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.

Monday, May 6, 2024

Chip Hanna and the Berlin Three

Days Gone By

(Igloo Records)

Upon learning of Chip's Punk-drummer resume (U.S. Bombs, One Man Army), listeners unacquainted with his solo incarnation may anticipate Country Music ravaging. But those wise to his ways know that he comes not to destroy that rustic idiom, but to throw arms about its truest nature - while injecting amphetemine boot-juice. Barn-dance fiddle and marvelously bent-string guitars touch shoulders with loose-limbed "Yee haw" drawling and percussive exuberance to produce robust traditionalism sporting fresh glad-rags. Bopping across hardwood, you'll exult in this honesty while lamenting that, elsewhere in corporate clawed-hands, Peoples' Music has been made a eunuch.

Recommended: "Sweet Mental Revenge," "The Way We Were," "Everybody Needs a Wall," "Tossin' & Turnin'," "Anything At All," "Ten Dollar Bill," "Purgatory Breakdown," "Karianne," "The Last Cowboy Guitar," "Max Hanner"

Video: "The Way We Were"

Amazon (Japan)

Polecats

EP One

(Self-issued)

Yet a-thrive is the engaging party lilt that long characterized these Neo-Rockabilly celebrities. No one remained seated when the Polecats rocked houses back in the day, nor will they now. Underlying the fun whipped-topping, though, is substance without which the foursome could never have secured loftiness.

Recommended: "Crepe Soul," "Volcano," "Devil On the Radio," "India Rubberman"

Video: "Crepe Soul" (live)

V/A

Music From Another World

(Jungle Room Records)

Wigged-out visitors from outer planets assuming forms of Jazz, Lounge, and assorted novelties swoop and hover from this oddball compendium. Included are excerpts from movies 2001: A Space Odyssey, Disney's Mars and Beyond, Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, Bobby and Betty Go To the Moon, and an Astro Zombies radio ad. Rank beside Dr. Demento and Lux and Ivy's rescued eccentricities.

Recommended: "Fly Me To the Moon" (Louis Prima)" "Astro Twist" (Steven Garrick and his Party Twisters), "The Green Slime" (Richard Delvy), "Eggpulant That Ate Chicago" (Big Maybelle), "Telstar" (Billy Vaughn and his Orchestra), "Man From the Moon" (Chaperones), "The Mechanical Man" (Bent Bolt and the Nuts), "Flowers From Venus" (The George King - Joe Corney Organ Sounds), "Saturn" (The Marketts)

Videos: "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" (Big Maybelle) "The Mechanical Man" (Bent Bolt and the Nuts)

Facebook (Mr. Fab)

Big Maybelle

Chip Whitson & Ray Roehrborn

"Good Man Down" digital single

(Self-issued)

A stout anthem for every man who's gotten his hands calloused to satisfy bill collectors and put food on the family table, only to get a pink slip shoved toward him at day's end. Harmonies and earthy instrumentation surge at medium tempo, lending apt support to real-world messaging. Puts in mind a saying variously worded and of unclear authorship: 'God must love common folks, because he made so many of them.'

Video

X (Chip)

X (Ray)

Friday, May 3, 2024

Ghoultown

"I Am the Undead" digital single

(Monstro Productions)

The infamous mesa-haunting wraiths were solicited to etch this somber, pensive declaration for immersive stealth FPS Blood West. Bone-cold determination is a core surrounded by echo-clad desolateness. Legions familiar with Ghoultown's occult-western oeuvre will savor characteristically commanding guitars and Count Lyle's weathered drawl-from-under-the dust. Grim satiation awaits those fresh to the matter.

video

Wine Lips

Super Mega Ultra

(Stomp Records)

Aggression forced through a pop strainer. Vibrant hues bloom all over the place, a mighty guitar crashing forward and upward with abandon. But don't misapprehend. Method underlies seeming bedlam. The architects of this audaciousness know exactly the course they crave.

