DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

Sunday, September 27, 2026

Brioles

XL Vinyl LP

(El Toro Records)

Jorge, Daniel, and Josep maintain bond to the Rock'n'Roll classics that soundtracked their lives, which explains their decision to commemorate 40 Brioles years with reinventions of them. That affection finds expression on record as stormy celebrations, poignancy, and an electricity whose avid charges only circulate through endeavors of significance, this being one.

Recommended: "It's Love," "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White," "I Don't Care," "I'm Going Crazy," "No Feelings," "Drifting Heart," "Raska-Yu," "Down in the Cellar," "Ella Es Tan Extraña," "Bo Was Right (Pretty Thing)"

Videos: "It's Love" "I Don't Care" "No Feelings" "Drifting Heart" "Bo Was Right (Pretty Thing"

Dead City

Out on Bail EP

(Self-issued)

Punch up these dense bombardments. The sardonicism enjoyed from this ripsaw assault unit angrily accents harsh existence on the sidelines. Shoved away, they became a community. (Kind of a graffitied Australia.) Fuck everybody on the outside.

Recommended: "Out on Bail," "Cut Down to Size," "Skidrow Creep"

Video: "Out on Bail" (live at Riff Audio)

Mark Malibu and The Wasagas

Knock Me Out

(Sharawaji Records)

Big Kahuna Malibu heads up this Dawn Patrol w/tremolo bars, managing both the important business of illustrating sundry aspects of Surf-fretboard angling and the more essential matter of kicks all around, in which gaga go-goer's go native and completely dig the racing-striped, wigged-out moment.

This is the band's fifth full-length disc, all on the UK's Sharawaji. Members first shot curls from '79 - '82, split the scene temporarily, and resurfaced in 2014 (with all first go-around personnel). Their upsplash into the hodad-hating hullabaloo engendered beach-blanket shenanigans, foamy navigations, and hand-holding, swim-suited couples disappearing down the sand into setting Sol.

Recommended: "Knock Me Out," "Reef Break," "Love in Liverpool," "Night Stalker," "The Swerve," "Pepper Stomp," "Mini Chopper," "Jibbed Again," "Surfer's Cross," "Moonstone Surfer," "On the Way to Warrington"

Videos: "Love in Liverpool" (Official video) "Pepper Stomp!" (Official video) live (2:56 2024)

Split Dogs

Nice N' Rough

(Venn Records)

Soph wax is crucial -- it reveals whether the combo under analysis can maintain whatever specialness their debut spotlighted. (Or, if their maiden endeavor exhibited weaknesses, LP #2 can assert seasoning.) Split Dogs -- Bristol's burly alacrity squad -- now builds upon an impressive incipient outing, surging with muscular directness that slaps with chutzpah. Flying colors violate night skies.

Recommended: "Be Somebody," "Born Too Loose," "Breaker," "Speed Demon," "Shake Sum Action," "Rock N Roll Business," "I Wanna," "Dirty Denim"

Videos: "Be Somebody" "Speed Demon" "Rock N Roll Business"

Eastside Dogs / Bootboys

Effectively slams down the uni-dimensional spleneticism that once fueled "Punk-Bashing Boogie." To paraphrase Nick Tosches, nothing brings mates of diverse stripes together like placing a chord barrage betwixt them.

Video: "Punx and Skins Unity Worldwide"

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Bootboys

The Skunts

"Leave your troubles far behind!" is always sound counsel, especially when the evening has only just begun, the place is packed with convivial mugs, and a bottle's at hand. Comes next an advisory of somewhat sterner sort. But since each is grounded in absolutely unabashed free-for-allism, grins fired by the first will not be doused by the second.

Videos: "Let's Get Pissed" "He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad"

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George Dubose: Pictures worth a thousand choruses

Now retired and living in Germany, photographer George Dubose contributed work to numerous musical ventures. NYC Punk kingpins the Ramones topped the list ((in my estimation).

