DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

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"