Recommended: "Derailer," "High On Your Own Supply," "Fried IV," "Stimulation," "Six Pack," "Seratonin," "Lemon Party"

Video: "Stimulation"

Box 13

"End Of the Night" single

(Self-issued)

Rock'n'Roll agitation beyond governance flies down a moonlit road, exhilarating gusts of reckless-kicks winds whistling past. Stop signs are blurs. Screaming guitars urge action. Ending-point is inconsequential. Headlong spree is its own reward.

Video

ca.7digital.com

Kris Bone

Reverb Renditions

(Self-issued)

A benefit of Surf instrumentals (besides the hip-shaking one) is their inspirational spell over imaginations. Visions ambitious and bewitching, of sun-strobed American sands and galactic vistas unglimpsed by human eyes, unfold within the mind. Opportunity for just such dreaming is offered by these sprightly revisits to numbers by the Surftones, Sandy Nelson, the Pyramids, and the Tornadoes. Six-string artisan Kris honors those predecessors while igniting sparks of his own devising, in an outing appropriately awash in reverb splashings.

Recommended: "CeciliaAnn," "Casbah," "Penetration," "Bustin' Surfboards"

Video: "Cecilia Ann"

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Dave Crimmen

"When She Was Mine" single

(Self-issued)

Rocker Dave undertakes balladeering with top-drawer results. Legendary Elvis accompanists the Jordanaires bolster the singing star's tones, their majestic assurance lending sheen. Credit for birthing booms can be accorded such aching melancholia.

Video

Dave with the Jordanaires

Dead Jack and his Dry Bones

Dr. Jack's Experiment digital album

(Self-issued)

Another splendidly unnerving solo opus by singer / guitarist Jack Cortese, he of Italian Psychos The Bone Machine renown. "Listen to my lo-fi shit and enjoy the trash!," the masked monster-man advises on his Bandcamp page. As this garage-cultivated delirium spurts infectious oddballism in all directions, one may be unsure whether to do the Monkey or surrender to edgy mental instability. Why not opt for both?

Recommended: "The King Of Twist," "Dirty Old Jack," "Cobra," "Vampire," "Dr. Jack's Experiment," "I Got My Eye On You," "Leave Me Alone," "Rock'n'Roll Loser"

Video: "Dirty Old Jack"

Linus Zander

"My Mind Is Full Of Rock" single

(Self-issued)

For three-and-a-half romping minutes, the Swedish 88s-pounder renders autobiographically. His fond portrayal of existence enriched by and dedicated to the engaging works of Sun icons like Jerry Lee will resound as identifiable in ears of cats for whom vintage musics have been treasured lifelong soundtracks. "This is what I'm living for / Rock'n'Roll is in my soul," Linus declares. He could be speaking for all of us.

Video

zdigital.com.au

Polish John

i feel okay

(Self-issued)

John Demczuk sports numerous hats, all of which he wears well. The Yonkers denizen not only wrote every persuasive song here, but also played all instruments and produced this disc. Punk and Folk strains alternately rampage and amble, as the man himself vents in relatable everyman fashion. Unstinted soul-baring mindful of the party's rhythmic purpose.

Recommended: "giving up," "please don't help me," "gotta get wrong," "alone again (unnaturally)," "i feel okay," "miss me"

Video: "giving up"

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Pontus J. Back & Gospel Express

Rockabilly Hymns

(Talking Music)

While Finland's guitar-packing Rock Pastor is famed for metallic hijinx, he's now put to wax a lifelong passion that will likely turn heads just as it prompts them to shake in appreciation of the man's adeptness. Pontus's ambition is advanced by seriously capable cohorts (including fellow musical master and minister Johnny Hatton); their swinging toils result in a work both emulative of vintage accentings and ballooned with its own vivacity.

As is typical of Pontus efforts, a message significant to all worldly souls shouts its joyful promise at every turn.

