Robert Gordon

...and the Di Maggio Connection

(New Shot Records)

Those hip to the tip dig that a new RG disc is cause for much revelry. His was a broad and fathoms-deep baritone in whose scope chestnuts and crisply-penned entries alike maintained venerable Rock'n'Roll/Country flames. In his hands, though, vintage stylings were supercharged, becoming vibrant to a degree they hadn't known since their salad days.

Robert had a worthy compatriot in Marco; the six-string phenomenon knew intimately the Roots songbook. He retold its glories, intercutting them with novel gestures and broadsides that left audience jaws across the floor.

Recommended: "Lover Boy," "Look Who's Blue," "A Mess of Blues,"  "Suspicion," "Playin' For Keeps," "Hello Walls," "Sea of Heartbreak," "Dreamin'," "Drivin' Wheel" 

Videos: "Drivin' Wheel"    "Dreamin'"   "Suspicion" (all are from another show with Di Maggio Connection)

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Nick Curran

Player (Sleazy Records)

Doctor Velvet (Sleazy Records)

In Nick's yowling exhortations rang exuberant swagger that could rip heavy-duty nails from lumber. His ravers had spiritual roots in the shouted works of bygone masters like Little Richard, but were put over with innovative scintillation. There were belly-rubs, too; many-a wee-hours interaction doubtless derived inspiration from the achingly soulful tones of which Nick was capable. 

As regards his solos, suffice it to note that he put his shoe through each. Whether notes screamed in bursts, or orated poignantly, all seized oxygen. (And witness guest Jimmy Vaughn's own pyrotechnics on "Midnite Hour.")

Nick's toils were a far piece from foreigner mimicry. He was as honest-to-Salvation a man of the music as could be anyone who was not jukin' in the 1950s/1960s, or who lacked an H.G. Wells contrivance.

Recommended (Player): "Player," "What About Love," "Evenin'," "She's Evil," "The Groovy Jam," "The Stalker," "Down Boy Down," "Come Back," "Heeby Jeebies"

Recommended (Doctor Velvet): "Doctor Velvet," "Shot Down," "Don't Be Angry," "Please Don't Leave Me," "Midnite Hour," "One More Time," "Can't Stop Lovin' You," "Cold Cold Heart," "Stompin' At the Fort"

Videos: "Player"  (live)  "What About Love"   "Come Back"   "Doctor Velvet"   "Please Don't Leave Me"   "Midnite Hour"

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The Playtones

Ready, Willing, and Able

(Atenzia Records)

Ingratiatingly upbeat romping, equally fit for elbow bending and hardwood handstands. Were they to investigate, white-coats would doubtlessly remark on the impossibilty of maintaining despondence when such carefree, old-timey jukers filled ears. When Paul Burlison spoke of "Good-time music," he meant limber-limbed sounds of this rank. (And that "Green Green Apples'" verses borrow their melody from "Wabash Cannonball" points up the combo's blood-link to the American Songbook.)

Recommended: "Ready, Willing, and Able," "Eliza Jane," "Let Her In," "Hoppin' and Boppin'," "Green Green Apples"

Video: "Hoppin' and Boppin'"   "Green Green Apples"

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Jared Petteys & the Headliners

"I Ain't Gonna Lose"   single   (feat. Ronnie Crutcher)

(Retro-Sonic Records)

"Why won't this mean old world just let me be?!," thunders a distraught Jared. In that solitary lyric - indeed, throughout the strapping and eruptive entirety - rages a question common to our fraught existences. Those not inclined to ponder weighty matters can simply dig the rave-up, though many will likely undertake both - and profit by the doing. (Ronnie C. annihilates, by the by.)

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Duke Robillard

Roll With Me

(Stony Plain Records)

Eminently tasteful originals and homages share the stage, in dated sessions now glimpsing unclouded skies. This is executive station. No sooner has the stylus touched down, than Duke comes out swinging. The purveyor of delectable string articulations rolls through ecstatically jumping Blues and Rock'n'Roll territories with audacious, Jazzy elan. His guitar dances.

Abetted by joyfully rollicking brass and ivories, he unburdens himself of vocals winking and wise. 

