Atomic Drifters
Atomic Man EP
(Self-issued)
Small wonder, that Viva Las Vegas 26 habitués tapped to this outfit's output; they and attendees were of one blood. Slouched Country disposition here imbues tunes whose jumped-up manners leave zero question about their rightness for that venue. Cowboy hats and cat music in hep symbiosis.
Recommended: "Atomic Man," "Come With Me," Devil In My Mirror"
Videos: "Atomic Man" "Come With Me" (live)
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The Hammer Horrors
Creepy Cocktail
(Self-issued)
Delectable creepiness resounds off gray-stone walls, but that's only half the good news unveiled. The remainder is that the wretches who grabbed up angry instruments, having left shackles dangling, perpetrate strange savageries at once titillating and deleterious to moral being. If songs seem to pass quickly, that's because time flies when you're up to no good.
Recommended: "The Shape in the Shadows," "Tombstone Shuffle," "Creepy Cocktail," "Hot Bitch From Hell," "Friday Night Frightmare," "Every Dead Thing Needs a Hole," "Just Buried," "Bloodmobile," "Sundown In Bloodtown," "Beast"
Videos: "Tombstone Shuffle" "Just Buried" "Beast"
The Honkytonk Wranglers
Hangin' Around
(Swelltune Records)
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In 1971, at 12 years old, I spent a weekend with a paternal uncle and his family. They lived in one of Iowa's tiny rural towns.
I was from a city. So, for me, country life was a different reality. Sunday meant all-day fundamentalist church, punctuated at noon by a houseful gathering. A table was loaded down with hot dogs, cold meats, breads, pop, and potato salad. A spirited throng gathered, dressed in church-going finery.
Roaming the rooms, I found a black-and-white 8x10 stashed on a bookshelf. It was a posed publicity shot, and depicted a country western-type combo complete with stand up bass, acoustic, electric, and steel guitars. They sported de rigueur cowboy attire: big hats, neckerchiefs, boots.
I didn't know the photo's vintage, nor did I recognize anyone featured. Some distant family members, perhaps -- ones who'd once dreamed vainly of celebrity? (Excerpted from the author's "Flesh Made Music.")
The Honkytonk Wranglers brought back that memory. They just played Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend, and the Country they genially offer - polished (as in professional), but never overly so - is the sort of rug-cutting affair home-folks can never get too plentifully.
Each hand present maintains cool poise. Whether arrangements call for pacific interpretation, or for all on deck to lean back and let loose with jaunty diversions, caliber of executive rank is consistently on tap.
They are too damn good to end up like the unknowns in that 8x10.
Recommended: "Hangin' Around," "Cryin' In the Deep Blue Sea," "Sunday Down In Tennessee," "Better Safe Than Sober," "Under the Influence of Love," "Much Too Young To Die," "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down," "There's Not Any Like You Left," "The Late and Great Me"
Video: "Hangin' Around" (live) "Better Safe Than Sober" (live) "Cryin' in the Deep Blue Sea"
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High Street
Welcome to High Street
(JLC Audio)
"We are currently releasing our album one song at a time for streaming, and the rest is available for purchase on our website," read the message sent me by High Street. (This reviewer was provided with confidential audio.) While putting songs to tape, group members trod the same Union Avenue studio floor as had giants. Arising amidst many spring-heeled ravers are a few reserved offerings that boast urbane harmonies and mannerly instrumentation.
Back in days when primordial Rock'n'Roll burst from blinking Wurlitzers, romps of identical spirit earned every cool kid's coins.
Recommended: "Little Emma," "Where is the Time?," "Call Me," "What's a Man Gotta Do," "Watching (With Those Eyes)," "High Street Hop," "Your Little Secret," "Doctor, I Don't Know What I Got"
Video: "Little Emma"
Rampires
Voodoo Queen four-track EP
(Ring Of Fire / Bat Rock)
Discogs observes this orgy of the dead is limited to 100 hand-numbered copies. Those digging it will find themselves in the crazy-stitched company of tiltedly barreling Psychos who know precisely how to evoke calamitous uproar, whilst evidencing musical bents only true horror-men harbor.
Steal into the nocturnal cemetery, put an ear to the grass, and witness sounds wraiths relish.
Recommended: "Voodoo Queen," "Calling Me a Monster," "Werewolf Priest," "Blood and Bones"
Videos: "Voodoo Queen" "Werewolf Priest"
Kieron McDonald
Because Of You 4-track EP
(Sleazy Records)
Australian finger-popper Kieron (the Flatfoot Shakers' founder) is possessed of pipes eminently suited to let's-get-loose bop. While cats at his back give out with snapped-tight shakings - prominent are Kid James' lapel-seizing guitar lines - Kieron dispatches lyrics with cool-daddy aplomb; consistently on the beam, the man plainly digs the melody cruise. And when's the last time anyone heard a Rockabilly Rebel name-check Dino?
Recommended: "Because of You," "All She Wants to hear is Dean Martin," "Exotic Woman," "At the Bop Hop"
Videos: "Because of You" "All She Wants to Hear Is Dean Martin" "At the Bop Hop"
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Howlin' Ramblers
Shake It Around!
(Sleazy Records)
Harmonica colludes with beloved standard axes to throw out jump-stepped exertions. Blues and Country prove themselves of congruent bloods. Here rallies Rock'n'Roll of evergreen favor, the real kind that kicks forward naturally. To paraphrase the Treniers: "Rockin' is their business."
Recommended: "Shake It Around!," "Cachon River," "Itchy and Scratchy," "Devil On My Mind," "Sundown Calls," "Fate's Hand," "Love's Gone Cold," "Dressed In Black," "Hot Dog Man," "Whisky & Women"
Videos: "Chacon River" "Itchy and Scratchy" (live) "Fate's Hand" "Dressed In Black" (feat. Bettie P. footage)