George executed several classic covers, including Too Tough To Die, Animal Boy, and Mondo Bizarro. He later published a collection of beautiful b/w and color photos of the band, plus his own invaluable first-hand recollections of the photo shoots and what it was like working with Punk's preeminent time bombs.

George remains active. Gallery exhibitions and book compilations are among his present efforts. The below passages are excerpted from a 2010 online interview:

I see you began in photography around '77 (or was it earlier?) and that among your pre-Ramones subjects were Lydia Lunch and Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Any other early subjects/credits you'd care to mention?

I moved to NYC to apprentice myself to fashion photographers to gain training to be a portrait photographer, a la Yousef Karsch. I was invited to see the B 52s at Max's Kansas City and fell in love with the band's music from the first two bars. They played "Planet Claire" the music of which was "The Peter Gunn Theme" from my childhood's exposure to that television show.

Funny enough, Lydia Lunch and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks was the opening act that night at Max's and I didn't care for them at all. I didn't understand what Punk Rock was at that time.

I asked the B's to come to the studio where I was an apprentice, for a photo shoot that I wanted to present to Andy Warhol's magazine Interview. Unfortunately, Cindy Wilson had returned to Athens, GA, so Maureen the manager stood in for her in the photo. Interview published the photo and licensed it to a Japanese magazine called Studio Voice.

The next time I got the B's to come to "my" studio, the band was complete and I printed 1000 16 x 20 B&W posters, gave half to the band and sniped some of the rest to advertise the band's upcoming gigs. The posters, however, were stolen as fast as I could tape them up (I didn't know about wheat paste). I started selling the posters for 52 cents each or two for a dollar.

Two years later, I was contacted by Tony Wright from Island Records and asked to show my collection of the band photos I had from concerts and in the photo studio. I didn't know that the band had already decided on one photo from the second studio shoot.

Tony asked me to sepia tone the b&w photo and then he cut film overlays to colorized their clothing.

Tony hated the group and used the pseudonym "Sue Absurd" as the art director's name.

You did a number of cool covers for the Ramones. Any one particular favorite?

Roberta Bayley's first cover photo was how they really were, Too Tough to Die is how the band saw themselves, and Mondo Bizarro is how I saw them...

Quoted in the introduction, Daniel Rey called you "one of the few people allowed access to recording sessions, rehearsals, video and other 'insider' events" related to the Ramones. Any story not in your book you'd like to share?

Funny Daniel Rey mentions this. I once had a creative meeting for the cover of Brain Drain. The band didn't want a photo this time, so we contacted Matt Mahurin and bought an image from a painting by him, the back cover was a video still from the video "Lobotomy". While I was at the recording studio, Bill Laswell was producing this LP and wouldn't allow anyone in the control room AT ALL. Not even the band.

I was "upstairs" in a lounge area shooting billiards with Monte Melnick, the tour manager and I looked through a window down into the large recording room and I saw someone playing bass that wasn't Dee Dee. I asked Monte who was that and he said it was "just Daniel Rey adding a bass track". About an hour later, I looked through the window and saw Daniel playing guitar. Again, I asked Monte what was going on and he pulled down the window shade and said, "You've seen enough!"

Daniel Rey is a great musician, producer and guitarist...A lot of musicians contributed to Ramones albums without credit. Joey's brother, Mickey Leigh was a classic example...

You write that you had the best personal relationship with Joey. Was he individually creative? Could he have had a rewarding solo career?

I saw Joey performing with other musicians several times. I thought that Joey always performed '50s and '60s Rock'n'Roll covers superbly. I often told him that he should just do a solo album of covers. He never got around to it, unfortunately.

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Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Dogface Bastards

s/t

(Self-issued)

As invigoratingly defiant as rebellion with the cause of Oi! sounds on record, total immersion in the animal comes only for those launching themselves into the snarling, participatory beast; everywhere, bodies fly, tumble, and sprawl, all to tunes blasted by mohawked warriors. L.A.'s Dogface Bastards urge on circle-dance mayhem in wee hours.

None of the foregoing was meant to dissuade disc purchasers. To the contrary, subjecting eardrums to the raucousness the Dogfaced ones shovel so violently is a fine first step toward the maelstrom.

Recommended: "Dogbite," "Dog Eat Dog," "New Voice of Oi!," "Friday Night," "Do or Bust," "Barking Dogs Don't Bite"

Videos: "Dog Eat Dog" / "New Voice of Oi!" / etc (live) "Barking Dogs Don't Bite"

The Hickeys

Demo

(Floating Skull)

A quote attributed to Johnny Ramone: "The quicker you get used to playing in front of people, the better. If you wait until you're 'good enough,' you'll never be good enough." How much coarseness and rudimentary playing here is natural, and how much intentional, is an open query. (Members of this '60s kicks fandango populated schizzing razor outfits like Gnats and Greasy Bitches; some degree of been-there done-that, then, surely applies.) Absence of polish, and eager freshness that isn't above neverminding occasional slapdash miscalculations, are charms not offered by prodigious instrumentalists.

Recommended: "Hickeys," "Melancholie," "Boogie Woogie," "Stinky"

Videos: "Boogie Woogie" (Official video) "Stinky" (Official video) Live 2026 (4:02)

Bandcamp

Floating Skull

Discogs

Eli 'Paperboy' Reed

Getting There

(Yep Roc)

My understanding is that medical personnel are on standby, poised to attend to listeners mysteriously unmoved by the spectacular Soul and R&B stylings that cut all kinds of loose on the floor. (Their acrobatics are lent piquancy by a brace of stormy brass.) Eli has proved his mettle umpty-hundred times, in a decade's worth of wax. As if his adeptitude -- whether emoting rivetingly at mic or massaging gritty gloriosities from a guitar that's apparently seen many-a midnight -- weren't sufficient to prompt wallet-crackings, Zaniah cameoed, and living legend Swamp Dogg not only ensured audio passageways were kept free of clutter, but participated in the sparkle.

Recommended: "Every Once in a While," "Asking for a Friend," "Getting There," "Like We Used To," "I Can't Even Walk (Without You Holding My Hand)," "Love You More" (feat. Zaniah), "Knock Knock Memories," "One Man's Trash (Is Another Man's Treasure)" (feat. Swamp Dogg), "The Questions"

Videos: "Every Once in a While" "Like We Used To" (Official video), "Love You More" "One Man's Trash (Is Another Man's Treasure)"

The X-Raycatz

Die Erste Und Einzige

(Just Another Normal Guy Records)

Had it not been for JANGR's discovery, remastering, and fresh 200-copy issuance of these unreleased tracks, all the world might know of the early '80s Deutschland hearties is the single cut they contributed back then to a compilation. Their in-rash-germination Punkabilly shouts exuberance at its own rumbustiousness. Even in current times, and to ears wise to subsequent Psycho squallings, old-school recklessness offers magnetism all its own.

Recommended: "Do the Bop," "Everywhere," "Rockabilly Cat," "Bad Times," "Racecat," "Boppin' At the Moon," "Hep Cat Dance," "Wild Girl," "Just Be Crazy," "Someday I'll Be a Star"

Videos: promo (3:48) "Everywhere" "Hep Cat Dance"

Rodrigo Camacho (feat. Pão Com Cebola)

It's truly wondrous, when singers and players load 100% of their passions and talents onto a runaway rocket tune that seizes dead-smitten diggers in happy kidnap.

Video: "Ligue o Rádio"

Instagram (Rodrigo)

Instagram (Pão)

se7digital

Rockin' Bones

Somewhere amidst forbidding foliage on the outskirts of nowhere, beauteous gris-gris spellcasters divert, their talismans and other arcane hex statuary at hand, as Frenchmen of reverb, hipchain, and triple slap thrash pathway through Psychobilly, as practiced by old-school wreckage mongers on planets of which NASA Poindexters know not.

Video: "Death Dance"

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Tom Toxic: All the way to Memphis

For #2 document of the sessions in which German Rockabilly marauder Tom and combo were joined by scads of originals -- whose names are rightly emblazoned in genre literature -- to work up/put down tunes of the affably rowdy sort launched from joints' stages or jukes, back when Ike rested feet on the Oval Office desk.

