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Catch a Wave of Chilean Rockabilly w/ Surfin’ Caramba!
#psychobilly by Kustom
Here’s a reason to venture back into the abandoned amusement park of the internet known as MySpace… the Chilean rockabilly band Surfin’ Caramba! is streaming their most recent album (released in June, 2011), “Navegando la Tormenta”/”Sailing the Storm” in its entirety on their MySpace page (although I will admit it took a post on their Facebook page to get me there… I guess I’ve left the amusement park, too!)
The band’s been crankin’ out rockabilly, psychobilly and surf for ten years, and have just returned from Bedlam Breakout.
They sing in Spanish, but you don’t need to be fluent to enjoy their propulsive, dynamic sound which blends Morricone “big sky” twang, urgent rock riffage and a fervent vocal delivery that brings Nick 13 to mind. Here’s a taste:
Hot List Add – Los Creepers
Los Creepers has let us know there is new music on the way.
#psychobilly by Kustom
New Music…New album…you best believe it!! Onward to Annihilation..new EP coming soon!
Preview Johnny Cash Bootleg 3
JohnnyCashOnline posted these exclusive preview tracks from Johnny Cash: Bootleg Vol. 3 – Live Around The World (Legacy)! Can’t wait to hear more. RKH discussed this album previously. We [JohnnyCashOnline] are providing an exclusive first listen to several tracks from the album, including the previously unreleased version of “Cocaine Blues” performed live at Annex 14 NCO Club, [...]
Sneak a Peek at Haggard
#countrymusic by Honkytonk ~ Head over to No Depression to hear an advanced streaming of Merle Haggard’s new album (they have a contest running to win a copy, too).
Haggard is an institution, but one who’s troublesome heart doesn’t settle comfortably into the role of icon. While he has nothing to prove to anyone else, it appears he still restlessly strives to prove something to himself.
A world with fresh Merle Haggard songs ain’t such a bad place. Listen to Working in Tennessee (Vanguard) now, and pick up a copy on October 4th, 2011.
R.I.P. Johnnie Wright, Country Artist, Husband of Kitty Wells
Johnnie Wright passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 97, having lived as full a life inside Country music one could imagine. A member of The Grand Ole Opry, coming to prominence as a member of the duo “Johnnie & Jack”, having a number one hit in 1965 as a solo artist and having a successful marriage to Country superstar Kitty Wells for seventy-four years! In that time, he also acted as the Queen of Country Music’s manager.
Read more at any and all of these better-informed blogs:
The Tennessean
Music Row
The Boot
MPFree – Amazing Bloodshot Records Fall Sampler
Bloodshot Records is offering a free sampler. Add your email and zip code below in order to get the downloads from Bloodshot. TRACKLISTING 1. HA HA TONKA – Usual Suspects [Buy album: iTunes, Amazon MP3 or Bloodshot] 2. LYDIA LOVELESS – Can’t Change Me [iTunes, Amazon MP3 or Bloodshot] 3. DEX ROMWEBER DUO – Jungle Drums [...]
Hot Sheet Adds
The Hot Sheet is a mixed list of all the music Retro, Kustom & Honkytonk are curious to hear. Are we missing an upcoming release or recent release that you want to tell us about? COMMENT BELOW! New Additions: 10/?/ 11 – Screamin’ Sugar Skulls – “Undertaker Boogie” 10/7/11 - The Jancee Pornick Casino - “Slice [...]
New Releases
9/27 – Southern Culture on the Skids – “Zombified” LP version (Kudzu) SCOTS.com/skidmart (previous RKH post) 9/27 – Mekons – “Ancient & Modern” (Sin Records – owned by Mekons/distributed by Bloodshot) (previous RKH post) 9/27 – Wilco – “Get Well Soon Everybody” (dBpm - Jeff Tweedy’s label) 9/27 – Elvis Presley – “Young Man with the Big Beat” [...]
R.I.P. Jumpin’ Jack Neal – Gene Vincent’s Bass Player
#rockabilly – Everyone who cares about the legacy of Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps recognizes founding Blue Caps guitarist Cliff Gallup, who’s referenced almost as much as Elvis’ lead player, Scotty Moore.
The other Blue Caps are not as popularly known, which is why only guys who really love their history, like Jimbo Wallace of Reverend Horton Heat and Levi Dexter were the first folks to jump on the fact that the founding bass player for The Blue Caps, Jumpin’ Jack Neal, passed away earlier today.
