The Delstroyers
Bomboras dissipate when dropdown toms and bass-string anglings assure foundation for trebly articulations known well to Green Room habitués.
Videos: "Nightshade" & "Cannibal Car"
Showing posts with label instrumental. Show all posts
Showing posts with label instrumental. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Doyley & the Twanglords
Reverbatron digital album
(Diablo Records)
Just as opening minutes flash walloping imagery of Venusian waves crashing green-sand shores -- while the Republic Robot shoots the single-digit salute to two-headed gremmies -- closer "Lost Soul" introduces Old Country accordian into fast-flung instro proceedings. Betwixt the two hurtle wordless wonders that explore just how far six-strings can go to unite Bikini Beach and Forbidden Planet.
Recommended: "Reverbatron," "MoonSurfer," "Il Monstro," "Badaboom," "Robostomp," "Lost Soul"
No related videos were available. But here's a fun interview from years ago.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Back in the Day, 1999
The Neanderthals
The Modern Stone-Age Family
(Sundazed)
"Mastodon's" measured distorto-chords and trenchant beat recall both the Kinks and Los Straitjackets' choreographed stomps. That last hardly surprises, given that Eddie Angel teamed with Johnny Rabb to perpetrate this wiggy beach bash.
Straitjackets drummer Pete Curry is a sometime accomplice. And bassist Sam Bolle, whose resume includes Dick Dale, Fear, and Agent Orange, has hands in certain carbonated sensations, as well.
All tracks but one clock in under 3:00, which means outta sight bends and gasser shenanigans must make cases briskly. Eddie crafted Fun Gone Wild tunes with characteristic surf/garage erudition.
High moments ride mondo waves to transister jollification: "Toe Rag Twitch" transmogrifies "The Bedrock Twitch," and has teens the scene 'round doing dance sensations that are sweeping the nation. "Remember the Twist" juices the juke with experimental octane.
Were it not for Dippity-Do and Aqua Net, the ponytails and rat-tail-comb-teased bouffants of chicks shaking hips to "Flintstone Flop," "King of the Twist," and "Neanderthal Twist" would fast resemble peroxided shambles.
Select reinventions - with combo eyes ever toward shimmy-shimmy diversion - include Addams Family actor Ted Cassidy's 1965 "Lurch;" "I Go Ape" (a 1959 Neil Sedaka racer that England's Wee Willie Harris covered to riotous effect); novelty group The Martians' 1959 "Tarzan;" "Rockin' in the Jungle" (The Eternals' 1959 side); and "Shaggy Dog," waxed by Mickey Lee Lane in 1964.
Sundazed reissued Modern Stone-Age Family in 2023, on white translucent vinyl.
Recommended: "Mastodon," "Shaggy Dog," "I Go Ape," "Tarzan," "Toe Rag Twitch," "Remember the Twist," "Flintstone Flop," "Rockin' the Jungle," "King of the Twist," "Neanderthal Twist"
Videos: "Mastodon" "I Go Ape" (live) "Remember the Twist" "King of the Twist" "Neanderthal Twist"
Facebook (Eddie Angel)
Sunday, May 17, 2026
Magic Sands
Limón y Agua
(Hi-Tide Recordings)
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Many travel agents, posters of exotic destinations adorning office walls, could doubtlessly convey you to Kona, Hawai'i's Magic Sands, reputedly the world's most dangerous beach. (Riptides, shorebreak, and all.) But know that the present Los Angelino combo, sharing that and-still they-come tourist-spot's name, can do so faster and cheaper. Hawai'i's ancient charms roll forth in wonderment, as strings are plucked and strummed with a dignity that is all the more intriguing for its mum knowingness. Percussions of island, exotica, and Latin characters induce pleasing physical inclinations. August ambience is further embellished by piano-key judiciousness.
Sun disappears far across blue vastness, as ti leaf-wrapped pigs roast beneath earth in kālua enterprise. Mesmeric airs waft through evening air, and hula voluptuousness undulates.
Hi-Tide has specified a June 26 release date. Orange and green vinyl versions in gatefold jackets, with collectable obi strips, will be marketed in 200-unit limited edition.
What travel agent could offer all that?
Recommended: "Hawai'i Kai," "Vaquero," "Night in the Medina," "Mahina," "Back Door," "Hawai'i Kai," "Limón y Agua," "Baja Norte"
Videos: "Hawai'i Kai" "Vaquero" "Payout" "Mahina"
Sunday, May 10, 2026
headcat
...Plays Buddy Holly red / yellow vinyl, CD, and digital
(Cleopatra)
Danny B Harvey on social media: "This album will be out on vinyl, cassette tape & CD worldwide May 15, 2026 on Cleopatra Records. I’ve remastered all the songs and added 3 unreleased alternative mixes that I did during the original sessions in 1999."
When Danny, Slim Jim, and Lemmy - renowned titans, all - cast fortunes into one jackpot, a supergroup of planetary capacity assumed configuration. Meat-and-potatoes, crasharound rocking was zested by the piquancy of gods.
But you already knew that.
Last month, 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."
Issued concurrently will be a digital EP, containing "Fools Paradise," "Peggy Sue Got Married," and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" alternate mixes.
Since these words are being typed prior to the new disc's issuance, pesented below are links to Headcat's previous versions of songs to be included:
Recommended: "Fools Paradise," "Tell Me How," "Take Your Time," "Well...All Right," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," "Fools Paradise," "True Love Ways" (instrumental)"
Videos: "Fools Paradise" (live 2006) "Take Your Time" (Fools Paradise LP adaptation) "Peggy Sue Got Married" (fan-made video) "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" (From Fools Paradise) "Love's Made a Fool of You" (Fools Paradise) "True Love Ways" (instrumental)
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Bamboozle
It's a difficult undertaking - reinterpreting cartoon themes as jazzy instrumental excursions - but it's one Bamboozle pulls off with dash. Innocent fun and learned dexterity clasp hands and spin in playdate circles.
Video: "Inspector Gadget / Spiderman"
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Los Pontiaks
Hay un ojo en mi Martini! 12" vinyl LP
(Subterfuge Records)
"These three Prussian soldiers from the underworld emerge from their graves, when the occasion warrants, to invite us to a true hip-shattering Rock 'n' Roll bacchanal." intones their autobilling. Exotic and often instrumental rat rod treks through haunts of Surf, hacksaw rhythms, and Garage Mambo thrill without pause. Inventive songcraft dodges down unforseen novel night roads. The Lux & Ivy imprint (reflect upon title) has its way, certainly, though not with the Scumbag Alley banshee howl one might anticipate. Summoned forth are ten koo-koo treatises that, while hinting now and again at the storied CBGB's cryptkeepers, do so with the impeccable dash of 1940s John-Carradine-House-of-Dracula flowing cape. Silken finery and military helmets catch eyes, yes, but death-heads, dive-bombing chords, and final-mile drum sureness remind of cursed circumstance. (And whose hand is on your shoulder?)
Recommended: "Plato o Plomo," "Hay un ojo en mi Martini!," "Bailarina de seis brazos," "Chicas Zombies," "El Diablo," "El Atracto Perfecto," "El Indiano"
Videos: "Hay un ojo en mi Martini!" "Chicas Zombies" "El Atracto Perfecto"
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Iago Banet
"Hillside Gardens" single
(Star Galaxy Music)
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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.
Sunday, December 7, 2025
Back in the Day, 1969
Steve Cropper
With a Little Help from My Friends
(Volt - US, Stax -UK)
In Jimmy Vaughn's phrasing: Six Strings Down.
Wednesday the third brought news that Steve Cropper had expired, departing in his 84th solar orbit.
Steve's deft stylings took him from the 1960s' Stax house band (Booker T and the MGs) - with whom he gilded way too numerous Soul/R&B gems for succinct enumeration - to recording and filming with Blues Brothers John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, to further global pinnacles unglimpsed by most.
A city cat and his country cousin slapped hands, threw their respective uptown blues and backroad bends into high-stepping frolic, and left for lucky us a plate piled high with tuneful savoriness.
By adding his writing faculty to the crafting of "Knock on Wood," "Soul Man," "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay," "Green Onions," "In the Midnight Hour" and more, he ensured his shadow would forever hover above American popular music.
Here is where the legend began its journey. A wholly instrumental work, it trained the spotlight on the man's plectrum prowess - as was only proper. Steve's manner was both judicious and adventurous; he steadily intuited how best to traverse ambitious avenues, digging the soulful capacity alurk in every meaty passage.
A host of delights abounds. As ears are filled by sounds too cool for rules and too funky for button-down strictures, muscle memory may well answer the call, producing good-time limb gesticulations not viewed since Don Cornelius commenced the Soul Train Line. And Steve's own "The Way I Feel Tonight" is textbook belly rub stuff.
2023 witnessed an Omnivore Recordings vinyl rerelease. A digital, remastered and expanded version saw daylight in 2024.
If there be any sunshine piercing the dark cloud of a string master's sad demise, besides mourners enjoying works left behind, it is this: up-and-coming pickers can avail themselves of the inspirational example. The pick is passed. Such is the way.
