Browse Tag

Chicago

Moondogs (the)

Published on

Moondogs (the)

Moondogs (the) – Knocked Out Beat

Keiulia Records [1992]
Bottom Of The Glass – Cheatin’ Kind – I’m Dead – Jungle Rock – Lovin’ With The Shades Pulled Down – Black and Blue – Rock Island Line

moondogs

The Moondogs, named after Alan Freed’s nickname, were Steve Szczeblowski (guitar and vocals), Jimmy Sutton (bass and vocals), Perry Lafine (drums) and Joe Brawka (piano and vocals). In 1992 the quartet released Knocked Out Beat, their sole album.
It opens with Bottom Of The glass, a solid rocker in the Blasters tradition.
The next song, Cheatin Kind, begins slowly with You Are My Sunshine, then bursts into a wild piano-led Rock’n’roll in the best Jerry Lee Lewis style. I’m dead is a good rockabilly with a slight Psychobilly edge on which the drums and the double bass blend exceptionally well. Nothing much to say about their cover of Jungle Rock except that it’s good and powerful. Lovin’ With The Shades Pulled Down is a heavy Rockin’ Blues akin to the Paladins. More surprising is Black and Blue. This song is different from the rest. It sounds like a Morrissey tune on a country beat.
Their version of Rock Island Line begins like a menacing blues with a spooky harmonica and then erupts in a jet-propelled Rockabilly.
After the Moondogs, Jimmy Sutton formed the Mighty Blue Kings, then The Four Charms.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

The Dead Beat Jacks

Published on

The Dead Beat Jacks – Graveyard Chicks Are Easy

dead beat jacks

Jax Wax Records [2021]
Psychobilliac – Before I Lose My Mind -Graveyard Chicks Are Easy – Scary Truck – Baddest Cat In Town – Demon O – Drink IPA – Satan’s Niece – How I Go – An Undying Quest – Bone Stimulator – It Just Gets Worse – Zombie Bloodbath

Coming from Chicago, The Dead Beat Jacks are a trio (guitar, double bass and drums) and sing songs about graveyards, zombies and demonic things. That would be enough for a lazy reviewer to qualify them as a Psychobilly band. But things are a little bit more complicated than that.
Of course, it contains plenty of songs that belong to the Psychobilly idiom — like Scary Truck or the ‘Demented Are Go’ influenced Psychobilliac — but they also have more neo-Rockabilly sounding tunes like Drink IPA. Their album also contains, and that’s where they develop their true identity, a solid dose of musical oddities like Before I Lose My Mind, which in its structure evokes a 50’s ballad in the style of Buddy Holly. Still, once the Dead Beat Jacks treatment is applied, it becomes a weird and totally insane thing. The same goes for Satan’s Niece. This one is very close to Heavy Metal in its form but escapes the genre’s grandiloquence by a very down to earth treatment.
This is one of the main strengths of these guys. By avoiding all the clichés and the facilities, their songs are often groovy with unusual structures and changes of pace. Hell, they even play a love song!
By not following the rules, the Dead Beat Jacks have developed an infectious and very original brand of music.

More infos here.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis