DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

The Darts (US)

Halloween Love Songs

(Adrenalin Fix Music)

Singer/keyboardist Nicole Laurenne: "During a 2024 interview with Rock n Folk magazine in Paris, I jokingly mentioned that the world needed some new Halloween songs...So I got to work..."

The result? When the mystery hearse smashed into the joint, assorted kicks-junkies dropped glasses to the floor. And when the ebony corpsemobile plowed into the blinking juke, and sounds at once ghastly and seductive roared forth, all surrendered to magnetism of unknown birth...

Back to Nicole (who also wields a glockenspiel): "So, side A is chock full of tasty, candy-colored Halloween kitsch, to be played while trick-or-treating as the sun sets...But side B is for after dark, when the bonfire is raging. It's for sweaty, middle-of-the-night dancing, making out on a bed of empty candy wrappers, and spinning through an all-nighter apocalypse."

Recommended: "Midnight Creep," "Zombies on the Metro," "Blood Run Cold," "Dream Ghost," "Every Night is Halloween," "Apocalypse," "Darkness," "Shadow," "Late Drive"

Videos: "Midnight Creep" (official video) "Zombies on the Metro" (Now Dig This TV performance) "Every Night is Halloween" (lyric video) "Apocalypse"

Los Psychotrópicos

Expulsado de los Cielos EP

(Self-issued)

The taboo pleasures of Medellin's wee-hours Rock'n'Roll scene are never trumpeted in promotional travel pamphlets, but are surely treasured by revelers. And the three men who compose Los Psychotropics give them what they crave: Psychobilly with zero accoutrements. The songs they unleash are rapid, robust, and hurtle in skeletal splendor. Cooking with nitro. And on behalf of males the globe over, I'd like to extend gratitude to the combo for employing a naughty nurse for onstage exhibition.

Recommended: "Expulsado de los Cielos," "Largas Piernas," "Aquí Te Espero," "Destrucción"

Videos: "Expulsado de los Cielos" "Aquí Te Espero" "Largas Piernas" (lyric video) "Destruccion"

Kafadan Kontak Records

Back in the Day, 2017

Hillbilly Hellcats

s/t digital

(Audiosparx / Rosenklang)

32 slices from past platters. Some smooth, others serrated. Most were culled from Rev It Up with Taz (1996) and Our Brand (1998). In addition to cut-above wittiness that is at turns self-deprecating - and the ten-miles-high musical chops of Chuck Hughes, Lance Bakemeyer, and Taz Bentley - this compilation offers salvation to those previously denied admittance to creepered Mystic Order of the Ostinato swing society meetings for not having purchased songs when first dealt to vendors.

Recommended: "Road Rage," "White Trash," "Leavin' Colorado," "Hippie Dance," "Tom Grey's Dream," "Everybody There Was Drinkin' Martinis but Me," "Crazy Little Baby," "Hillbillies on Speed," "Havin' it All," "Hillbilly Love," "I Wanna Be a Rockabilly Rebel," "Cats Like Us," "My Baby Moved," "Better Be Some Drinkin'," "Over and Over," "Train to Nowhere," "I Dig Jazz," "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action," "I Never Thought"

Videos: "Everybody There Was Drinkin' Martinis but Me" "Crazy Little Baby" "I Wanna Be a Rockabilly Rebel" "Better Be Some Drinkin'" "I Dig Jazz" "I Never Thought"

Jake Vaadeland

Whatever the Canadian equivalent of Americana might be, otherwise-Rockabilly Jake breathes it deeply. His tale of great-grandparents' journey from Norway to establish family province in Saskatchewan is one only he and thoughtful acoustic could relate.

Video: "The Homesteader's Song"

Levi Dexter

And so it was that revered crooner Levi dropped down from the pantheon, assumed Gretsch Brothers array's fore position, and seared to wax irresistability that had he-and-she pairings doing the Solar Swivel up to the bright and twinklings. Per the man himself on Facebook: "You've Got What I Like" remains unreleased, save for a Japanese promo issuance.

Video: "You've Got What I Like"

Facebook (Levi)

Site (Gretsch Brothers)

Robert Lowery: From Arkansas to eternity

Robert passed in 2016, at the age of 85. The storied Delta Blues guitarman and story singer conveyed a traditional, down-low sound with roots in an America that is today but a dim memory. His plain and expressive voice, though, bears no expiration date. It shouts with eternally coursing blood.

The success of 2003's Hold Your Head High (Freepott) was shared between Robert and longtime collaborator Virgil Thrasher; Mr. Thrasher's intuitive, adroit accenting imbued wholly American passages with meatiness.

According to area player and engineer Mark MacDonald, most of the the disc's 14 cuts were minted in the moment; sublimity does not require retakes.

"Robert and Virgil did almost all the songs in one take together," Mark once emailed me. "We miked a plywood piece on the floor under Bob's foot for beat...I could tell Bob was making a lot up. Virgil was hearing it for the first time, and just playing along like he knew the song."

Birthed in 1931 Arkansas, Robert received his first guitar from his father, also a blues guitarist. That gift would prove consequential.

By the 1960s, Robert was backing legendary shouter Big Mama Thornton. She doubtless recognized in his playing the natural life-spark and bold assertiveness that carried him far.

After backing Thornton, Robert took his acoustic Delta Blues to far-flung audiences. He appeared at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the San Francisco Blues Festival (for three years), Philadelphia Blues Festival, Arkansas' Eureka Springs Festival, Italy's San Remo Blues Festival, and the Netherlands' Northsea Jazz Festival.

"The thing about Lowery is his amazing agility and finesse as a guitarist," CountryBlues.com would later declare. "He can slide and fingerpick, and for anyone who wants to hear the truehearted, gritty, authentic old Blues, Lowery is an incomparable treat. He sings in a rich tenor, and accompanies himself in the typical Delta guitar style, rhythmic, deep roots sound, gritty and rough, but sweet."

Freepott Records: "Bob plays a custom-made steel guitar with a single cone National Resonator. It has a sound as unique and appropriate for the Blues as his inimitable playing style. A lifetime of playing has taken him all over the world, and acquainted him with the better-known Blues statesmen of the world -- which he rightly deserves a place amongst."

Over the decades, Robert trod stages with Taj Mahal, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Rodgers, Honeymouth Edwards, and Gatemouth Brown.

Appreciators were to a man struck by his stylistic heritage.

Living Blues writer Tom Mazzolini observed that Lowery's "vocal and guitar intonations are remarkably close to Robert Johnson's. And if one should happen to close one's eyes, the feeling could be that Robert Johnson is performing."

Pulse reviewer Michael Point wrote that, "If anyone doubts the existence of credible modern purveyors of Johnson-influenced music, they haven't heard longtime West Coast Bluesman Robert Lowery."

Lowery's unpretentious, gutbucket-on-the-front-porch sound was "in the tradition of Lightnin' Hopkins and Robert Johnson," said All Music's Thom Owens. "He weaves stories and plays deceptively complex rhythms."

Again, sadly, Lowery passed in 2016. Stroke.

Here is the depressing yet uplifting manner in which significant art endures: as Golden Era icons pass from currency, their contributions find eager reflection by incoming generations. Acolytes craft their own works, in their unique tongues, availing themselves of predecessors' creations as era-grounded foundations.

Robert Lowery made authentic music. And that is the highest recommendation any player can receive.

Videos: "Hold Up Your Head" "Lowery's #2 Boogie" "Trouble No More"

Wikipedia (Robert)

Facebook (Virgil)

Sunday, June 14, 2026

The Rhythm Aces

ATEDtude four-track EP

(RA Records)

Impeccably rendered martial music for boulevard straight-razor yobs, whose uniform is drape and crepe (sideburns a frequent feature.) Rough and roundhousing Teds helped keep real Rock'n'Roll alive, while many dumbly dogpaddled in the hippie maelstrom. This veteran have-a-go trio roars in the same swingers-stomp militia as do Graham Fenton, Cavan Grogan, Tom Powder, and Furious. Look sharp, boys. 1 2 3 4...

Recommended: "ATEDtude," "Pickup," "Me and the Boys," "Downtown Rockin'"

Videos: "A TEDtude" "Pick Up" "Me and the Boys" "Downtown Rockin'"

Nurse's Dead Bodies

Roll a Die digital album

(Self-issued)

Understand that I'm being complimentary when I aver the singer seems to have downed a heaping spoonful of crunched windshield glass. And that observation holds equally true for the players. This is among the most brutal and velocitous Psycho-Punk to have shredded auctorial ears in seasons. And that, too, is high praise.

Recommended: "We'll Be Dead," "Ignorance," "Back," "Scarecrows," "Fight," "La Partida"

Videos: promo clip "We'll Be Dead" live (France 2025, 43:15)

Mickey Keller & the Spitfires

We're Gonna Ride!

