DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Cliff Richard & the Drifters

Essential Classics Vol. 823

(Essential Classics)

In 2020, Cliff told Callum Crumlish, of England's Express: "God bless him, but John Lennon said: ‘Before Cliff Richard and Move It there was nothing worth listening to in England.’”

As represented on these two compact discs, crooner Cliff was more than as good as the task he'd selected: lending British bouyancy and his own rave-up flourish to American Rock'n'Roll hits by Elvis, Gene, Little Richard, and similarly rough-hewn luminaries. Add to those songs' number originals (like Ian Samwell's Move It) that possessed their own jump'n'jive hearts. Cliff's marquee features ensured sales figures would know no hindrance. And the deal was sealed by his spring-heeled stage manner and hiccuped dynamism. Too, Donna and Living Doll showed he knew how to render a gossamer melody with due gentility, a gift that proffered particular attraction.

Cliff is rightly regarded as in England's bygone vanguard of teen idols. Lennon was bang on.

(Listen to No Turning Back's narrative to know what surely inspired Jumpin' Jack Flash.)

Recommended, Disc One: "Move It," "Donna," "Reddy Teddy," "Be-Bop-A-Lula," "Apron Strings," "Baby I Don't Care," "Danny (Lonesome Blue Boy)"

Recommended, Disc Two: "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," "Down the Line," "I Got a Feeling," "Jet Black," "Don't Bug Me Baby," "Living Doll," "No Turning Back"

Videos: "Move It" "Living Doll" "No Turning Back"

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Songswave

anghami

Back In the Day, 2014

TV Tramps

Rip It Up!

(Little Dickman Records)

Among salient aspects (of which there are several - vivacity, brevity, and economy also being present) that this writer finds magnetic here is the gladsome absence of protracted commencements. Get in/make your point/get out is the superior teaching the Ramones schooled. The torn messengers here casting furiously veering chords waste zero moments on introductions, instead launching themselves (and us) on abrupt sound-sprees that end gloriously. All emergency rooms should pipe this for the tittilation of crimson-spraying basket cases.

Recommended: "Vampires," "Baby Girl," "Keep Your Mouth Shut," "No Ransom," "Rip You Up," "The Stuff," "Party Animal," "Whiplash"

Videos: "Vampires" (live) "Keep Your Mouth Shut" (live)

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Back In the Day, 1985

Breathless

Bad Bad Boys

(Big Beat)

Of course there's electricity in the moonlight. Of course you're in cool danger. This is Teds Alley, and the boys are havin' a night. You'll find the bop snaps tight here. The beat springs to the ready like a flick knife. No one prowling 'round here has patience for squares' tightly wound strictures. Guitar pounces, upright figures stalk, and collar-up sneers proclaim with violent cheek. 1-2-3-4.

Recommended: "Bad Bad Boy," "Waiting At the Station," "She Wasn't Listening," "Letting Off Steam," "She's Bad Company," "Do What You Want To Do," "Burning Up," "Cooking and Washing," "Jenny"

Video: "Bad Bad Boy" "Letting Off Steam"

Back In the Day, 2002

Backdoor Betty

Demo 2002

(Self-issued)

Crafty production reminds of Motörhead sentiment "Everything louder than Everyone Else." Slabs of Punk sinew were heaved here at perilous velocities; shrewd studio-knob manipulation (at Iowa City, Iowa's MAX studio) ensured each perpetrator could be heard to persuasive extreme.

Backdoor Betty's agitators are ravaging audiences to this day. Given that, it is hardly unthinkable that future releases might transpire.

Recommended: "Daddy Gave Me An F," "D.T.S.," "Alcoholic Hobo," "I Want You," "Stabbing Song"

(No video accessible)

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Sunday, June 1, 2025

Dead Jack and his Dry Bones

Dead Jack in the Box digital album

(Self-issued)

Previously, I interpreted "toy music" as an epithet; I'm now reassessing that judgement. All by his lonesome, Dead Jack (Bone Machine's Jack Cortese) wields a galaxy of gadgety gizmos - including toy snare, toy maracas, sheet metal, and toy wooden xylophone - in addition to more orthodox sound implements like guitar and banjo. His Bandcamp page advises recording was perpetrated "with a cheap Chinese smartphone without using microphones." The resultant Lo-fi carnival-mirror melange of twisted silhouettes at once turns one's conception of music feet-over-head whilst flinging to one side the curtain dividing normalcy from its freakish opposite. A buffet for trashmen, eggheads, and misshapen grotesqueries all.

Recommended: "Dead Jack is Back from the Grave," "Scary Night," "Dead Jack in the Box," "Dead Blues," "A Bottle Full of Broken Dreams," "Down in My Hell," "Bad Jack," "Dead Jazz," "I'm the Masked Man in Your Porn Movie," "The King of Twist (Ultra Lo-fi version)"

(No video accessible at presstime)

Angela Hoodoo

Outlaw Girls

(Sleazy Records)

Realizing that she had estimable gifts indigenous to barn land, Angela gathered players of equal disposition. Together, they carpentered a work of nothin'-hifalutin' splendor. There's enough Real Country underway here to knock flat every Pop-Country popinjay that ever primped his blow-dried locks.

Recommended: "I've Got Soul for My Enemies," "Snakes in My Head," "Fugitivo," "Don't Get Into Trouble," "Wild Horse"

Video: "I've Got Soul for My Enemies" / "Don't Get Into Trouble" (live) "Snakes in My Head" (live) "Fugitivo" (live)

Brioles

Voodoo Eyes 12" vinyl

(El Toro)

All the robust locomotion one would envision from veterans of stout capacity. The Rockabilly leaping from this wax learned well the teachings of modernity. While it retains classical outline - offering familiar and much-prized strut - it also features chain-swinging grit of crisper vintage. Three cats put shoulders to the task and raise a ruckus cracking.

Recommended: "Fly Face," "My Toys," "No Descansan En Paz." "Arriba," "Voodoo Eyes," "Downstairs," "Flyin' Tortillas"

Video: "Fly Face" "Voodoo Eyes"