Recommended: "Rockabilly Hymns," "There Is a River Of Life," "Blessed Assurance," "What a Friend We Have In Jesus," "How Great Thou Art," "Swing low Sweet Chariot," "When We All Go To Heaven," "I Saw the Light"

Video: "There Is a River Of Life"

zdigital.com.au

Generador

Grandes Éxitos de Extrarradio (Recopiloción de singles y EPs 2013 - 2023)

(Snap!! Records)

Vocals, drums, and guitar are all one will find here. But they are hard-lashed and sufficient to produce enthralling racket upon which the robot-monster imprint of an infamous CBGB dyad looms large. At turns alacritous and menacingly methodical, selections presented offer a tilted-dimension vibe. Nightmares can be heard.

Recommended: "Combatir," "A Go Go," "Hija de Puta," "Cerveza," "El Establo," "Voy Cuesta Abajo," "El Sueño de los Muertos," "Cementerio de la Almudena," "No Me Consigues Divertir," "Yo Adoro a Lux Interior"

Video: "Yo Adoro Lux Interior"

38 Coffin

Leopard Spots

(Self-issued)

Those seeking subtlety are advised to explore elsewhere. The moment this funerary enclosure's stone lid is edged agape, out leaps ripsaw-guitar grisliness worthy of any surfside cemetery or basement-dwelling cult. Mesmeric poundings and squealed snarlings befit atmospheric direness, as anything-for-a-thrill teenagers frug on midnight beach.

Recommended: "Road Queen," "Black Leather Cat," "Witching Hour," "Nuclear Wave," "Bad Luck," "Leopard Spots," "Dead Surfer Girl," "Dark Night," "Johnny Thunders"

Video: "Nuclear Wave" (live)

The Kustoms

Beat On the Rhythm

(Self-issued)

They banner themselves a Rockabilly band, and they do indeed burst with the exuberance and flair typical of that style's progenitors. But earthy Blues also figure mightily in this Greek production. Together, the genres prove complementary to one another as tracks sprint past. Piquant harp drawlings adorn arrangements while bent-string articulations hustle determinedly.

Recommended: "Time Traveler," "Drop Stomper," "(Out Of the) Downtown," "Lonesome Tears In My Eyes"

Video: "(Out Of the) Downtown"

zdigital.com.au

Friday, April 12, 2024

The Meteors

40 Days A Rotting

(Mutant Rock)

P. Paul's netherworldly fixation is but garish accoutrement laid atop compositions so textured and layered as to be sophisticated, but at once much too grim for mainstream sensibilities. Prolific with songcraft pen, he devastates with six strings of doom. Surly phrasing befits murk.

Recommended: "The Blood Red Sea," "Road Burn," "Blood Moon," "40 Days A Rotting," "Murder Party," "Seven Skulls," "The Rage (Never Just For Fun," "Dead Man's Hand," "In the Land Of a Spider God"

Video: "40 Days A Rotting"

Djordje

"The Way I Am" single

(Ceklin)

The personnel involved recommend Djordje Stijepovic's latest: Joining him are Paul Pigat, Dusty Grave, Aleksander Petrovic, and Rene de la muerte. Those desiring further data are advised that in an economical two-and-a-half minutes, classic Rock'n'Roll changes, beach-cruising Pop harmonies, and chordy thrashings straight out of sneering Punkdom forge fun fun fun.

video

The Unknowns

East Coast Low

(Drunken Sailor)

Australia's Bargain Bin label released this hurtling LP for its domestic market in 2023. Mere days prior to this writing, Drunken Sailor reissued it for global appreciation. The wax is swelled nearly to bursting with distorted guitar pyrotechnics, "Whoa woah!" choruses that compel raucous sing-a-longs, and street-race propulsion no statute could restrain. As is always favored, songs open/make their points/and conclude in compact spans.