Recommended: "Blue Coat Man," "Just Kiss Me," "I Know You Love Me," "Boogie Uproar," "Look What You Done," "Built For Comfort," "My Plea," "You Got Money," "Boogie Woogie Country Girl," "Give Me Back My Money," "Don't You Want To Roll With Me"

Videos: "Blue Coat Man"   "Just Kiss Me"   "Boogie Uproar"   

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The Reztones

Chest Full of Arrows

(Ghost Rhythm Records)

Some excel at either songcraft or performance. Such is hardly the Reztones' problem, though; they're impressively adept at both. Storming from speakers is psycho of formidable sinew and sure-footedness, but that often eschews cobweb-enshrouded morbidness in favor of temporal accessibility. 

Recommended: "Witchcraft," "Let the Dead Die," "Dust Devil," "Let's Play House Tonight," "Especial"

Video: "Witchcraft"   "Let's Play House Tonight"   "Especial"

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Sick City

How Far We've Come

(Self-issued)

Palpable is impassioned yearning to say important things. That alone classes this in an upper rank. But also considerable are the energies pushing each work beyond the merely competent and into a brash soundtrack that heeds no red signals. Acoustic strings of sundry descriptions throw in with electric ones to pursue arresting destinations, hefting earnest exhortations.

Recommended: "Live For Losing Battles," "Ugly Inside," "On Borrowed Time," "Wanted," "Time To Walk Away"

Video: "Live For Losing Battles"   "On Borrowed Time"

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Back In the Day, 1965

Buddy Merrill

Sounds A La Guitar (Accent)

Holiday For Guitars (Accent)

Six-string and steel guitarist Buddy is perhaps most famed for marshalling in-pocket tones whilst part of Lawrence Welk's retinue. Though that typically sedate assemblage was wholly composed of topflight instrumentalists, Buddy and his signature Stratocaster still flared into sharp relief; one example was his show-halting version of Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes." (Another arose during a 1966 Welk broadcast, when Buddy tore up "San Antonio Rose," alongside picking compatriot Neil Lavang.)

And when Buddy stepped out from the Champagne Music Maker's shadow, his gifts unfurled liberally. The man's ease when traversing disparate stylistic boulevards was documented on this pair of vintage vinyl platters; from them sounded evidence of his proficiency.

Recommended (Sounds A La Guitar): "Sounds A La Guitar," "Granada," "Duke's Place," "Aqualina," "Take Five," "Song of India," "

Recommended (Holiday For Guitars): "Holiday For Guitars," "Lover," "April In Portugal," "Theme From Zorba the Greek"

Videos: "Sounds A La Guitar"      "Duke's Place"    "Aqualina"   "Buddy's Boogie" (Welk show)   "Holiday For Guitars"   "Lover"   "April In Portugal"   "Theme From Zorba the Greek"

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Deezer

Go Go Killers

Beelzebubble Bath

(Pigmé Records)

With sanger Alabama Sharp a-lurch at their fore, these flesh-obsessed slime-people channel unspeakable passions through fuzz-clad mantras in which tribal poundings resound with dire finality. Alabama Sharp reels as off-balancedly as one would expect a spiritual brother of Hasil and Lux to do, yowling, whooping, and hiccuping his path into askew dimensions normal souls leave untrod.

Recommended: "Suck My Lollipop," "Milkshake," "Salty Dog," "Ladies From Hades," "Chicken Parts," "Hole Digger," "Goin' Down To the Water," "Johnny Getsum Was His Daddy," "Shake Your Bones"

Video: live (Weirdsville Alternative Music Festival Worldwide - Aug. 31, 2024)

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Trouble Bound

Broken Ribs & Blood Clots

(Work Whorse Records)

Darkened clubs and bright emergency rooms are where you're most likely to locate Trouble Bound's bruised and grinning adherants. For the group's brutish bombardments are equalled only by the recidivist passions they surely provoke. There's no stoppin' the cretins...

Recommended: "Nickels and Dimes," "Triple Zero," "No Kind of Life," "Someday," "Could Be Worse"

Videos: "Nickels and Dimes"   "Someday"

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Psycho Charger

Return of the Psycho   digital and 12" vinyl 

(Rot 'N' Roll Army Records)

Each man delivers crackingly, in this solid and crunch-chorded evocation of uncanny spook-show carryings-on. Funereal organ intonations and spectral reverberations of beclouded genesis float o'er airwaves, as indomitable trash-Rock comes out swinging, balled fists at the ready. All in bad fun, from the drive-in silver screen to right behind you.

Available in white and gray/white variations. Tracks were committed to tape amid the pandemic downtime. "If there was ever a sound I envisioned for this band when it first started, this is it," allowed Jimmy Psycho, on Bandcamp.

