DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

Sunday, October 5, 2025

The Del Roswells

You Fly the Tic Tac Wrong digital EP

(Self-issued)

Imagine a police sergeant's flabergastation at a caller's complaining about too-loud music blaring from Area 51. Punks from beyond the Milky Way piloted their saucer with one hand on the wheel, as others bashed out raucous musicalizing. Success at the endeavor is guaranteed by above-question skills. Surely, an interplanetary tour is being blueprinted.

"I come out of hidin' and I started to rock..."

Recommended: "Klattu, Barada, Nikto, Let's Go!" "You Fly the Tic Tac Wrong," "Ullala," "Italian Deep Dish Alien Biscuits"

Videos: "Klattu, Barada, Nikto, Let's Go!" "You Fly the Tic Tac Wrong" "Ullala"

Back in the Day, 1982

Sonny Burgess and Dave Alvin

Tennessee Border

(Hightone)

Storied Sun wild man Sonny came roaring back in this 1982 project, showing young pups exactly how ripsnorting Rockabilly should be done. And it wasn't nothing but right that Blaster Dave brought him back; Sonny had helped raise up the Rebel Sound Dave and revivalist peers had grown up on. Sonny's prowess is so known to vintage wax afficianados that no need for articulation exists. Suffice to write that his way with joint tunery and tears-in-suds laments is as much instructional for would-bes, as fiery good in its own damn right.

Other labels have since reissued Tennessee Border.

Recommended: "Tennessee Border," "Flattop Joint," "Enough of You," "Old Old Man," "Automatic Woman," "I Don't Dig It"

Videos: "Tennessee Border" "My Heart is Achin' For You" "Flattop Joint" "Old Old Man" "There's Talk in Your Sleep" "I Don't Dig It"

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Rosie Flores & the Talismen

Impossible Frontiers

(Mule Kick Productions)

Rosie didn't just break ground - she sent soil flying. Across prior years, the elegant guitar madam showed all the wondrousness potential in her Rockabilly/Pop/Country amalgam. Rosie's crisp platter favors gentle rain over thunderclaps; one meets cowgirls with wet big blues more often than honky-tonk roustabouts. But no disappointments raise hands. Instead, ambrosia crooks its finger.

Recommended: "Lines," "So Sad," "Who's Lookin' For Me," "I Got a Right to Cry," "Dracula's Haunt," "See You Again," "Honky-Tonk Moon," "I'll Be Your San Antoine"

Videos: "So Sad" "I Got a Right to Cry" "Honky-Tonk Moon"

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Mule Kick Productions

MONOS

Classic Monsters 7" vinyl and digital

(Self-issued)

Appeal here is not limited to scare-flick fanatics who mainline cathode rays and recognize names like Curt Siodmak and Erle C. Kenton. Reward also awaits Testors-huffing social undesirables who cross themselves at the mention of Dee Dee and regret nothing about their beerily squandered lives. Sounds just as trashy-good from under tables. Few know Strickfaden also devised guitars.

Recommended: "Demolicion," "Voodoo Doll," "The Abominable Dr. Phibes," "Frankenstein's Wife"

Videos: "Voodoo Doll" "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" (live)

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Mike Sanchez with the Drew Davies Rhythm Combo feat. Big Boy Bloater

Hey Now!

(Doopin)

Bubbling up and over is R&B that keeps listeners on toe tips. Grab a party chick and dive in. There can be no stopping ivories in the grip of the spirit. Brassy interjections punch up proceedings. And the titular star himself looses stentorian musings in a style that indicates a thousand and one nights gloriously spent.

Recommended: "Lydia," "Boogie Oogie," "Cadillac Song," "Hey Now!," "I Need a Woman," "The Kokomo," "Mad Girl," "Keep Turning Me On," "What Can I Do?," "Safronia B," "Lula," "She's Gone Away But..."

Videos: "Boogie Oogie" (live) "Mad Girl" "Safronia B" (live) "I Need a Woman"

Nate Gibson

Fear the Beer: A Musical Salute to the Milwaukee Brewers CD, digital album

(Self-issued)

"When I got the idea for this project a few weeks back, I really wanted to finish it ASAP so that it could be a soundtrack to this year's MLB playoffs," Nate said in a late-September Facebook post.

You need not share the capped-evangelist's team-devotion to appreciate the release under consideration. Freewheeling musical good-timin' hefts it beyond strict niche-fantacism envelope. Pickers crowding the bandstand purvey Western Swing, Honky-Tonk realness, Bluegrass, all-get-out Rockabilly, and even a bit of Polka in limber manners. Hardwood teems with young maverick/flame pairings, and table-tops are knuckle-tattooed by older enthusiasts who nod cherishment.

On his site, the University of Wisconsin musicologist shares an observation: "This labor of love project is meant to serve as a soundtrack for the 2025 MLB Playoffs, to pay tribute to a team that has been an absolute pleasure to follow all season, and as a reminder to make time for the things that bring joy in life."

Recommended: "Fear the Beer," "The Bud's for You," "Down on the Farm in Nashville," "Beer Barrel Polka," "Hank the Dog," "Four Long Years," "Road to the World Series"

Videos: "Fear the Beer" "Hank the Dog" "Four Long Years" "Road to the World Series"

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Los Straitjackets

Somos Los Straitjackets

(Yep Roc Records)

So conversant are they in disparate tongues, that the "Surf" adjective often cast upon them hardly suffices. The spring-heeled four are widely hailed for assurance that awes. Textbook dexterity enables them to deal out impressive constructions that are sophisticated, dashing, and, sporadically, introspective. Frankie, Annette, and Deadhead/Bonehead fell in with Wray rumblings, Montgomery Ward-transistor-to-ear musings, and movements serenely majestic, a wealth of sensuous jollities being the creation.

500 copies exist, per Yep Roc.

Recommended: "Bumper Car," "Polaris," "Genesee River Rock," "High Wire Act," "Numbskull," "Two Steps Ahead," "April Showers" (feat. guitarist Simon Heeran), "Cry For a Beatle," "Copy Cat," "Wicker Park," "Spinout"

Videos: "Polaris" (official video) "High Wire Act" (live) "Spinout" (official video)