DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY: March 2025

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Willie Barry

This Is How We Duet

(Barryfied)

In days long past, regional crackerbox radio outlets piped similar musicalizing of plain-folks' fortunes to listeners weary after the day's toils. Simple instrumentation and harmonies that gladdened befit commonplace circumstances. Real Country was authentic expression of the world in which average men and women loved and lived.

Willie is celebrated as the Rock-A-Sonics' bop-heeled singer. Joined here by a slew of visiting talents, he revisits vintage jewels whose back-country fashion has enough spiritedness to set woods on fire.

It's like discovering a time machine with a speaker.

Recommended: "Love Me To Pieces" (feat. Dave Stuckey), "You've Got Everything" (with Deke Dickerson), "My Honey" (feat. Big Sandy), "Draggin' the River" (with Grey Delisle), "Why Don't You Love Me" (feat. Dave Stuckey), "That's All I Want From You" (with Dani Colace), "Tired and Sleepy" (feat. Eddie Clendening), "Two Hearts, Two Kisses" (with Dani Colace), "Warm Love" (feat. Big Sandy)

Videos: "Tired and Sleepy" "Two Hearts, Two Kisses" (both live, at Viva Las Vegas 2023)

The Cramps

Fiends of Dope Island 2025 reissue

(Planet Records)

By the 2003 date of Fiends' initial issuance, blood-moon brace Lux and Ivy had thoroughly stropped their grisly-kicks spectacle: the morbid schlock of Al Adamson with John Waters' depravity, carved onto a garage-Punk soundtrack. Some components spurted crimson, while other maleficent curiosities flung sparks. Lux heaved an abundance of maniacal ejaculations, whoops, and stream-of-monstrousness intonations. But "Taboo" revealed him as a more technically adroit singer than those customary vocal-gymnastics suggested. Vampy vedette Poison Ivy - long known to be of homicidal capacity whilst molesting metallic strings - acquitted herself with all the pointed poise of a mercenary assassin. And the teasingly creeping "Color Me Black" may be the most bare-faced Link homage they ever put to tape.

This Swedish rerelease was limited to 300 red-vinyl units.

Recommended: "Big Black Witchcraft Rock," "Hang Up," "Dr. Fucker M.D. (Musical Deviant)," "Dopefiend Boogie," "Taboo," "She's Got Balls," "Oowee Baby," "Mojo Man from Mars," "Color Me Black"

Videos: "Dopefiend Boogie" "Taboo" "She's Got Balls" "Color Me Black"

Ripmen

Ready For Lobotomy? EP

(Beagle Sound)

Morbidness lunges headlong into demolition-chorded furiousness. Guttural spittings splatter across clamor, acids corroding violent noise. But those culpable evince impressive resourcefulness in the coda: Banjo romps along in a sportive Country-Rockabilly ditty likely to prompt jigs.

"In the heart of sweet Dixie, where the whiskey is strong" is the introduction drawled to down home merriment.

Recommended: "Dark Carriage," "Night Terror," "Nightwatch," "Torn Hearts & Twisted Souls"

Videos: "Night Terror" "Torn Hearts & Twisted Souls"

Kings of Hong Kong

Sonic Thrills

(Trashwax)

Garage, Rockabilly, Punk, Psycho - all were hurled together in various measures. The admixture is a jolting one. This is the 5th disc executed by these burly skronk mongers, and a mere 300 red-vinyl copies can be got. Coarse, slammingly cacophonous, and seriously life-threatening.

Recommended: "The Driver," "Snake Pit," "Guillotine," "Subterraneans," "Mexicans From Venus," "Haunted Mind," "City of the Strange"

Video: "Mexicans From Venus"

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Tom Relling

"Secret" single

(Shaky Records)

The spirit of Marc. B. hovers o'er head, as Pop-Rock confectioner Tom skids in on florescent heels, waxing serenely lyrical while mongering riffs and hooks that earned T. Rex cherished habitat. The spell Mr. Relling casts surely leaves trippers exulting in life itself, and undulating as if ecstatic occupants of Archie's Giant Jukebox.

"Secret" was excerpted from the upcoming "Peace In Love" full-length disc.