Recommended: "Midnight Monster Show," "Blood Orgy of the Living Dead," "Legend In Your Own Mind," "Brain Buster, Knuckle Duster," "No One Loves the Creature," "Tonight Is Halloween," "Vampira, Baby!"

Video:  promo

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ReverbNation

Johnny Voodoo & the Graverobbers From Outerspace

Doing Burnouts On Your Grave   digital album

(Dekonstruktion Records)

The Ed Wood reference qualified for an immediate point. No sooner had the listening ceremony begun, than additional points were dispatched for the rock-ribbed, morbidly kicked Rockabilly. The volume knob intuits and cranks itself. Hallucinatory visions are conjured, depicting a haunted hot rod tearing through a twilit marble orchard.

Recommended: "Burnin' Rubber," "Doing Burnouts On Your Grave," "Drag Strip Bound and Down," "Fuel-Injected Watusi," "Gonna Rock This Town," "Got the Hammer Down," "Graveyard Twang," "Grinding Gears," "Nosferatu Mambo," "Rod & Roll," "Vampires From Hell," "Whiskey Night"

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Robert Gordon with Mick Hanson

"Jukebox"   "A Whole Lotta Christmas Boogie"  digital singles

(Self-issued)

New York's Mick penned both numbers, and in 2005 enlisted legend Robert to lay down vocals. ("A master in the studio, who always delivered to the best of his ability," the axeman recalls of The Voice.) Country lamentation "Jukebox" merits rank with Gordon's earlier readings of "The Fool" and "There Stands the Glass."  And it matters not that the tree-trimming season has passed; Mick's "Christmas Boogie" bears evergreen charms.

Fret sovereigns with whom Robert worked magic included Link Wray, Chris Spedding, Danny Gatton, and Barry Ryan. Mick assumes post in that number. (These tracks are two of seven on which Mick and Robert collaborated. One hopes the remaining five will soon feel sunlight.)

Videos: "Jukebox"    "A Whole Lotta Christmas Boogie"   

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Uuhai

"Khar Khulz"   single

(Self-issued)

The fusion of throat-singing, horsehead fiddling, and inexorable metallic instrumentation produces something at once skull-wrenching and wonderfully idiosyncratic. That traditional Mongolian airs and thunderous slabs of arena adamantium smash shoulders hardly surprises, when one considers the oneness of all musics. 

Excerpted from the group's site: "Shouting 'Uuhai' in unison has roots in a spiritual mantra as a sign of goodwill leading to good fortune, and was used as a way of releasing energy, emboldening one's spirits, and stimulating the elements of one's body."

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Dead Boys

Ignorance In Action (The Rarities)

(Cleopatra)

With scant exceptions, the coolest tracks are live readings of jagged-shard exhortations from the Boys' 1977 Sire LP. Previously unissued demo cuts are hardly without worth. But the gang's maiden studio effort captured the scummy spectacle that established them as among NYC's most endearing vulgarians.

Recommended: "Ya Really Don't Love Me," "Detention Home" (3:33 version), "Ain't It Fun," "Hey Little Girl," "High Tension Wire," "What Love Is," "I Need Lunch," "Down In Flames"

Video: "I Need Lunch" (live at CBGBs, 1977)   "High Tension Wire" (live, 1976)

Cleopatra

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Turpie

"Fright Night"   single

(Hobyah Records)

As long as hearts burn with desperate desires to leap and explode in defiance of stultifying strictures (and that'll be forever), there will be demand for Rock 'n' Roll this cyclonic. Razory edges enhance the smash-dig aspect. 

Video (live, 25:02)

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Sex Pistols

Live In the UK 1976

(Cult Legends / The Media Champ)

It's appropriate that they rendered only a single 1970s studio album. It exemplified the volatile moment, one that blew all to hell conventions both musical and social. 

Whereas the Ramones had Sergeant Johnny to enforce performance discipline - and those outsider CBGBs moptops buzzsawed into deserved eternal imprint - the Pistols raged for but a twinkling. (At least, in their virginal phase.) 

But their sometimes-shambolic cacophony suited the days at-hand (a vulgar trait they shared with Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers). Their rip-and-stitch dash echoes in successive bands' works.

Of course, the brash spirit that typified the seventies Punk ethos had precedent; identical nervy countenance had been characteristic of Elvis and Mick - rebellious upstarts in their own green seasons. 