Like Gallup, Jumpin’ Jack Neal was not a life-long Blue Cap. He cut all of the key records that made history, toured, appeared on TV, then retired to get off the road and back to his family.
Jack went on to record 35 released tracks with Gene and the Blue Caps. He toured up and down the U.S.A. & Canada appearing on TV shows including the Perry Como show (hosted by Julius LaRosa whilst Perry was on vacation) in which Jack also had a ‘bit part’ in a sketch playing a waiter, he had to hand Perry Como’s stand-in a menu, which he did but upside down on live TV! Crowned by a trip to Hollywood for a spot in the motion picture “The Girl Can’t Help It” and working a stint in the Sands Casino in Las Vegas, Jack quit the Blue Caps to return home to his family. Jack never saw Gene again.
Visit the Rockabilly Hall of Fame to read the rest of the story.
Cramps Artist Attacks Southern Culture on the Skids
#psychobilly by Kustom
Southern Culture on the Skids is selling a limited edition Zombi-Chic poster created by Stephen Blickenstaff, the same artist responsible for the cover (and back cover) of The Cramps’ Bad Music for Bad People album (which combined tracks from The Cramps’ earliest output, including selections from Gravest Hits, Songs the Lord Taught Us and Psychedelic Jungle).
Learn more about artist Stephen Blickenstaff as his website: www.stephenblickenstaff.com.
Buy his new poster for Southern Culture on the Skids’ Zombified album from SCOTS’ “Skidmart”.
MPFree: 2 Free Mekons Tracks
#countrymusic by Honkytonk
The Mekons are a UK band who were there for the first wave of punk in the 7o’s, but embraced the various strains of roots music, developing into a forerunner of the Americana genre. The band has a rich recorded history, ready for you to devour, but you can start with “Geeshie”.
Rolling Stone offers a free download of the song, which will be on their upcoming album, Ancient and Modern (Bloodshot) on September 27th, 2011.
The band’s guitar player, Jon Langford, explains the free track:
“When [Wilco frontman] Jeff Tweedy came on my WXRT radio show the Eclectic Company a few years ago, he brought along a track I’d never heard by Geeshie Wiley called ‘Last Kind Words. I played it to Lu Edmonds, and we spent a long time trying to predict when she was going to change chords, then gave up and wrote ‘Geeshie,’ which, while retaining the original groove, changes chords in even less likely places.”
Bloodshot Records, by the way, has a DIFFERENT sample song, “Space in Your Face” from the same album, on the album’s site.
Langford discussed “Space in Your Face” in an interview on The Awl:
“Space In Your Face” actually talks about the bombing of the LA Times. It was a time of domestic terrorism, huge corruption, and witch trials… so there are all of these similarities [to today]. It’s almost like that period leading up to the First World War was like the end of human history as it had been. And what we’ve lived through, from the 20th century ‘til today—it’s just the modern world, you know, and all of its glory and destruction.
By the way, from Dex Romweber to The Mekons and tons of others, Bloodshoot Records have been killin’ it. I don’t know them, but from the outside, it seems like the best example of “record label 2.0″ I’ve seen.
Elvis & Us (Us = The Beatles) Preview
According to a new exhibit in Liverpool’s The Beatles Story museum, Elvis and the the Mop Tops go together like peanut butter and grilled bananas. So, please, don’t hold the fact that the British Invasion wiped a generation of rockabilly artists into premature obscurity bother you. I don’t! Anymore. Much. From www.elvisandus.com: The major new exhibition [...]
Available Today – 454′s & Jayhawks
9/20 – The 454′s – “Granpa’s Whiskey” EP (self-released) 9/20 – Jayhawks – “Mockingbird Time” (Rounder / Pgd)
Review: Rockabilly – The Twang Heard ‘Round the World
Rockabilly: The Twang Heard ‘Round the World, the Complete Illustrated History Edited by Michael Dregni With Contributions by Greil Marcus, Peter Guralnick, Luc Sante, Robert Gordon, Sigrid Arnott, Garth Cartwright, Deke Dickerson, Peter Dukema, Dan Forte, Vince Gordon, David McGee, Randy McNutt, Craig Morrison Forward by Sonny Burgess Voyageur Press Jim Heath of Reverend Horton [...]
Review: Churchwood
CHURCHWOOD comes from the dependable Saustex label, who handle a roster of bands set on bending country music into fun new shapes. I thought CHURCHWOOD’s self-titled album would continue this penchant for adding influences to country (especially since the lead singer, Joe Doerr is a veteran of late-80′s roots rockers THE LEROI BROTHERS), but CHURCHWOOD [...]
Review: The Rock Garage: Texas Live Concert Series
Harlem in the 30′s, London in the 60′s, New York in the 70′s, Los Angeles in the 80′s or Seattle in the 90′s… cadres of adventerous bands have a way of amplifying each other, compounding everyone’s creative endeavors, until a full-fledged scene is formed. Michael Crawford, a professional “shooter” – video and stills – felt [...]
Los Angelenos – Get HeadCat on the Radio!
#psychobilly by Kustom
Roaring to life from Johnny Ramone’s final recording session (for an Elvis tribute album), THE HEADCAT is a supergroup in the truest sense of the word. Every member is both an iconic figure and a distinguished player. Lemmy is the most famous of the group, as MOTORHEAD has been a hard rock stalwart since the 70′s, creating a vicious sound that inspired punk, metal and psychobilly bands the world over.
Slim Jim Phantom made it cool to play a spare drum kit standing up, taking a jazzy, minimalist approach to the STRAY CATS rhythm section at a time when percussionists were surrounded by a city block worth of various junk.
Danny B. Harvey is maybe the least conventionally famous, but he’s a superstar in rockabilly circles as a virtuoso player who’s talent has place him alongside a who’s-who’s of rockabilly and rock. Trained by the jazz guitar legend, Joe Pass, Danny B. Harvey developed a sophisticated and melodic guitar style that relied on Travis-picking, country, jazz and swing. He’s been in bands with Brian Setzer (before the STRAY CATS began) as well as a few bands with Slim Jim and a band with Lee Rocker. His first bands were in collaboration with Levi Dexter, while peer Tim Polecat joined him in a few later projects. He’s scored films and produced a “comeback” album for Wanda Jackson, the Queen of Rockabilly… before Jack White got ahold of her!
One of his most interesting projects would be of interest to pin-up fans – The Dark Angel is an instrumental tour de force inspired by Bettie Page (and served as the soundtrack to a black and white low-budget biopic… not the Gretchen Mol film). Although I’d been a fan of a few of his bands, this album was the first time “Danny B. Harvey” was cemented in my brain as an artist to follow.
If you want to know more about Danny and THE HEADCAT, and their new album, Walk the Walk, Talk the Talk, check out this recent interview he gave to Guitar International.
Sounds like a cool band, right? So, why aren’t we hearing cool bands like this on the radio? Part of the reason is that we’re not demanding it! Danny gave the following call-to-arms on his Facebook:
For HeadCat fans living in Los Angeles and the OC, 98*7 KYSR has started playing “American Beat!” We LOVE 98*7! We want all fans to listen to 98*7 FM and call the station and request “American Beat” from HeadCat 98.7 Request Lines is 1.800.782-7987 or you can TEXT Messages: 22987! Thanks!!!!!
The Jayhawks and the Lowdown on Alt. Country
#countrymusic by Honkytonk
I’m lookin’ forward to the upcoming JAYHAWKS album. There’s a pesky genre that found a center of gravity with No Depression magazine (now an online endeavor) in the 90′s. For a while the music was called “No Depression”, but that seems to have waned in favor of either “Alt. Country” or “Americana”. As a rule, it was rock guys adding country, folk, 60′s country-rock and “old-time” musical intrumentation to pop-structured indie rock songs.
Sometimes it sounds a little like 70′s era singer-songwriter stuff, sometimes it has some of that Graham Parsons/FLYING BURRITO BROS. California Country Rock sound, other times, it can have rockabilly overtones or even sound like 80′s college rock (like early R.E.M.). In other words, it’s pretty all over the map and can often hit my personal gag reflex as often as my auditory pleasure center.
The Jayhawks were right there at the start, part of that first wave of Alt. Country. UNCLE TUPELO, from who’s 1990 album the magazine took its name. UNCLE TUPELO’s Jeff Tweedy went on to become the sole core member of WILCO, while his old songwriting partner, Jay Farrar formed SON VOLT. WHISKEYTOWN let to the emergence of Ryan Adams. OLD 97′s/Rhett Miller, also veterans of that first wave, still release great albums (RKH review here, btw).
