-age troubadour revealed: "This album tells stories of my life. It is a true one-man band album, recorded live with no loops or pedals. Just a guitar, footdrum, and a couple of amplifiers. Favorite track: 'Voices.'"

Recommended: "Walk the Floor," "Whiskey On My Breath," "Cocaine Blues," "Last Night," "Neon Lights," "Wreckage," "The River," "Secret Agent Man," "Voices"

Video: "Voices"

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Back In the Day, 1996

The Belmont Playboys

Wolf Patrol

(Deep South Records)

North Carolina's Belmont Playboys shook the 1990s scene to pieces, and those hip to the tip enjoyed the hell out it. The combo sported confidence-to-kill cat-style and unholstered chops fearsome enough to cash the check. In their rock-ribbed, disciplined output, Hillbilly slouchings kicked it in a thoroughly Rockabilly detonation. 

When the Belmont Playboys strode stages, when their discs spun (Wolf Patrol was their second) , they were the uproarious rebel music no less than any other pomped rowdies that dipped calloused digits into Murray's tins.

Wolf Patrol was reissued in 2007 by Amalgam Digital.

Recommended: "My Boy Flat Top," "Paralyzed," "Bull By the Horns," "One and Only," "Right Around the Corner," "Caravan," "One Woman Man," "Got It Made (In the Shade)," "The Only One"

Video: "My Boy Flat Top" / "One and Only" (live, 1996)

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Jake Calypso

The Roots & the Fruits

(Rock Paradise Records)

Two manners exist by which Jake's bond with the classic Rebel Sound can be illustrated. One is to note he's been playing it since the callow age of 13. A second (more gratifying) option is to spin any of his frantic sides. This latest one serves that end fittingly. 

Tracks were put to tape at Memphis's 706 Union Ave. Old-school Rhythm and Blues breathes lustily here, as do the jumped-up Rockabilly fashions birthed so long ago. Jake amassed players of his superb rank. Their fevered exertions fit the storied surroundings. If sweat could be heard...

(At this writing, only 30-second audio excerpts were available; those proved sufficient for estimation.)

Recommended: "The Only thing To Do Is Play Boogie," "Take a Load Off (Put Your Feet Up)" "Royal Crown Hair Dressing," "Humble Boy," "A Rockin' Rendez-Vous," "Tiptonville Boy," "Dancin' With Cockroaches"

Video: "Take a Load Off (Put Your Feet Up" (filmed at Sun.)

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