DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

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)

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

The Raters

Hi, Fuck You - The Unfinished Album

(Mad Dog Records)

2023's Mad Green Dogs made clear the Spanish squad's capacity for rampage. This Dec. 2025 disc's commencing track, "Hate Yourself," is a blur, merging instrumental flair with lean structure. "Caputxeta" avails itself of the red-hooded folklore heroine's plight. But unlike Sam the Sham's 1966 good-bad rendering (in which the aroused beast pitched pickup patter like a pro), whipcrack dynamism that alternates with suspenseful pacing, and the prey's own apprehensive recounting, splash in dangerous darkness. In closing gesture, the Raters give needed boot to Lennon-McCartney sogginess.

Recommended: "Hate Yourself," "Caputxeta," "And I Love Her"

No new Video Live 2024 (2:59) Live 2023 (2:48) brief gig reel

Sunday, January 25, 2026

Sidebürns

Lifestyle 3-track single

(Self-issued)

So tuneful is the titular, Metal-jacketed Punk juggernaut, and its impact so jolting in the coolest of manners, that blood kinship with previously marketed cuts pretty much kicks you in the head. Ralf and Katja's vocals scorch the collision-chorded coup de main like branding irons from some uber-lit pit. (And only lackwits would even consider messing with bullet beats slung by Ronny G.) I sincerely expect to pick up tomorrow's paper and read that Sidebürns' leathery insurgents have blasted their home burg of Weimar clean off the map.

Recommended: "Lifestyle," "Not What Used to Be," "All In"

Videos: "Lifestyle" "Not What Used to Be" "All In"

Crown City Bombers

"Toxic Town" single

(Self-issued)

With matter-of-fact terseness, Bombers' boss man Dave Bertiz relates a dark-truth tale: "Hey little girl gettin' off the bus, you're gonna be a star / You got strung out, you lost your job, well now you won't go far. Hey everybody gather 'round / It's showtime in this Toxic Town." Chugging rockbop makes common cause with his somberness, and is entirely content to monger its mesmerism as poised understatement. Albert Hammond's 1972 radio staple mourned identical dark-side-of-Hollywoodland realities, but lacked the razory soloing Dave deploys with head-turning consequence.

Video

Hayley and the Crushers

Unsubscribe from the Underground EP

(Kitten Robot)

The moment is pregnant with prospects. The cotton candy-tressed purrer* and her cohorts-in-kicks are poised to etch treads on the tour highway. Audiences are in for stormy spectacle. Erupting omnidirectionally (and sending bricks into orbit) is alternative Pop that leaves one dangling on its hooks, its supporting, Punk-jawed structure as subtle as a flying mallet. A 1970s D. Edmunds chestnut romps jauntily. (And tucked in amid mad frolic is a stepped-down, couples-only ballad; you can all but see the ceiling's mirrored ball.) Fold in the fact that a crisp full-length platter in presently being plotted, and you'll suss out why coming days wink with promise.

* Have a care; this kitten has claws.

Recommended: "Unsubscribe," "Blood and Treasure," "Let Go," "Queen of Hearts"

Videos: "Unsubscribe" "Blood and Treasure" "Queen of Hearts"