Sex Pistols

The Original Recordings

(UMe)

Their gutter-snipe comportment was calculated and opprobrium-attracting, but of infinitely more significance was the pugnacious thrust of their rock 'n' roll. Like the Ramones who'd preceded them, they helped destroy the overproduced and overindulgent rock product of the day. Or, at least, hip listeners to the fiction of its hegemony.

Recommended: "God Save the Queen," "No Feelings," "I Wanna Be Me," "Anarchy In the UK," "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone," "Lonely Boy," "Silly Thing," "Did You No Wrong"

Video: "I Wanna Be Me"

UMe

 Messer Chups

Visiting The Skeleton In The Closet

(Cleopatra)

Few surf-instrumental combos assemble at the national level -- Los Straitjackets is notable -- and that's a good thing; top-tier ones appear in bolder relief. Messer Chups march in their select rank. 

Recommended: "Pink Pantheratu," "UFOnica," "Caravan From Mars," "Boomada," "Mad Monster Party," "Point Conception '63," "Bumble Boogie," "Zombienuelle," "Carioca," "Dracula Hates Killer Icicles"

Video: "Carioca"

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Jake Calypso &

His Red Hot

Rockabilly Star

(Around The Shack)

Jake's frantically hiccuped ventings put one in mind of Charlie Feathers or Mack Stevens, he's that flat gone into rockabilly paroxysms of unbridled hysteria. He's just in control, but it's one happily indulgent of the wild side of life.

Recommended: "Rockabilly By Plane," "Jeanne & Jane," "I'm Just A Boppin' Cat," "If I Knew How," "Rockabilly Star," "She Bops Around the Clock"

Video: "Rockabilly Star"

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 Delta 88

Barberella's Barbershop

(Western Star)

There can be no going wrong when the subject is Miss Betty. Not that related musings are the only ones to be had. Subjects as diverse as memories of amour elapsed and a tonsorial temptress receive fond treatment to a basal rockabilly beat.

Recommended: "Betty & The Page Boys," "Doomtown Mannequin," "Ghost Of Love," "Barberella," "I Can't Stand Being Alone," "Lost Boy," "Chills & Fever," "Going Back"

Video: Live (16:00)

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Western Star

Dale Watson and Lorrie Morgan

I've Always Been Crazy

(Cleopatra)

Posits a wry sentiment. Lorrie and Dale sound comfortable in tandem, and his soloing is at its usual high standard. Present single is taken from an upcoming, full-length disc which will be reviewed in this space.

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Dale Watson site

Lorrie Morgan site

Cleopatra

Wild Boogie Combo

Black Hills Country Blues

(Around The Shack)

Way back in the woods stands a tumble-down joint. Inside, three men wail and yowl from way down deep. A guitar, blues harp, and spare drum kit are their chosen tools. And those're all they need to breathe life into songs of jubilation. 

Recommended: "Magic Pill," "A Praised Day," "Lord Showed Me The Way," "Eggs & Bacon," "The Devil In My House," "Baby Hold Me," "I Pray For Him"

Video: Live, non-CD

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The Gun Club

Preaching The Blues

Box Set (Flood Gallery)

The particulars: 7 singles. 56-page booklet. Exclusive-to-set fanzine. Liner notes by John Doe, Thurston Moore, Henry Rollins, and others. Postcard. Badge.

The late, lamented Jeffery Lee Pierce envisioned a psycho-blues-punk amalgam that depended on austere rock'n'roll instrumentation, and heart and soul, to communicate dark narratives. 

Slide guitar and power chords meshed and contrasted in singular, tempestuous union. Slurred traditionalism was a beast that found favor among spiky battalions. That vocals were often tortured and seemingly yearned for understanding was only appropriate.

Tales he penned were at once poetic and aggressively assertive, mining the underside of the human experience for poverty riches accessible to the average man who dared to believe against experiential evidence in life's potential for something worthwhile. 

Or at least another damaged person's salvational grace.

Recommended: "Ghost On the Highway," "Sex Beat," "Fire Of Love," "Carry Home," "Brother and Sister," "The House On Highlad Ave,," "The Lie," "Crabdance," "Pastoral Hide and Seek," "Black Hole," "Emily's Changed," "Cry To Me," "Give Up the Sun"

Video: "The Lie"

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