Formed in Minneapolis in the mid-80′s THE JAYHAWKS centers on the songwriting partnership of Mark Olson and Gary Louris. Louris quit in the mid-90′s, leaving Olson to hobble on as “Jayhawks-in-Name-Only”.
A few years ago, however the two got back together and are kickin’ it old school on their soon-to-be-released return-to-form album, Mockingbird Time (Rounder – available September 20th, 2011). Unlike a lot of songwriting duos that reunite, they seem to actually still like each other. Must be a midwest thing. Check out the teaser video below.
Frankenbilly, Punkmetalcountry, Horror Punk & Brrraaaaaiiinnnsss!!!
#psychobilly by Kustom
RKH faves Romeo & the Frankensteins have two new songs on ReverbNation, in anticipation of a new album.
One Man Band maestro Scott H. Biram shows the kind of ‘tude this “punkmetalcountry bad-ass” needs to regularly do the work of four or five mortal people in this interview posted on No Depression.
Fiendforce Records is soliciting new Horror Punk tracks from bands new and old for their in-the-works compilation album, This is HorrorPunk 3. Visit them on Facebook if you are in such a band!
THIS IS HORRORPUNK 3 is in the making!!! We are taking demos now. Please send the song that you think represents you and the genre best as an mp3 to thorsten@fiendforce.de. We will be in touch if we need WAV file. We are dying to hear good new bands or new songs from old friends. Please remember that we need decent studio-quality! Stay ghoul!
Lastly, Canadian psychobilly band, THE BRAINS self-produced the following video (shot on their iPod Touch!) to debut a news song in advance of their upcoming album, Drunk Not Dead (Union Label Group):
Buddy Holly Day Follow-up
#rockabilly by Retro
Yesterday was Buddy Holly Day in Los Angeles, as I discussed in a previous post. Here is a video of Buddy Holly’s widow, Maria Elena discussing her efforts to tend to his legacy on Los Angeles vapid interpretation of a morning news show on Fox’s local affiliate.
Maria Elena Remembers Buddy Holly: MyFoxLA.com
Happy Buddy Holly Day!
#rockabilly by Retro
Here in sunny Los Angeles, today, September 7th, 2011, has been officially declared “Buddy Holly Day in Los Angeles”, on what would have been the Texas rock ‘n’ roll icon’s 75th birthday.
The city will be abuzz marking the occasion, staring with the uveiling of Buddy Holly’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Maria Elena Holly (Holly’s widow), Phil Everly of THE EVERLY BROS., Peter Asher (60′s recording artist who covered Buddy Holly’s True Love Ways to great effect and is also the producer of the new tribute album, Listen to Me) and Gary Busey (who portrayed Buddy in The Buddy Holly Story) will all speak.
Tonight, a swanky concert event at The Music Box will be filmed for a PBS special airing in December 2011. Paul Anka, Michelle Branch, Chris Isaak, Lyle Lovett, Raul Malo, Graham Nash, Stevie Nicks, Boz Scaggs and Patrick Stump, among others, will be trading off tributes to Holly.
New Albums Out Today
Pat Roberts & The Heymakers – “Lonesome & Blue” (Electric Lotus)
Tom Russell – “Mesabi” (Shout! Factory)
Hank 3 – “Ghost to a Ghost”/”Guttertown” double-LP (Hank3 Records)
Hank3 as Attention Deficient Domination – “Attention Deficient Domination” (Hank 3 Records)
Hank3 as 3 Bar Ranch – “Cattle Callin’” (Hank 3 Records)
VA – “Listen to Me: Buddy Holly” (Verve Forecast)
Bevis, Butthead, Elvis & Buddy
#rockabilly by Retro
In honor (?) of their impending return, here’s Bevis and Butthead comparing and contrasting Elvis and Buddy Holly!
(ht whatisrockabilly)
Rust ‘n’ Dust Festival Short Docu
#psychobilly by Kustom See how the Germans get down with their rat rods in this film clip documenting 2011′s Rust’n'Dust festival in Teterow, Germany.
(ht autoblog)
1957 Newsreel about Rockabilly in Japan = Pure Win
#rockabilly by Retro 1957 Newsreel about Rockabilly in Japan = Pure Win