(Tessy Records)

There're sound reasons one digging this might feel they've happened upon a bygone wood-cabinet Philco broadcast: Mickey, Matze, and the 'Stompin' Wolfman' are as in-their-grains nifty purveyors of Honky Tonk serenading (sans drums, natch) as one can locate in this internet age.

Then, too, there's their insistence on using only vintage fiddleyboos at Black Shack Recording. Original material of genial home-folks disposition settles in snugly with classics of yore penned by Stan Kesler and Charlie Feathers, Ben Hall, Roy Hall, and future Louisiana Governor Jimmy Davis (who also wrote "You Are My Sunshine.")

Steve Stick contributes vocals on a pair of tracks. And cover art by man of many gifts Marcel Bontempi gilds further. Turn up that radio dial.

Recommended: "Heartbreaking Love," "Mom & Pop," "Cold Dark Night," "I Forgot to Remember," "Hot Rod Baby," "Blue Days, Black Nights," "Tropicana Breeze," "Honky Tonk," "Pepperhot Baby," "Sweethearts or Strangers," "Let's Fall in Love," "I'm Gonna Ride," "Three Alley Cats"

Videos: promo clip "Heartbreaking Love" (live) "Hot Rod Baby" (live) "Pepperhot Baby" "I'm Gonna Ride" (rehearsal room recording)

Tessy Records (scroll down)

Care Free

7 Songs

(Masterplan)

Instrumental refinements may one day come, but they are unneeded at this point - in fact, they would probably detract from the raw rage that bursts omnidirectionally. Vehemence as virtue.

"We just hope we can inspire people from smaller scenes to help grow their community and have fun," the four told Straight Edge Worldwide.

Recommended: "Are You Serious?," "Exist," "Care Free Jam," "Piece it Together," "You Don't Think," "Crushed"

Videos: "Are You Serious?" "Care Free Jam" "Crushed"

Instagram (Care Free)

Instagram (Masterplan)

2025 demo

The Unkool Hillbillies

A carbonated ankle-bopper and a (somewhat) more leisurely jaunt, these cuts were issued as the Swedes' 2021 The Corona Sessions, Vol. 1. 88s fancy-foot, vocals sail, guitar swoops, and the rest aid stoutly in good-time uppdrag.

Videos: "Flat Top Boogie" "So Long Mole"

Kim Lenz

"I'm gonna Rock'n'Roll 'til I break my neck!" is the exultant declaration of a substantially ginchy hepjill who just shoved the work-week into the rearview. For moments like hers, fireball juke fervor is the finest game afoot.

Video: "Saturday Jump"

Danny B Harvey: Fingertips combustible

There are legions of able guitar slingers, all of whose efforts help stoke important flames. Kentucky-born Danny, though, ranks way high.

Swing, Rockabilly, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Country - Danny interprets each with ease and the posture of an erudite academic (who's swung a chain or two, in his time). Indeed, listening raptly as he fashions wondrous works simultaneously indebted to American roots argots and accelerative of them as heady, reinvented creatures, one feels like a fortunate pupil.

Danny's features generally remain placid as he swipes at his Telecaster under multi-colored and strobing stage lights, tearing from it lick upon astounding lick. He occasionally shoots audiences a slight smile as if to ask, "See how easy this is?"

For him, perhaps.

An assiduous showman, he freely indulges both US cat and UK Teddy Boy styles. Black leather jackets are alternated with vivid and elegant drape ones. Motorcycle boots, vivid creepers, two-tone bowling shirts, solid-hued tees -- all report to his closet.

Danny has through decades of applied heart earned industry respect as a first-chair player guaranteed to add class to anyone's cause. His fretboard wizardry has advanced missions mounted by Levi Dexter, Wanda Jackson, Lee Rocker, and Bow Wow Wow.

Also on the list are groups including The Rockats, Honeydrippers, Swing Cats, Lonesome Spurs, 13 Cats, 69 Cats, Devil's Daughters, and Headcat (with Lemmy Kilmeister, Slim Jim Phantom, David Vincent, Jonny Bowler, and Alan Davey).

His most recent recording, at this writing, is Headcat Plays Buddy Holly. The disc reflects Harvey's capacity for animation of pure Rock'n'Roll, its Blues and Country facets at high luster.

When renowned titans Danny, Slim Jim, and Lemmy cast fortunes into one jackpot, a supergroup of planetary capacity assumed configuration. Meat-and-potatoes, crasharound rocking was zested by the piquancy of gods.

