Jack Rabbit Slim

Hard To Forget

(Western Star)

An upright metric that one shares the company of master craftsmen is utter absence of lackluster recorded material. To be sure, there are among these songs varying degrees of worth; some fly whereas others (most) soar. But be assured that, within the contemporary roots-music community, Jack Rabbit Slim rightly claims prime real estate.

Recommended: "Long Black Cloud," "Loser On Judgement Day," "Rude Not To," "Playin' Hard To Forget," "Black Tornado," "No Message," "Cat Talkin' Baby," "Serpent Slide" (Shorty Mix), "Catchin' On Fast," "Little Bird," "The Popular Loner," "Beat It Creep," "Wet Legs," "Rock'n'Roll Bones"

Video: "Cat Talkin' Baby"

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The Rocket Dogz

Out Of Cages!

(PHR Records)

The Rocket Dogz expend much disc space agitating in flamethrowing Rock'n'Roll mode (and include an agile bit of Ska). There is vivacity afoot, wrought with an aggressiveness that binds. Listeners will be whipped into ferment. But behind that, the Rocket Dogz conclude matters on a quietly poignant note featuring acoustic strummings, the sympathetic accompaniment of harmonica, and harmonies that enrapture.

Recommended: "Stay Wild," "Queen Of Thieves," "Bad Times Coming," "Keep Your Big Mouth Shut," "Break Outta Cages," "Murder She Wrote," "City's Burning," "Way Too Hot," "One For the Road," "Days Weren't Better"

Video: "Stay Wild"

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Lost Boys

One Of  Us

(Crazy Love Records)

Somewhat youthful they may be, but the wreckers stalking here are learned in the ways of Psychobilly. They render that strident vernacular with the boldness of creatures to the pit born. Here rages affirmation that the music of the wanton will ever abide.

Recommended: "Outer Limits," "Spiral," "Out For My Head," "HB Stroll," "El Toreador"

Video: "Out For My Head"

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Hillbilly Casino

Hang Your Stockings, Say Your Prayers

(Self-issued)

The present writer understands that Thanksgiving has yet to arrive (and despises stores rushing to stock Yuletide goods and banners), but finds this reissue so diverting that waiting is not reasonable.

Hillbilly Casino is lauded for both its brawny fix on roots sensibilities and determination to pull American stylings of old into contemporary convention. They do so with the fervor of true believers.

The four-man juggernaut has long been a favorite of average working folks, the sort who swarm the honky-tonk dance floors of Nashville and beyond, casting off real-world cares in favor of midnight-hour bacchanalia. 

Like the band, they understand that there are only two kinds of songs, good ones and bad ones. Having fun is more rewarding than obsessing over genre distinctions.

Hang Your Stockings, Say Your Prayers was first issued for Xmas 2008, but is again being made available. It captures why Hillbilly Casino is vital in a world that can never have too many principled minstrels. 

Rousingly reinvented Yuletide chestnuts appear, and their celebratory swingings establish personality. But muscling into their company are originals that proffer further seasonal merriment. Those unspool in joyful consonance with the much-loved standards.

Hillbilly Casino has always conveyed ecstatic looseness in its performances, both in studio and before audiences. That it imbues their interpretations of holiday tributes hardly surprises. 

As if riding in a one-horse open sleigh, the band dashes over icy fields and scatters musical notes on new-fallen snow. Up and down hills they go, rocking all the way. 

Even persons who've seen so many Christmases they've become jaded will be spurred.

The band's rambunctious oeuvre towers as testament to its consequence. Every outing features, in vigorous exercise, slap-bass navigations, the bent-string exclamations of Ronnie Crutcher, and thunderous percussive insistence. One hears why Hillbilly Casino is indispensible for fans the world over.

Add in frontman Nic Roullette's irrepressible vocal declarations and onstage gymnastics, and one perceives the stuff of legends -- in their own time.

Hang Your Stockings, Say Your Prayers teaches, to our delight, that strapping rockabilly temperament and the "Jolly old elf" are not at all incompatible. And wouldn't that be a fine gift to find beneath the tree?

(Note: This CD features original members bassist Geoff Firebaugh and drummer Andrew Dickson. Now filling those positions are Colin Taylor and Sam Clay, respectively.)

Recommended: "Santabilly Boogie," "Run Run Rudolph," "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Jingle Bell Rock," "Holly Jolly Christmas," "Tangled Up," "Santa's Back," "Jingle Bells," "Let It Snow," "Up 'n' At 'em Old Saint Nick," "Blue Christmas"

Video: "Santabilly Boogie" (live, pre-CD)

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Black Raven

Rockbox Revival

(Hot Stuff Records)

Issued in 2018, this disc is being accorded 2023 notice for two reasons: It epitomizes Ted tunefulness, and is the yet-active trio's most recent, full-length waxing. Absent is the chain-swinging obstreperousness of esteemed others of their musical sort. In its stead, Black Raven cultivates burnish and cordiality (with steely fortification). As can be enjoyed here, they set a sterling course.

Recommended: "Tell Her (I'll Fight)," "Chrome Heart," "Has She Got a Friend," "You're Leaving Me," "Tovarich," "If I Married a Hooker" (feat. Kris Kristofferson), "Once More Forever," "Over You," "I've Lost the Sunshine," "Girl In the Wood," "How Long Can She Last"

Video: "Chrome Heart"

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Black Hearse Getaway

As Above, So Below 12" vinyl + digital album

(Heavyweight Vinyl)

Darkness pervades a long-abandoned cemetery, as translucent wraiths cavort in macabre spectacle. Their spasmodic convulsions are urged on, not by centuries-aged, dirgelike and funereal movements, but something unheard. Eerily compelling. And lashed into furious pace. 

Driving them into paroxyms of ghastly passion is music metallic and surging, iniquitous and unrestrained. It embraces within its turbulence the headlong pressures of Punk and Psychobilly's heinous intentions. 

And so, the dead dance.

(This LP is limited to 150 numbered copies. It is "pressed on black and white smash vinyl." Purchasers will also receive a double-sided poster.)

Recommended: "Searching High Looking Low," "Creatures Of the Night," "The Living Dead," "Together Forever," "Blood and Lust"

Video: Promo clip

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King Tide

Down With the Ship Digital album

(Self-issued)

Vehemence and laser focus can be expected from these California Skate Punk agitators. In fact, those qualities manifest themselves throughout this accelerative enterprise. What distinguishes King Tide from others within that subgenre, besides estimable proficiency, is that both David Franke and Dennis Mauk serve as lead singers and lead guitarists. They are abetted in their machine-gun onslaughts by drummer James Mullin and bassist Oscar Uribe, whose galvanic skills push without cessation. Devastation results from their fraternity.

Recommended: "Down With the Ship," "Back Up Bum," "Jenny," "Slacker," "Raise a Glass," "Island Time," "Uncomfortably Numb," "Please Sue Me," "Mr. Putin"

Video: "Mr. Putin" (live)

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