Recommended: "Shot Down," "Dianne," "Rid Of You," "Crying," "Beat Me," "Thinking About You," "Know It All," "I Don't Know," "Deleted," "Supersonic Love"

Video: "Crying"

CUIR

Album Album LP and digital release

(Offside Records)

Scant online information can be located for this trenchant French Synthpunk. One rare source asserts it is the conceit of an erstwhile member of various hardcore outfits. That mystery to the side, one is struck by dominance of burly guitar in material notable for fleet vehemence. Any language impediment is as nothing, given the bellicosity projected.

Recommended: "Gast," "Phoenix," "Les nerfs à vif," "Bloqué," "La force de continuer," "Un air de Mexico," "Toujours pareil," "On verra bien"

Video: "Gast"

Offside Records

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Evil Conduct

10 Tracks...No Bullshit

(Randale Records)

When this erupts into thunderous actuality, guitars swung in rumbustious offensive and drums smashed to smithereens, no battleship chains could restrain it. We are beset by an exultant rallying cry whose brutal magnetism compels every disconnected misfit to pull on combat boots, stab air with knuckly fist, and stomp in the shaved-head parade.

Recommended: "Boots On Our Feet," "Lost Time," "Stand Accused," "Hey Ho!," "Nothing But Lies," "City Life," "Because Of You," "Cost Of Living," "Older Than Dirt," "Stick To Your Guns," "1969" (bonus track), "You're Wondering Now" (bonus track)

Video: "Boots On Our Feet"

Randale Records

The Lazy Tones

Laundry Sessions EP

(El Toro)

Honest music is one reason it's good to be breathing. From deep within these grooves springs finger-popping, tilted brim-sporting style of the sort once cultivated by Leonard and Phil Chess. Direct production focuses attention on Blues magic wrought by four cats on fire with the boldness that tore Chicago joints wide open in post-WWII years.

Recommended: "Lend Me a Train Fare," "Look-a-Here," "Natural Born Lover," "Sloppy Drunk," "Baby Please Don't Go"

Video: "Lend Me a Train Fare"

Boom! Boom! Deluxe

"Leopard Print" digital track

(Self-issued)

For 3:57, New Zealand's Boom! Boom! Deluxe envelops listeners with teasingly languid and jazzy ambiance, from within which passions curl inviting fingers. Sultry Henrieta "Hettie LaBombe" Tornyai purrs in delicious symbiosis, her breathiness effectively redoubling steam heat.

Interviewed by NZ Musician, she daubed a fetching portrait:

"Inspired by 1950s instrumentals like 'The Stripper' by David Rose, I pictured a seedy nightclub full of smoke with a burlesque dancer stripping to the sound of a sleazy saxophone. I wanted something that would swing but still be at a driving, danceable tempo.

"It began with a riff based around a D Blues scale written on the double bass, which is my main instrument. Right from the start I knew I wanted a baritone sax as the main feature. It really evokes the '50s and '60s, and I love that grunty sound!"

Video

Connie and the Rockets

s/t vinyl LP

(El Toro)

Dependability ensures satisfaction. Connie and her tuned-up confederates never stray across orthodox Rockabilly's boundaries, finding instead much rock-ribbed vivacity within them. Others may wander, but there's no place like home.

Recommended: "My Place," "The Turning Tide," "Toda la Noche," "Your Misery," "I'm a Rocket"

Video: "My Place"

Sunday, April 7, 2024

Mary B. Good

Loh's Rägne

(MBG Music)

Flame-tongued six-string licks are torn off with attention-riveting flair, and pumping 88s delight as this stomper blooms. Rugged doghouse and snapped-beat drumming fix all to adamantium foundation. No profound messaging or exploration of being are present, nor are such of interest. Instead, Mary and her nitro-jazzed guitar rip into boisterous Rockabilly bacchanalia fun. Everyone plunges into the revelry, and come morrow no one will remember anything.

Video

zdigital.com.au

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