Mr. Black & the 5000 Cadillacs

Britannia Live! 5-track release

(Musakonttori)

A 1956 North Carolina newspaper observed: "Several persons were injured when police fired tear gas to break up a Rock'n'Roll riot here last night. They fired gas grenades into ventilation ducts at the dance hall..."

Now as then, the Rebel Music hath inciteful charms.

From Britannia Live!, table-flipping, widow-smashing celebration erupts full-blast, as rock-ribbed rhythm cats loose hunks of righteous bop. Lessons carved by luminaries are swung with fresh punch. Declamations soar like torpedoes.

It's like 1956 again, but juiced up and on fire.

Recommended: "I'm On Fire," "Mad Men," "Cruise To Tiptonville," "Cadillac Time," "Stutterin' Cindy"

Video: "I'm On Fire" "Mad Men"

Simon Crashly and the Skylarks

"Bye Bye Baby" single

(Self-issued)

"One of these days when I'm dead and gone / I hope you'll hear this song," crows Simon in this jaunty toned sprint. Powering his flight are rollicking 88s and twanged strings in heaping measures. Gravel flies from rear tires.

Video

The Psychodelics

Back From the Dead 5-track release

(Self-issued)

Through marble orchard-mists lurch unspeakable wretches whose malicious ambitions are fueled by Psychobilly suasions. Queen Judy sweeps imperiously across withered grasses. At her back are ghouls Erik, DJ, and Eric. And until Sol ascends, the four put up a skewed thundercrack unnerving and trenchant. One is mindful of Dee Dee's pronouncement: "Skeletons dance, I curse this day."

Recommended: "Undead Don't Stop Dancin'," "Monster In the Ground," "Hungry Every Night," "Run and Hyde"

Video: "Undead Don't Stop Dancin'" "Run and Hyde"

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Howlin' Ric & the Rocketeers

High Risk, Low Reward

(Sleazy Records)

Even as reviewer pen is put to scroll, Richard Ian Colley and gone collegues are set to tour. They doubtless will leave fracture in their wake; that speculation is occasioned by this, the group's third issuance. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes reveled in exactly this bold R&B expanse. Stark production promotes playing that is at once brisk, blunt, and of formidable capacity. Brass marauders reinforce sweat-flinging assertions, only to sporadically parade sensitive soulfulness. And Ric does indeed howl, recalling storied joint-shouters like Big Joe Turner.

Recommended: "Dancing Fool," "Secrets and Lies," "Kiss Me Sometime," "I Just Can't Sleep," "Diamonds and Pearls," "Standing By," "Great Not To See You," "Danger In the Woods," "One Last Drink"

Videos: "Dancing Fool," "Kiss Me Sometime" "Great Not To See You"

Apache Crotale

Penalty Life

(Thousands Records)

Deadbolts are as nothing when Psycho so explosive barrels in; doors splinter, ears are molested, and wracked bodies writhe in paroxysms of gratified violation. It's all in fun, though not the sort indulged in virtuous environs. That makes it worth uplift.

Recommended: "Krazy," "Boogie," "Rock Me," "Get It On," "All Ready For Some R&R," "Crotale Caravan," "You'll Be Mine," "Run Crotale Run"

Video: "Boogie" / "All Ready For Some R&R" / "Get It On" (live)

Second Hand Trio

Slow Down! digital album

(Self-issued)

Appreciative perusal is merited by this Toronto triad because they achieve something creditable, instilling treasured creations with particular aspect. It's as if these songs are their friends, just as they are ours.

Recommended: "Slow Down," "Haulin' Hearse," "You Can't Judge a Book (By Looking At Its Cover), "Oh Les Filles"

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Back In the Day, 1981

Big Daddy Sun and the Outer Planets

Rockabilly

(Jazzbo)

The present reviewer tore shrink wrap from this independent LP upon its maiden issuance. Still in my collection, it stands as a fine relic of an era that saw Robert Gordon, the Rockats, Stray Cats, and Ronny Weiser's California constellation waxing numerous significant platters. (Europe, too, offered abundant examples.) But this release enjoyed the distinction of Illinois origin. And the particularity it evidenced stemmed from that 'flyover country' germination.