Recommended: "Crop Dustin' "Land of 1000 Dances," "99 1/2," "Boo-Ga-Loo Down Broadway," "Funky Broadway," "With a Little Help from My Friends," "Oh Pretty Woman," "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water," "The Way I Feel Tonight," "In the Midnight Hour," "Rattlesnake"
Videos: "Crop Dustin'" "99 1/2" "Boo-Ga-Loo Down Broadway" "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water" "The Way I Feel Tonight"
Facebook (Tributes and condolences may be posted here)
bandcamp (digital, expanded)
Amazon (Omnivore vinyl)
Sunday, November 9, 2025
Jesse Cunningham
It's Tonkin' Time
(Self-issued)
Look who's come through the door - a cat with no particular claims to grandeur, save for estimable multi-instrumental aptitude and seemingly effortless, rural-fashion Tele virtuosity so profound that Charlie and Floyd's Cannonball nearly flew clean off Dead Man's Curve. Lyrics would be superfluous, given instrumentals' nothin'-fancy majesty. Flutter-finger fretism enjoys complement courtesy of drumming as precise as a Swiss timepiece, shrewd bass navigations, and steel guitar that knows its home-folks territory and carries on right proud.
(Jesse now adds serious flair to the Blast-O-Matics; their newest is reviewed below.)
Recommended: "It's Tonkin' Time," "Everyday I'm Shufflin'," "Chickens B. Pickin'," "The Train Robber," "Surf 'n' Turf," "Grandpa Walt's Waltz," "West Coastin'," "Blast Off Cowboy"
Videos: "It's Tonkin' Time" "Everyday I'm Shufflin'" "Chickens B. Pickin'" "The Train Robber" "Blast Off Cowboy"
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Marie 13 & Engineer Ferris
Psycoziness
(Self-issued)
Portuguese tattoo contriver Marie 13, abetted by Ferris (who is also credited with music and artwork) roams instrumental avenues that prove catching. What might in less adventurous controls be routine Surf journeys, are here charged by Goth and Psycho compulsions. That is not to imply storminess, though; the souls responsible tend to venture moderately, their musicianship negotiating volatile sequences.
Recommended: "The Clap of Karma," "I'll Come Crushing," "Howling on the High Hill," "Beyond Repair Blues," "Self-Harmless Twist," "We Are Chaos," "Chimeras & Demons IV"
Video: "Beyond Repair Blues" (slice)
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Wednesday, August 20, 2025
X-Ray Cat Trio
"Sir Gawain & the Green Knight" b/w "Greensleeves" digital single
(Property of the Lost)
Exiting medieval mists to invade beach-party transistor blare are instrumental marauders that enthrall. Remember the ancient suits of armor that stood mute witness to countless Old Dark House melodramas? Recast them as silver surfdogs. Dust-blanketed airs enjoy crisp animation in the hands of craftsmen.
Videos: "Sir Gawain & the Green Knight" "Greensleeves"
Amazon (DE)
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Saturday, February 22, 2025
Urban Zotel & the Thundertones
"Heatwave" b/w "Emergenct Exit"
(Martin's Garage)
It's perilous kicks, maintaining board-balance atop a crest while pressing a General Electric transister radio to one ear. (Add in waist-up Frugging.) But the cumulative product of twanging strings, gentle sax, and appropriately understated tempos conjures mesmeric force majeure as actual as sand-grains betwixt toes.
Videos: "Heatwave" "Emergency Exit"
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
The Greasy Gills
"Corn Cob Racer" b/w "Meat Swamp' 7" yellow vinyl or digital format
(No-Count Records/MuSick Recordings)
Executed for our diversion are instrumentals felicitous for both leaving rubber on quarter miles and shooting foamy curls. Jordan Steer can make a guitar do all but kickstart a shovelhead. Sprawling exploits are spurred by the gymnastics of sticks-artisan Gracie Malley and adroit electric-bass navigator Sam Benedetti. Bursting out loud is a cohesion possible only for professionals.
Videos: "Corn Cob Racer" "Meat Swamp" live (40:13)
Friday, September 20, 2024
the alley-oops
s/t EP
(Self-issued)
Spartan instrumentals range from Surf to Spy, and Rockabilly to swinging soirees. Alex traverses the fretboard like home turf. He can muse at leisure, his enunciations enabled by wide knowledge, but also tear through gymnastic runs that snatch breath. Involved ornamentation is absent. That benefits, as basicness facilitates flight.
Recommended: "Progabilly," "Hang Ten," "Private Eye," "Blue's Polka," "The Alley-Oops Rag"
Videos: "The Alley-Oops Rag" "Blue's Polka"
Amazon (UK)
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
MusTwang
"Country Punk" "Hammered" singles
(Braden Israel)
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Before us is an instance of something pretty damn special that percolated at grassroots level, only to now burst onto greater stages with the chops and poise of marquee standouts. The remarkably cohesive, nimble instrumental trio cooly deals admirable passages filled with six-string articulations of top-drawer character. Members Braden Israel, Gary Frey, and Casey Summers were joined on "Country Punk" by seasoned multi-instrumentalist David Spires on steel guitar. Delight unspools.
Videos: "Country Punk" "Hammered"
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