The assembled group tore through Sun, Sam Phillips, and Cash Cabin studios, slashing individual tattoo on those storied environs. It's as if Jules Verne had put his time machine in the hands of Memphis' Crown Electric cats, and they'd outfitted the fantastical contrivance with amplifiers, dual pipes, and about 26 gallons of twang.

Only 222 copies of this 10" platter lifted off pressing machinery, and I've theorized a reason why production was so abbreviated: The nine, vintage-fashioned ramblin' jive cuts contained thereon are just plain too likely to burst into wildass flames to risk greater engraved numbers. (I would take exception to that caution, suggesting instead that masses be set free to surrender themselves to dance-party frivolity amid fires. Life is way too brief to fuss about frilly niceties.)

Drop the needle, crank the loudness, and do Eddie's 'stockings and shoes' bit. Complaining neighbors need to mind their own damned affairs.

Excerpts from Tom's extensive liner notes:

"On Wednesday, February 22th, 2017, also around 6:30 pm, the moment had finally arrived - I was standing in the legendary Sun Studio, the destination of my dreams. I don't think I need to explain to anyone what the Sun Studio is all about."

"The day after our Sun session we arrived at the Sam Philips Recording Studio in the early afternoon, feeling somewhat sleep-deprived. The session the day before was draining and the night was short. The studio we intended to record the other day, is quasi the new Sun Studio, built in 1959 acording to Sam Philips' specifications and still looking today as it did when it first opened...This studio is a real time capsule. You can feel the spirit of that era in every corner, and it was very awe-inspiring to be allowed to record there."

"On February 20, 2017 at around 6:30 PM, the first recording session of the Tennessee Tapes Tour began at the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville. For those who don't know, the Cash Cabin was the Man in Back's private home recording studio for a long time...It still breathes the exceptional spirit of this with every fiber of its wooden planks and every pore of its solid stones."

Recommended: "All Mama's Children," "Here're My Hands," "You've Killed a Friend," "Rock'n'Roll and Beer and Girls," "Trouble Bound," "Don't Go!," "It's a Mess," "My Brother Alcohol," "Never Too Old to Rock'n'Roll"

Facebook (The Tennessee Tapes)

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No related videos were available at September presstime, sadly, as this disc is scheduled for October issuance.

Sunday, September 20, 2026

Bruce Humphries and the Rockabilly Rebels

s/t

(3 Ring Circus)

Tonight (Saturday, Sept. 19), Bruce and kindred back-alley beat ministers will treat carbonated two-steppers at the Foxtown Annex in Mequon, Wisconsin, to a release party for this wax. Unspooled will be Rockabilly that pulls one in, maintains its grip, and is proud out loud of ubiquitous rustic blood. The so-damn-good gusto of finger-popping, ankle-flexing rompery beloved by nightspot carousers-in-denim jumps and kicks blue blazes.

Oh, to be in Mequon tonight...

Recommended: "You Can't Fix Stupid," "Groove Baby, Baby," "Giddy-up!," "Hot Damn! I Want Your Girl!," "Flat Busted!," "Baby I Love You," "Ghost Town," "Shoot That Bunny"

Videos: "Can't Fix Stupid" "Groove Baby, Baby" "Baby I Love You"

Dogwood and the Shakers

s/t

(Self-issued)

Impeccably picked six-string maneuverings shake dust from boot-heels and go to town like the woods are on fire. Nor are cowtown-comfortable guitar calesthenics leader Zander's sole specialty; his direct vocalizing is of everyman quality -- except, of course, not every man can pull it off so admirably. (And wasn't it was decent of him to present only songs of the finest kind?)

Recommended: "I'd Rather Live in a Honky Tonk," "She's Gone," "Left for Dead," "Beneath the Stone," "God Save the Kingdom," "Red Hot," "Goodbye Always"

Videos: "I'd Rather Live in a Honky Tonk" "Left for Dead" "Beneath the Stone"