(Also of Middle-American coinage in that era were Hi-Fi and the Roadburners, Safety Last, and Pinky Black and the Excessives. They strode club stages as members of the bar-band culture that, though not featured on top-ten lists or posters, help keep real Rock'n'Roll burning before American working folks every night.)

Big Daddy's wax was possessed of a down-home folks quality that revivalist efforts produced on the coasts (salient as they were) lacked to identical degree. Covers of Louie Jordan, Jimmy Wages, and Bob and Lucille found comfort alongside crisply-drafted outings like "Hey, Pretty Baby," "Twelve Bars On Mars," and "Clothes Don't Make the Man." The heavy Country aspect of the good-time picking and saxophone swinging imbued proceedings with jubilance. All of which might have floundered, were it not for the dependably on-duty drummer.

Vocals alternated between hiccupped madness teetering on the edge, and harmonies that enriched with congeniality. Audiences surrendered happily to bacchanalian imperatives. "There's a Rockabilly Party on the edge of town," advised the song of that name; this disc was surely spun there, to the delight of limber-legged Jacks and Jills.

(Sadly, group leader Ron Cannon passed in 2013. The Smile Politely site remembered him as a "big man with a big heart." The present fortunes of other group members could not be ascertained at presstime.)

Recommended: "Hey, Pretty Baby," "Miss Pearl," "Breakout," "Rockabilly Party," "Midnight Ball," "After the Dance," "Momma Told Me," "Eenie Meenie Miney Mo," "Twelve Bars on Mars," "Right Around the Corner," "Gone All Along," "Clothes Don't Make the Man," "Hey, Little Momma," "That Chick's Too Young To Fry"

Video: "Hey, Pretty Baby" "Rockabilly Party" "Momma Told Me" "After the Dance" (live)

Saturday, March 1, 2025

Pat Winn & the Losers

Unlucky For Some

(Western Swing)

Here is where to go when fun is your ambition. All faces are wreathed in grins, and shouts of elation ricochet. Rockabilly-emboldened Country sprawl is the order of the night, gleefully kicked-out music that gladdens every ear and provokes each foot. As ever, Pat's vocal assurance communicates inner faith in the sounds' utility, and Alan Wilson's fretboard traversing ain't nothin' but right.

Recommended: "That's Me I'm Done," "Cosey With Rosie," "Avril," "Lawn Mowin' Boogie," "I'll Be Missing You," "I Ain't Lovin' You No More," "Pushin' Up Daisies," "Out On the Fen," "Guitar In a Case," "The Juice Ain't Worth the Squeeze"

Video: "That's Me, I'm Done" "I'll Be Missing You" "Out On the Fen"

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Proper Music

Code 7 Music Distribution

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Flatline Rockers

Six Feet Down

(Jungle Records)

Be advised that proficient tune-architecture has its match here in perpetration that smashes, not unlike a boulder plunging down a mountainside. Our choice is between scrambling for refuge or digging oncoming crush. The latter, of course, is the preference.

Recommended: "Evil In Her Eyes," "Six Feet Down," "Never Again," "Oldschool Psychos," "Alcohol," "Bloodsucker Blues," "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya"

Videos: "Six Feet Down" "Alcohol" "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya"

The Heels

"Witch" "Grease-Hair Rock'n'Roll" singles

(Self-issued)

"Grease-Hair Rock'n'Roll" exclaims its orthodox construction and commission - considerable kicks can be banked in its 2:36. In "Witch" can be found more involved movements (as well as daunting portraiture), though the track tears with commensurate uproar.

Videos: "Witch" "Grease-Hair Rock'n'Roll"

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Helltown Sinners

ill with sin

(Western Star)

Timid sorts need not tread further. Wretches enamored of things reprehensible yet magnetic, and who lift the stone cover from this sarcophagus, will exhume despicable delights. A throat nearly cleaved by sinister serration bedecks aggression with unspeakable adornment.

Recommended: "Ill With Sin," "Bordello," "Howlin' At the Moon," "Temptress of Torture," "Southern Sky," "Unclean Sinner"

Video: "Ill With Sin" "Southern Sky"