Early on, Danny told Blabbermouth.net: "I'm so excited this album is coming out, showing how important Buddy Holly was to Lemmy, Slim Jim, and I. We all love Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and Little Richard, but as Lemmy said in his book White Line Fever, 'Buddy Holly never did a bad track, as far as I could hear.' I'm sure that's why our first album was mainly Buddy Holly songs."

There exist no previous DBH discs one shouldn't obtain. Here are two that merit acknowledgement:

Having by the early 2000s already done movie soundtrack endeavoring, Danny was solicited by Cult Films for its 2004 Dark Angel: Bettie Page, which starred Paige Richards.

"I played all the instruments on those recordings, as I do on a lot of my recordings," Danny told me in a 2005 interview for Rockabilly magazine. "I always record the drums using a combination of sample loops and real drums. Of course, the guitars, keyboards, and bass are all me."

For Dark Angel, he composed and performed smart backing for vintage Bettie stills and film loops. Titles included "Whip Dance," "Fighting Girls," "Bound and Gagged," and "Whatever Happened To?"

Characteristically, his soloing enunciated a panoply of emotions and inclinations, from ecstasy to aggressiveness to pensive, introspective articulation.

"Bettie Page's influence over men and women alike is off the Richter Scale, as far as I'm concerned," he told me. "Girls all over the world dress like her, walk like her, and cut their hair like her. Her look is timeless and will always be in style."

For his 2005 solo, all-instrumental CD Rockabilly Jazz (Raucous 2005), Danny again played everything. Filled nearly to bursting with buoyant runs, bends, trills, and twangs, the disc was manna. He revisited classic modes and airs, charging them with fresh elan.

It was what a happy guitar turned loose sounds like.

"My finger-picking style is a direct derivative of Chet Atkins's and Merle Travis's picking style," Danny explained to me at the time. "I love to play loud and fast, but playing like Chet Atkins is very challenging."

Merle Travis tribute "The Travis Rag" is a carbonated, finger-picked romp over high-spirits clay. "Cattlesburg Express" rolls and rollicks merrily down driven-steel tracks in headlong ramble. "Dixie Doodle Dandy," splices traditional Southern and Northern melodies, recalling Link Wray's 1959 "Dixie Doodle."

In Jazz aspect, "Misty" unfurls sumptuous atmospherics. An exhumation of the Benny Goodman/Charlie Christian chestnut "Seven Come Eleven" gambols with uptown carriage. And the stately "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You?" ambles serenely, chin high.

An instinctive hybridizer, Danny is that rarest and most meritorious of players -- a heart-wired, creatively inquisitive, adventurous artist whose encyclopedic knowledge and expressive abilities awe riveted listeners and envious colleagues, alike.

His best work may well lie ahead. But Headcat Plays Buddy Holly and looking further back offer unique rewards.

Bandcamp Danny's page

Videos: "Whiskey Hollar Blues" (solo w/Bettie reel) "Crazy Baby" (13 Cats) "Hammerhead" (solo) "Whip Dance" (Paige Richards) "Not Fade Away" / "Fool's Paradise" (Headcat, live) "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" (Headcat alternate mix)

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Ghoultown

Double set: Life After Sundown and Ghost of the Southern Son

(Zoviet / Angry Planet Enterprises)

It's been long years since I stopped puzzling how these men developed staggering musical proficiency, when all around stank of human decay and gun-hands from the netherworld sprang like wicked phantasms in midnight moments. Wiser, I concluded, to unquestioningly dig the merging of remorselessly lashed metal and arched Morricone airs that alternately hyper-pulse and unfurl in teasing ominousness, as ghastly Old-West-in-twilight-zones sagas bore into cerebra, never to be erased.

(This double-disc set is available directly from Blackburn's Monstro Merch, which is linked below.)

Recommended from Life: "Dead Outlaw," "Against a Crooked Sky," "Werewolves on Wheels," "I Spit on Your Grave," "Thunder over El Paso," "Find a Good Horse," "Drink With the Living Dead," "Under the Phantom Moon"

Videos: "Dead Outlaw" "Against a Crooked Sky" "Find a Good Horse" "Drink With the Living Dead" (visualizer) "Under the Phantom Moon"

Recommended from Ghost: "Southern Son," "Ghost of the Past," "I Am the Night," "Black on Black," "Blood, Bullets, and Whiskey," "Stick to Your Guns," "Tombstone," "Vanishing Riders"

Videos: "Southern Son" "Ghost of the Past" (lyric video) "I Am the Night" "Stick to Your Guns" "Vanishing Riders" (animated video)