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Martin's Garage

B. Confidential and the Secret Four

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B. Confidential and the Secret Four

B. Confidential and the Secret Four – Black Is The Colour Of My Baby’s Soul

Martin’s Garage Records [2022]
Black Is The Colour Of My Baby’s Soul/Satan Is Her Name

B. Confidential and the Secret Four - Black Is The Colour Of My Baby’s Soul

B. Confidential and the Secret Four are from Croatia. The combo consists of Dalibor Pavicic on guitar (Bambi Molesters), Branko Radovančević (Mad Men, B and the Bops) on vocals, Mislav Kurspahic (thee Melomen) on bass, Ivan Horvatić on drums and Bruno Vrgoč on guitar.
Side A is a superb instrumental drenched in reverb, evoking the theme of a spy film from the 60s. The song takes time to develop, creating a fantastic and deliciously intriguing atmosphere.
The second side, sung this one, develops an agonizing, even menacing strip club atmosphere, with a haunting saxophone—sort of like a B-series version of Fever.

B. Confidential and the Secret Four – Down The Subway

Martin’s Garage Records [2022]
Down The Subway/Cuttin’ Out

B. Confidential and the Secret Four - Down The Subway

This is the second single of B. Confidential and the Secret Four, and it’s as good as the first if not better. The A-side is a cover of Down In the Subway, Jack Hammer’s 1966 single. The band keeps the Soul of the original and injects a solid dose of Garage into it. The result is fantastic.
The Pirates were an American Garage band (some say they were from Louisiana, but they appear on a compilation of Texas bands). In 1965, they released Naughty Girl, which featured Cuttin’ Out on the B-side. This is the track that B. Confidential and the Secret Four cover. It’s an excellent Garage tune with a Bo Diddley rhythm and psychedelic influences.

Both singles are available here.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Hipbone Slim and the Kneetremblers

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Hipbone Slim

Hipbone SlimHipbone Slim and the Kneetremblers

STR-MGV-004 [2016]
Tombstone Rock – Pocket Pistol – What Is Wrong – Hubabub

Here’s a band made of solid musicians that are on the scene for quite a while now and have quite a few albums under their belt with that combo but also many others.
Hipbone Slim was formerly known as Sir Bald Diddley (and also the bald Bomber). Bruce Brand is a cult figure, having played drums with Ronnie Dawson, Link Wray, the Milshakes, the Headcoats, the Masonics and the list goes on. Their bassist is Gez Gerard (The Kneejerk Reactions) and they even have Slim Cyder (Blueberry Hillbillies) to guest on piano on two tracks. With such a band the least you can expect is to hear some real and unadulterated Rock’n’roll and believe me you won’t be disapointed.

Tombstone Rock is a wild rock’n’roll with a hint of psychobilly garage (does that exist ?) with Bruce Brand pounding the drums like no tomorrow and a superb final scream from Hipbone Slim. Pocket Pistol is more classical in its form, but not in its rendition (and don’t believe that classical means “tame”). Excellent Rock’n’roll. It’s one of the two tracks that features Slim (not Hipbone, the other one, on piano). The second track with piano is What is Wrong, a dirty blues with mean guitar. Hipbone has the perfect voice for this kind of stuff. The Ep ends on a high note with Hubabub, a crazy Rockabilly number, close in spirit to what Ray Condo used to do in his Hardrock Goners period.

Another killer release from Martin’s Garage.

D.D. Kid Combo

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DD Kid Combo

DD Kid Combo
DD Kid Combo

D.D. Kid Combo

Martin’s Garage ‎– STR-MGV-005 [2017]
Bad Luck Baby / Goodbye Baby

Coming from Martin’s Garage the label that gave us the excellent Star Time Playboys, here comes the D.D. kid Combo.
How do you like your blues? If you like it wild, mean, dirty and raw, if you like Hound Dog Taylor or modern artists like Pat Capocci, jump on this brilliant single (by the way, two songs are way too short).
With a full frontal attack of DD Kid’s guitar aptly supported by a excellent slide, an acoustic guitar and drums, these guys take no prisonners.
There’s quite a few excellent rockin’ blues combo on the scene right now, and judging by this single, DD Kid Combo are at the very top; I’m eagerly waiting for more stuff from this band.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis