DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY: 2026

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Guitar Slingers

Invasion

(Diablo Records)

Were a roundtable gathering of the world's most fleet string molesters convened, buzz cut bomb shot Doyley might well assume the head chair. Eruptive Psychobilly deviance and science fiction fantasies make Rabelais's "beast with two backs." So gaudy is the spectacle of an amphetemine, late-night Creature Feature on Saturn, as to conjure spirits of wreckers fallen, bashing their elbows into faces of more freshy misbegotten. The meeting will come to disorder.

Recommended: "Invasion," "Atomic Shock," "Let's Go," "Ska Trek Krew," "Alien Hooligans," "Martian Stomp," "Plasma Sting," "Rip Roarin' Rocketship," "Planet of the Drapes," "Earth vs Psycho"

No new videos available, so here's one from 2024: "Twangster"

Zombina and the Skeletones

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, B-sides and rarities 2008 - 2024

(Ectoplastic Records)

Advisory: '80s and '90s synthy endeavorings in the New Wave styling popular in those eras are best put behind later Psycho flamethrowers. The latter are the wonderfully ankle-twisting consequences of Alternative Cryptland cavorters, eccentricism mongers, and a gang of jackhammers hopped up on speed, meeting up in a cauldron (with Whit Bissell and Robert Vaughn), and conspiring to wreck the joint. So frantic are the thunderings, so compelling to utter fracture TheBeatTheBeat that, should walls crack wide and flooring crash in, none but the strictly cubic would notice.

(Though presently on break, Mistress Zombina and her morbid accomplices will play a summer show with the March Violets.)

Recommended: "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein," "Touch Me and Die," "Love Like Blood," "Teenage Caveman vs Gargantua," "Zombie Crush," "Sea of Heartbreak," "Last Chance Dance"

Videos: "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" "Touch Me and Die" "Sea of Heartbreak"

Kieron McDonald

Because of You 45 rpm EP

(Sleazy)

Easy-drawling Kieron is as comfortable bobbing to melodies as a crooner can be. (A manner he doubtless absorbed while a youth, listening to his dad's old Country waxings.) He presents affability with understated, black-and-white, pointed-shoe heptitude that puts wise every jukebox-jonesing he and she on deck. The former mic swinger for Melbourne Rockabillies the Flatfoot Shakers, Kieron gains immeasurably from sharp assist lent by ace players, including highly-reputed guitar dab hand Kid James.

Recommended: "Because of You," "All She Wants to Hear is Dean Martin," "Exotic Woman," "At the Bop Hop"

Videos: "Because of You" "All She Wants to Hear is Dean Martin"

The Gasölines

Helldorado

(Speed Club Records)

A reviewer at Germany's Zepher's Odem wrote: "As the band themselves announced, they hadn't intended to create anything innovative. They simply plugged in, cranked up the amps, and played Rock'n'Roll. Loud, dirty, and exhilarating." Nowhere is it scrawled that music must turn virgin sod in order to merit moon-bathed bacchanalia. New wrinkles can certainly be intriguing. But much can be said for knowing what lies ahead. Health care personnel do not recommend this Norwegian Punk-packed Metal for the timid - one reason is that it may well blow innocent ears to shrapnel. Were the PMRC yet in operation, they'd have contrived a warning label by now. Comes in digital, CD, and variously-hued vinyl formats.

Recommended: "Riding Shotgun," "Dead Man's Hand," "Bucking the Tiger," "Ace in the Hole," "Death Rider," "A-Bomb Pinup," "Speed Trap"

Videos: "Riding Shotgun" "Ace in the Hole" "A-Bomb Pinup" "Speed Trap"

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

The Mean Devils

"Make Up for Lost Time" b/w "Pack 'em up, Stack 'em Up, Rack 'em Up"

(Discos Dinamite)

Now and again, one detects a Mickey and Sylvia "Love is Strange" imprint in "Make Up for Lost Time." Not nearly enough to locate the blissed-out track on copycat real estate, just enough to signal true believer literacy. Flipside "Pack" scorches treads on the Rockabilly lost highway haunted by the Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow. Calendar years are as nothing, 'cause fearsome wildcatism ain't goin' nowhere.

Videos: "Pack 'm Up, Stack 'em Up, Rack 'em Up" "Make Up for Lost Time" Live at Hemsby 2025 (9:08)

Milwaukee Wildmen

Blood Fear and Evil digital ep

(Self-issued)

Vicious liquid foams over the lunar-lit monster chalice's rim, pooling about its base. The three Milwaukee Wildmen thrash in ear-splitting, other-side-of-midnight rampageousness, as they long have to the delight of cursed misfits everywhere. Wreckage surrounds. Cold fingers curl about the goblet. Lips gape.

Recommended: "Don't Get Killed," "Unfriendly Visitor," "In My Blood," "Out on My Own" (1992 alternate version)

Videos: "Don't Get Killed" "Unfriendly Visitor" "In My Blood" Live in Spain, 2025 (20:08)

Hipshot Nic

"Rattle Me" b/w "Did You Throw My Letter Away" 7" vinyl

(Wild Records Europe)

Though by now a cliche, descriptive "flat gone" applies to this Aussie wax as soundly as it once did to genre pathfinders' thick PVC platters. No one's checking characters at the 2026 door, the result being a crazy dance floor teeming with sideburned JDs, Eisenhower-endorsing first-generation tear ups, and mohawked wreckers who've belly-flopped into the Murray's Pomade deep end.

Video: "Rattle Me" (live)

ebay (Bear Family)

The Brainlets

"The Gig" single

(Self-issued)

Consider the situation of a razor-headed bruiser who, having been battered to the club floor by anonymous bodies in helter-skelter uproar, regains his boots and plunges back into the tattooed, violent fray - wicked grin splitting his mug.

Headlong raucousness of this ilk induces such gleeful misdoing.

Video (live)

Sunday, February 8, 2026

Iago Banet

"Hillside Gardens" single

(Star Galaxy Music)

Only days ago, this site carried coverage of the 10 year-anniversary re-release of the Boo-Hoos' (Iago's previous group) Lucky No. 7. Prepare to appreciate a stylistically distinct facet of the guitar cradler. Whereas his onetime combo tended toward roots-gened, get-off-the-couch turns, now stepping from behind curtain's privacy is more placid craftsmanship. Thoughtfully fingerstyled, acoustic instrumental technique daubs gracefully magisterial illustration. In tranquility, craft is allowed expansive exercise.

Video

Cherry & the Sours

"Crocodile Smile" "Eat You Up" digital singles

(Melissa Jayne Hernandez)

These cuts are the product of in-action engagement - airy and aburst with hearty pluck. That circumstance endorses; it's where fun is often found. "Crocodile Smile's" feet barely touch pavement, so headlong is the Neo-Rockabilly tune's dash. One all but feels winds jetting past. Matters become markedly different, though, when "Eat You Up," steps forward: shades-drawn sultriness spreads teasingly, instruments pulsing passionate ambiance.

Videos: "Crocodile Smile" "Eat You Up"

Facebook (MJH)

The Hyperjax

Scars on the Horizon

(Wildest Card Records)

Johnny Ramone remarked that when bands changed, they usually got worse. The same adhere-to-the-original-formula belief lies entrenched in the Hyperjax's lava-steaming marrow.

My first exposure to them arrived via their ferocious spot in 2001 documentary American Rumble (Raven Films / Ravenous Pictures). Some 25 years' passage seems as naught, when Scars on the Horizon barrels from speakers in sonic onslaught.

As if the endurance of kicky calamitousness weren't sufficient good news, wise-guy wrecker songcraft that glares down from high shelf also thrusts fist airward. The titular stormer breaks free from chains, blood in bulging eyes. "The Way You Used to Roll" impresses as infectiousness looking for a movie to soundtrack. And "Ain't that a Kick in the Teeth" strops Deano's jape.

Johnny would surely have nodded approval.

Recommended: "Scars on the Horizon," "Stranded in Skelsmerdale," "Bad Luck Charm," "Damnation, Here We Go," "The Scapegoat," "The Way You Used to Roll," "Ain't That a Kick in the Teeth," "Just Passing Through"

Videos: "Scars on the Horizon" (Hot Frog Animations) "Bad Luck Charm" "The Way You Used to Roll" "Ain't That a Kick in the Teeth"

Boom! Boom! Deluxe

"Backseat Bingo" single

(Self-issued)

Cha-cha rhythms folded into Americana rootsiness demand surrender. Before the mind's eye, hip-dipping, he-and-she pairings lock lidded eyes in dances d'amour. Memories are made of this.

Video

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

The Moggies

We Can Do It

(Self-issued)

Sitting before us is a 15-piece bucket of fracture. The Mantua, Italy outfit's combustibility was captured in live rehearsal, standup having been sacked in favor of its electric kin. Elders of the Pinky Lee era bewailed teenagers' Rock'n'Roll embrace. The Moggies - minds set on thrills, hearts pumping passions, and hands throttling tailfinned fortissimi - remind that those button-down naysayers succumbed in glorious downfall.

Recommended: "Rock'n'Roll You Steal My Soul," "Intro," "I Love Marshmallows," "My Phone," "Woman Keep Your Fingers Away from Me," "Maramama," "Elvis Come Back," "Squirrel Cereal Killer," "That's Rock"

Videos: "Rock'n'Roll You Steal My Soul" "I Love Marshmallows" "Elvis Come Back" "That's Rock"

The Boo-Hoos

Lucky No. 7

(Iago Banet)

2015 was the year in which Lucky No. 7 was first marketed; fortunately, an anniversary edition has breezed into shop bins. I'm speculating that jittercat personnel on this stage sported winged footwear, so fleet were their streamlined endeavors. Two at-the-hop stormers and another like pair are punctuated by a ballad suited to swaying, amorous couples in lights-dimmed, streamer-bedecked village halls.

Recommended: "Come on Over," "Lying and Cheating," "Song for the Disappeared," "Bangin' on My Bedroom Door," "Lucky No. 7"

Videos: "Come on Over" "Lying and Cheating" "Lucky No. 7"

Skinny McGee and the Handshakes

"Little Model A" single

(Shawn A. Gravitt)

Thankfully absent are state-of-the-swindle studio tech artifices. This honest-to-God, spring-heeled bop was created entirely by flesh/blood/bone humans. Skinny and amigo Chris Bell devoted their skills to matching up finger-lickin', bare-chassis Country with a fanciful gasser yarn. Would serve handily as flip side of "Hot Rod Lincoln." (Maybe melancholic "Tell Laura I Love Her" could be next to drop down the spindle.)

Video

Pwdin Reis

"Winwn Coch" single

(Recordiau Reis)

Bid howdy to Cymric vivacity that knows well the streets of the twang side of town. No self-respecting Rock'n'Roll Seeburg would be caught without such wax on offer. It's tunes like this that remind life's a big ball of exuberance - one promising too dadgum many kicks to cold shoulder.

Video

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Astracán

"Siempre Sale el Sol" b/w "El Futuro"

(Beatclap)

Sure, Milton wrote of Astrakhan. But he neglected to mention slouches, sneers, and buzz-blade barre chords. Charging from speakers is feral evidence of the Forest Hills Carbona-huffers' eternal imprint - the headiness of kicks-amped young guerillas fronted by a nasal wise-ass who rails against maturation.

This approaching August 12, a total solar eclipse is predicted to sweep Astracán's homeland of Spain. Like they care.

(Full-length Lethal Puberty is scheduled for next month, Friday the 13th issuance.)

Videos: "Siempre Sale el Sol" "El Futuro"

The Vossa Rebels

Live at Rockefeller

(Kvarts)

Each June, Voss, Norway hosts the Ekstremsportveko extreme-sports fest. Local-boys-made-gone Vossa Rebels qualify as "extreme Rockabilly." The trio write like masters, play like demons, and are so of the wildcat sound you'd suppose it supercharges their surging crimson. And by the time they've covered globally mourned, tattooed rocker Nick Curran, you've already given up the geetus.

Recommended: "A Little Confused," "Psycho," "As Good as It Gets," "Strapless Dress," "California Sun," "Like a Rocket"

Videos: "A Little Confused" "Strapless Dress" "Like a Rocket"

The Jackals

Feeling Greasy 4-track EP

(Vinyl Fetish)

As I put pen to paper, 300 copies from the initial 500 pressed in 2025 have left shelves. 1980s Portland aggressionists The Jackals cut these tracks in '84 and '87. Vintage juke boogie from the '57 Bel Air class is resurrected, mixed liberally with bellicose fret-swipes and brazenness owing to twentysomething breakneckery Bacchus would've drunk to.

Reports tell of members being active in 2026, sometimes performing as Los Hackals.

Recommended: "Feeling Greasy," "Someone's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In" (live)

Videos: "Feeling Greasy" "Someone's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In"

Back in the Day, 2001

Al Dexter

Pistol Packin' Mama

(Roots of Country)

Voices credit Texan Al not only with crafting imperial '30s/'40s/'50s Western Swing, but for perhaps being the first to employ term "Honky Tonk" in song. So don't be put off by the cheapjack cover art; though this important music may not have gotten top-drawer handiwork it deserved, reward ambles into view when stylus touches down.

Al penned 1943's jocular "Pistol Packin' Mama." From it, he accrued an abundance of cheddar, and it became his best-known contribution to American Music. (The pleasant ditty inspired a host of covers, as well as a Republic comedy of like vintage.) But it was far from Al's sole worthy. Also populating this wax are several numbers (like "Poor Little Honky Tonk Girl," "Down at the Roadside Inn," "Honky Tonk Chinese Dime," and "Fisherman's Boogie") that merit similar evergreen situation.

Assembled players the Troopers proved themselves clod-kickin' crackerjacks. Often, violin-and trumpet-bounce sprang winkingly, with guitars (both electric and steel varieties) holding forth in affable tones.

As can be anticipated, given this compendium's spanning decades, stylistic evolution is apparent. Early tracks tend toward spareness and loveable crudity, whereas later ones enjoy fuller instrumentation and more production attentions.

(My one quibble concerns the mysterious exclusion of early 1946 instrumental "Guitar Polka." It settled into charts' #1 slot for a reoported 16 weeks, and boasts more big-grin animation than a barrel of digital music plugins.)

Recommended: "Poor Little Honky Tonk Girl," "I Learned About Love from You," "Down at the Roadside Inn," "There'll Come a Time," "Why Did It Have To Be," "Honky Tonk Chinese Dime," "Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry," "A Good Man is Hard to Find," "Pistol Packin' Mama," "Honey Do You Think It's Wrong," "Fisherman's Boogie," "New Broom Boogie," "Hi De Ho Boogie"

Videos: "Poor Little Honky Tonk Girl" "Down at the Roadside Inn" "Pistol Packin' Mama" "Honky Tonk Chinese Dime" "Fisherman's Boogie"

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Vernon Reid

Hoodoo Telemetry

(Artone / The Players Club)

As was vividly paraded by Vernon's contributions to Living Colour - impossibly alacritous fretboard fingerings that fused notes into kalaidescopic configurations and left jaws hanging - within the man pulsed vision and prowess beyond that of rank and file axemen. But "the past is prologue," as Willy Shakes quilled. Hoodoo Telemetry portrays Vernon's phenomenal bent in far advanced stage, finding breath-stopping animation in unmapped Jazz, Rock, and Funk mileaus. (Edgar Winter's "Dying to Live" and Cream's "Politician" are reanimated with due regard.) Occasional vocals by Vernon and guests are well-turned and wreath movements with body-and-soul essence. A host of hues, textures, tempos, and startling declarations cascade down and around. One is 18 kinds of happy about getting drenched.

(A personal favorite of this author's is the jagged smokestack lightning Reid added to the Ramones' "Cabbies on Crack," from 1992's Mondo Bizarro.)

Recommended: "Freedom Jazz Masque," "The Haunting," "Bronx Paradox," "Or Knot," "Dying to Live" (feat. vocalist Miche Fambro), "Politician" (feat. vocalist Bruce Mack), "Black Fathom Five," "Meditation on the Last Times I Saw Arthur Rhames," "In Effigy" (vocals by Vernon)

Videos: "Freedom Jaz Dance" "Politician" "Meditation on the Last Times I Saw Arthur Rhames"

Collectors' Choice Music

Discogs

Amazon

The Vampires of Kopenhagen

"Vampire World Domination" digital single

(Gothic Underground Records)

It's with ebony finality that this Goth/Psycho horror tale unfurls, its triumphance stately and bordering on maliciously majestic. Cloak swept to one side, it arches in Stoker-apocalypse fashion. The narrator, pasty-featured and trilling vixen at his elbow, issues morbid pronouncements in tones that signal Earth's conclusion is set in marble. Exactly how "daylight misbehaves" isn't explained, but it's doubtful any mortal would wonder, when all around crumbles and wickedness assumes the universal throne. As Criswell once intoned: "Future events such as this will affect you, in the future!"

Video

Half Dizzy

Yard Sale

(Punkerton Records)

All tunes were crafted, either entirely or partially, by Daniel Marchelewski; he honestly reports human circumstances and has the gut-fistedness to wield his guitar like the battle-axe all surly Punks know it was meant to be. The live-wire rowdies with whom he's thankfully fallen in careen through escapades, not unlike back-alley torpedoes on a thrill-ride straight to some sideshow-mirror 80s Skatepunk target. Splitting voice tasks with Daniel is esteemed pinup title-holder Dizzy Doll, which means there's pulchritude along with the bashings.

Recommended: "Yard Sale," "Fade Away," "Turn This Up," "Darkest Days," "Sidelines," "Late Nights," "Easton," "Starting to Believe"

Videos: "Fade Away" "Darkest Days" Live (1/10/2026)