1976 called for stagnant, self-indulgent Rock'n'Roll to suffer a swift boot-kick. 2025, too, seems such an occasion.

Recommended: "Anarchy In the UK," "Wanna Be Me," "Don't Give Me No Lip, Child," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "Liar," "Substitute," "No Feelings," "No Fun," "Problems"

Videos: "Anarchy In the UK" (live, 1976)   "Wanna Be Me" (live, 1976)

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Mick Wigfall

Solid Smoke 96

(Gypsy Rose)

Much admiration is due vintage-styled boppers like Mick who dig that grooving in the manner of Rockabilly's progenitors necessitates throwing one's arms about the Country inclinations that are so integral to its constitution. And such is the lofty degree of craftsmanship unspooled by players he's conscripted that each step ain't nothin' but right.

Recommended: "Mushy Peas," "I'm Out," "Cabbage Head," "Lonely Weekends," "Casting My Spell On You," "Long-Legged Girl," "Western Union," "Night Train"

Video: "Cabbage Head"

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45Worlds

Shamcocks

s/t   3-song EP

(Diablo Records)

Eriu a-romp.The tentpole betwixt sprightly antediluvian airs is the Doyley-scribed "Craic..." Each track hyperventilates its wildside recklessness, throwing forth old-sod peculiarities clad in flabbergastingly arresting raiment. Mind you don't splash your ale whilst cavorting.

Recommended: "Wild Rover," "Craic At the Irish Rover," "Tell Me Ma"

Video: "Tell Me Ma"

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Tristan Thorndyke's Rock'n'Roll Cannibals

Carne Pleasures

(Self-issued)

Flung from this tough-streets compendium is madly dashing Rock'n'Roll for which unadorned guitar is a blade-swinging ringleader. Every man involved flexes muscle. The absence of studio artificiality allows for Tristan's vocal acrobatics to fly unhindered. 

Recommended: "I Wanna Scream," "Distract Me," "The Hoodoo Hop," "Cadaver Dog," "1, 2,3,4," "Liquid Hate," "Shot in the Boys Room," "Space Lazer," "Terminate," "Live a Little Bit"

Video: "I Wanna Scream"

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Ramones

Brain Drain

(Sire / Rhino)

Rhino reissued Brain Drain last November. The Ramones are one of Rock'n'Roll's basic food groups; no disputing of that truth will be brooked, here. True, Johnny (in his 2012 book, Commando), rated the 1989 record a C, and noted it was "One of my least favorite albums..." But the mix of Dee Dee's combustible essays and Joey's affecting ones meant the group's characteristic melange of guitar-broadsides and Pop romanticism shone, notwithstanding perfectionism. (The riff in "Ignorance Is Bliss" - one of two tracks co-written by Dictator Andy Shernoff - reminds of Blue Öyster Cult, not a negative factor.) While countless imitators followed - some, quite worthwhile - none surpassed the prototype. And none ever will.

Recommended: "I Believe In Miracles," "Zero Zero UFO," "Don't Bust My Chops," "All Screwed Up," "Palisades Park," "Pet Semetary," "Ignorance Is Bliss," "Come Back Baby," "Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight)"

Videos: "Pet Semetary"   "I Believe In Miracles"

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Smoke and Fiction

(Fat Possum Records)

Proof that in music, the aging process is not a necessary factor. In fact, the only thing that tempers the spirit of '77 is experience wise enough to avoid indulgence. Voices sweep and swoop, slap-crack beats are irresistable, Billy's guitar blasts and side-swipes, and all is good for 28:40. This is said to be X's final disc. That would be so wrong.

Recommended: "Ruby Church," "Sweet Til the Bitter End," "The Way It Is," "Flipside," "Big Black X," "Smoke and Fiction," "Struggle," "Winding Up the Time," "Face In the Moon," "Baby and All"

Video: "Ruby Church"

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Guitar Slingers

I Feel Psycho

(Self-issued)

Performances this thunderclap-loud and decisive call for unthrottled production; fortunately, such reported for duty. Doyley thrashes strings into lunatic ecstacy and yowls exultantly, confederates in blast-blooded amalgamation. Beloved chestnuts are revivified and charged with crisp abandon.

Recommended: "Boppin' and Shakin'," "Red Hot Rockin' Blues," "CC Rider," "Cut Across Shorty," "Little Sister," "Marie, Marie," "Bopalena"

Videos: "Boppin' and Shakin'"   "Bopalena" (live, 2016)

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