DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY: pop

Showing posts with label pop. Show all posts

Sunday, July 12, 2026

The Jets

50 Years of Rockin'

(Krypton)

Having issued several 'best of' and commemorative compendiums previously, the Cottons three might be assumed to now be scraping barrel's bottom. They are - but it's one crackerjack of a barrel, and each song contained merits recollection. Harmonizing and rock-around-the-malt-shop-clock hot-rods clean through Gonesville's town square.

Recommended: "Don't Knock Upon My Door," "My Pigeon's Gone," "Movie Star," "Pretty Pretty Baby," "Bye Bye Love," "Perfect Love," "In Love With You," "Wildest Cat in Town," "Why Don't You"

Videos: "Don't Knock Upon My Door" (live 2025) "My Pigeon's Gone" (live 2007) "Pretty Pretty Baby" (live)

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Tuff Darts

s/t

(Sire / Music on CD)

Led by lead guitarist/primary tunesmith Jeff Salen (RIP), the Tuff Darts were among the more colorful and proficient of the 1970s CBGB class. That was amply evidenced in their three tracks on 1975's Live at CBGBs double LP. Robert Gordon was then the group's voice.

Tommy Frenzy, himself crackerjack at the mic, had by this 1978 Sire platter assumed the Darts' frontman position. The undersung colleagues of Big Apple brawlers the Ramones, Blondie, Dead Boys, and Heartbreakers shone like streetlights amid a streetfight, and are recalled fondly by in-know survivors of bowery overnights.

Tuff Darts compositions were mini-classic episodes in which regulation Rock'n'Roll and Pop inclinations were strained through wiseass Punk attitude (that occasionally cruised the more deviant Red Light precincts), ending up as sleek missiles that satisfied.

Some tracks cried 'Radio.' Others belonged in the back pages of under-counter periodicals. All, though, were front-of-the-underclass.

Several reissues of this LP have occurred over decades, the most recent being a 2024 CD issuance by Music on CD.

Recommended: "Who's Been Sleeping Here," "(Your Love is Like) Nuclear Waste," "Here Comes Trouble," "Rats," "Fun City," "All For the Love of Rock'n'Roll," "Love and Trouble," "Head Over Heels," "Slash," "Phone Booth Man," "My Guiar Lies Bleeding in My Arms"

Videos: "Who's Been Sleeping Here" "(Your Love is Like) Nuclear Waste" "Here Comes Trouble" "Rats" "All For the Love of Rock'n'Roll" "Head Over Heels" "Slash"

With previous lead singer Robert Gotdon

Sunday, July 5, 2026

The Forty Fours

Among Where the Action Is airs refreshed in scant bubbly minutes are Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" and a plethora of early-days Lennon/McCartney ones. And, just as chipper '60s harmonies fully bloom, scrupulous attention is paid attire, clipped coifs, and general comportment - all the way to toothy noggin-joggling.

Video: "Now She's Gone"

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Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Todd Arita and his West End Poets

Hired Gun Trio's guitar ace Todd dedicated this wiser-for-the-aching plaint to his late mother, an act whose respectfulness finds fellowship in 3:54 of expansive, swingalong meditation.

Video: "Isn't Life Grand"

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Black Kat Boppers

All Out Rock'n'Roll digital album

(Swelltune Records)

One pointy alligator shoe stomping in Sun world, the other imprinting Blues swampscape, and mojos cavorting in Mashed Potato abandon all the while. Lauded scene habitués Roy, Luca, Dylan, and Colin affirm again why they're major attractions hither and thither. Don't comb tracks for ponderous cogitation, just grab some pick-'em-up-and-put-'em-downs.

(Collaboration and graphic artwork come courtesy of Clash-mate and dedicated supporter Paul Simonon who, on occassion, also subs on four-string axe at gigs.)

Recommended: "Billy Billy," "All Out Rock'n'Roll," "Scream & Holla," "Black Kat Boppin' atcha," "Casting My Spell," "Rollin' In," "You Silly Thing"

Videos: "Billy Billy" (live at Rockabilly Rave 2026) "All Out Rock'n'Roll" (live at Continental Club 2024) "Casting My Spell" (live at Hank Dietle's Tavern 2024) "You Silly Thing" (recorded in separate locations during COVID era)

The Gasölines

Though hurtling and bash-fisted, these severe minutes are also possessed of appeal familiar to brave ravers who dimly recall club episodes, midsommer midnight, or arena frenzies. People were killed by Morten Nilsen's guitar solo - and they're still grinning.

Video: "(I'm Not) Your Mirror"

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Big Cartel

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Kebunku

Harmonic Pop-Punk "Dia" shimmers, but exposes teeth via Oi! shouts. "Hey" favors storm clouds over sunbeams. Both owe much to group members' passions.

Videos: "Dia Lewat Lagi" "Hey Aku Belum Mati"

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Back In the Day, 2006

The Bluejays

A Hundred Songs

(Hithouse)

It's the desired destination of countless musicians, the point at which alluring strains, siken harmonies and trusted roots stylings collude with thoughtful verse. Real world music grounded in human experience, but reaching still for the fantastic. For the Bluejays, that rainbow's end reward is but the starting line.

Recommended: "A Hundred Songs," "Guess Why I'm Crying," "If You'd Get Out of My Way," "I Do What You Want Me To," "Devil in Disguise," "Anytime," "Too Bad," "What Kind of Girl"

Videos: "A Hundred Songs" "Devil in Disguise" "Too Bad" "What Kind of Girl"

mp3va

2014 release

Sunday, May 17, 2026

The Holloway Echoes

Carry On Echoing

(Western Star)

Sporting drape coats and beetle-crushers, with high spirits their commonality, credentialed Teds bound onstage.

The contrast between eminently dispatched, grand musicality and japes that, on occasion, prompt blushing, mark proceedings. Lead-off cut "All Asses Must Be Shown" is a ribald tale, fondling the Camping entry in the Carry On laugh-escapade movie bunch. Felicitous blonde Babs is touched upon as banjo strikes up rousing merriment, and group singalong wreathes all in smiles.

Jolly tone having been set, tagalong cuts span stately (and frequently back-slappingly waggish) passages. Pop sunniness, Skiffle, and music hall cavortings are numbered amongst. Evidence abounds that while jesters every inch, these spiffily attired gentlemen (including Pat Winn and Alan Wilson) know their instruments up the avenue and home again.

Recommended: "All Asses Must Be Shown," "Brylcreem," "The Law Must Take It's Course," "Charlie's World," "This is a Melody of Guitars and Bells," "50s Fred (The Monoped Ted)," "Gripper," "Watch My Records Play," "The Third Earl of Harrow," "Take Me Back," "Cox's Creepers," "Last Orders," "Be Right Yet Left"

Videos: "All Asses Must Be Shown" "Brylcreem" "This is a Melody of Guitars and Bells" "50s Fred (the Monoped Ted)" "Gripper"

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Dwight "Whitey" Pullen

Sunglasses After Dark

(Cleopatra)

Whitey's "Sunglasses After Dark," the greased anthem of hep wolves everywhere, has been revisited by a wicked roster that numbers the Cramps, Meteors, and Japan's 5.6.7.8s. This fresh Cleopatra remarketing of the erstwhile Blue Cap plank-packer's killer 7"s reminds (as if any afficianado had forgotten) that not all top-drawer, first-generation Rockabilly is credited to marquee personalities.

(Note: Alabama-birthed Whitey resurfaced in the 1970s. He cut sides for Californian Ronny Weiser's Rollin' Rock, as did other Golden Agers like Charlie Feathers, Ray Campi, Johnny Carroll, and Mac Curtis.)

Recommended: "Everybody's Rockin'," "Sunglasses After Dark," "Moonshine Liquor," "Crazy in Love," "Walk My Way Back Home," "Let's All Go Wild," "Tuscaloosa Lucy," "Drinkin' Wine Spo Dee O Dee," "Teen Age Bug"

Videos: "Sunglasses After Dark" "Crazy in Love" "Let's All Go Wild" "Teen Age Bug"

Sunday, April 19, 2026

The Refreshments

Steadily churned Rock 'n'Roll, of the type Mr. Berry built into evergreen luminescence. Group singalong voices, rendering hooks that cannot be declined, wave one and all to join in celebrating liberty from that damned torch.

Video: "Bye, Bye Belinda"

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Wednesday, April 8, 2026

The Flowertones

"Side by Side" digital single

(Swelltune Records)

Vibrant Pop in happy bloom...poetry extolling ardor eternal...a kaleidoscopic collage of hues and textures in euphoric parade. Sunny harmonies and understatedly persuasive playing guide through sweetness and shine. Amid a sea of beaming teens, Dick Clark claps as if a kid himself. (A full-length Swelltune disc is planned for later this year.)

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Mr. Fab & his Bag O' Heads

Taste the Brides of Drac-enstein digital album

(Jungle Room Records)

We're in weird company, when a theremin's hanging around. But off-kilter sorts dig the spookiness. As the haunted house hullabaloo devolves into ghastly Go-Go groove, and life forms not-of-this-reality do dance sensations that are sweeping the nation, Mr. Fab unchains kooky 1960s Garage bash-rhythms that feature all manner of sideways instrumentation, single-and-choral voice manifestations, totally unforseen brass gesticulations, and percussive knickknocks. Archived from the last century's second-half decades, these uncanny novelty romps - sporadically punctuated by drive-in flick blurbs - would have teenage future-Luxes up all night, cranking GE transisters under sheets, when they're supposed to have turned over keys to the Sandman.

Recommended: "Skeleton Crew on the Graveyard Shift," "Ghost Zombie Goes to Town," "Cannibal Zombie Mom," "Casper the Friendly Queen," "I Want My Mummy," "Thereming"

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Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Rory Justice

"Take Me To That Place" b/w "Think it Over"

(Self-issued)

Dig what's become of the JD howler that Golly Gee's Mel Spinella hailed as "The Rockabilly Kid," when he waxed his 2004 maiden platter of the identical sobriquet: An imposing, full-throated rocker, whose youthful need to shout down all Creation, in the style of pioneering gutbox insurgents like Johnny Burnette and Ray Harris, has matured into kool mastery. Rory's straight-from-the-fridge 2026 cuts illustrate Country-rooted Rockabilly's nonpareil heart, one which Mischief firecrackers Paddy, Daze, and Richard put down like nobody's damn business. Crash would pound Rory on the back.

Videos: "Take Me to That Place" "Think it Over"

Sunday, March 22, 2026

The Dracu-Las

"I'm Blue" b/w "Time is a Maze" single

(Outro Records)

The Dracu-las succeed splendidly at a formidable task; that being, not only reiterating 1961 Ikettes sweet meat, but doing so with all the shimmy dignity it merits. Silk-swathed voluptuousness undulates, fingers pop, and melodies usher toward rapture. Harmonies that outspread with deliciousness enjoy the complement of reservedly luscious instrumentation.

Video

Sunday, March 15, 2026

Marley Bone

"Neesey Smile" single

(Marleybone Records)

There's a time for stridence and pugnacity, but life also offers tender moments. Couple spells, during which lidded eyes lock, caresses inspire, and the clock's hands lose meaning. For, just as the sun's rays banish dismal cloudiness, so dimples dash away despondence. Would that all combos were similarly adept at contriving hushed romanticism. Brushes imprint snare, strummed chords hint at beatitude, and basslines articulate empathetic structure. Blissful stirrings are brought to a head by womanly radiance.

Video "Neesey Smile"

Sunday, March 1, 2026

The Monokids

s/t

(Self-issued)

Italy's Monokids are the whole package: a second skin, cat-style look; Neo-Rockabilly (plus sundry other bents) so tight and energetically tossed out that neophyte competitors likely grind molars enviously; and such apparent affection for the bop that drives cats and gators into lava-blooded paroxysms, that sound systems tremble at resultant roar.

Recommended: "Always Do the Bop," "Real Gone Daddy," "40 Days in a County Jail," "The Last Goodbye," "My Blues," "Blazing"

Videos: "Always Do the Bop" "Real Gone Daddy" (clip) "40 Days in a County Jail" (clip)

Sunday, February 22, 2026

Savage Beat

Bright Lights, Tall Shadows

(Wap Shoo Wap Records)

Savage Beat are the storming sons of every bygone, cherished Rock'n'Roll / Punk / Glam / Oi! outfit that tore all hell out of popular music when it became boring (as it so often does). Snarling guitar, basslines that mean business, and monster-muscled drum demolition rip the brakes out of this substance-abusing locomotive. Shouted exclamations leap aboard that streamlined anger and spew jump-for-jawbreaking defiance of whatever strictures society might contrive. Incredulously, all that is packed into oxygen-free song missiles.

1970s Creem magazine crits sometimes groped the descriptor "high energy." Set for March 6 release (pre-orders are now underway), this 10-track, 12" vinyl argument for exhuming that accolade may well set turntables aflame.

Get it anyway. The world needs Savage Beat.

Recommended: "Street Boogie Confidential," "Cut to the Chase," "Unhinged," "Killer Inside," "Blood on the Knees," "Bright Lights, Tall Shadows," "The Side Hustle," "Worse for Wear," "Three Chord Disciple," "Tomorrow (Might Never Come)"

Videos: "Unhinged" "The Side Hustle" "Three Chord Disciple" (tour video)

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Pwdin Reis

"Winwn Coch" single

(Recordiau Reis)

Bid howdy to Cymric vivacity that knows well the streets of the twang side of town. No self-respecting Rock'n'Roll Seeburg would be caught without such wax on offer. It's tunes like this that remind life's a big ball of exuberance - one promising too dadgum many kicks to cold shoulder.

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Sunday, January 25, 2026

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"