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neo-rockabilly - Page 13

Cavemen (the) – Dutch neo-rockabilly / psychobilly band

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cavemen_stone age
Cavemen – Stone Age Beat

The Cavemen – Stone Age Beat

Count Orlock Records
Living Dead – Haunted House – Silver Surfer – Stone Age Beat (Wilma) – Wilderella – Is It Over – The Car – Devils Road – Vampire – Indian Style – Jericho – One More Chance – Do Do Ta Ta – Don’t Need A Job

Drowned in the mass of psychobilly releases in the late 80’s, this too often overlooked album deserves to be rediscovered today.
The Cavemen formed in 1982 with Marcel Hoitsema on guitar and vocals, Roland Verbruggen on double bass, and Jos “Toolie” de Groot on drums. Verbruggen previously played guitar with Mac Taple in the early 80s
After a while, Jos left the band, and Berto Rerimassi joined in on drums. This line-up recorded two songs for the compilation album Cool Cat Go Ape (Big Shot Records – big shot rec 001), released in 1986. These two songs were A Couple of Days and an early version of Vampire.
After these recordings, Marcel asked his friend Jean-François Besson to join the band. But after a couple of rehearsals, the new direction taken by the band didn’t please Roland and Berto that much. Marcel then left the band to form Bang Bang Bazooka with Jean-François.
Berto switched to lead guitar, and Ronald Smet joined as the new drummer. In August 1989, this new line-up went to Tango studio in Eindhoven to record the band’s sole album, Stone Age Beat. It’s an excellent album of soft Psychobilly with well-crafted and varied songs. Particularly good are Stone Age Beat (written by Hoitsema and featuring a quote of the Flintstones theme), Silver Surfer, and One More Chance, a humoristic slow number with outrageously fake cries. It also contains a new version of Vampire, which was also re-recorded by Bang Bang Bazooka on their debut album.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

cavemen

The Niteshift Trio

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The Niteshift Trio - You Aint Seen Nothing Yet

niteshift-trioThe Niteshift Trio

Gary Venn started to learn double bass in the early 1980s. His teacher was Boz Boorer from the legendary Polecats (and now Morrissey’s main man). He soon teamed up with a school friend called Steve Lovett on guitar and they started to practice in his mum and dads garage. It all seemed to fall into place and they quickly found their own sound. Their drummer at that time was a guy called Carl.
Things went well and the trio played lots of gigs at various rockin’ clubs around the country.They gained a good reputation and one evening after a gig they met Dell Richardson from Fury records who asked them to do some recordings for him on a couple of compilation albums (Gipsy Girl, I Love My Car, She’s Just Rockin’, Taken By Force). Then Carl left to emigrate to California. By chance they knew Keith Bailey a fan of the band who also played drums. He was proposed the place. This line-up recorded their unique album “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” still for Fury. It is a typical 80’s neo-rockabilly album with light guitar and snare and slap bass to the fore. Using the lp as a card the Niteshift Trio gained more gigs abroad, including Germany which they toured twice with the Guana Bats, Demented Are Go the Deltas and various other top name and is remembered as a fantastic experience. Unfortunately Steve decided to quit the band to become a solo country and western singer, which he still does now. Gary went on to form a new band called Loveless, a wild rock n roll band doing various rock n roll with a trashy sound, for which he switched from double bass to guitar and vocals enjoying playing and writing songs. Loveless toured Germany and went down a storm and it remains like a great experience for Gary.
You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” has since been reissued on cd by Raucous including the compilation tracks as a bonus.

Lucky 13

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lucky-13-come-back-home-cdLucky 13 – Come Back Home

Part Records PART-CD 6111.001 [2014]
Black Slacks – Moonshine – Jungle Fever – You Are My Destiny – Come Back Home – Bad Girl – Get Off The Road – 44 – Maniac Babe – Bad Reputation – Purple Flames And The Lost 13 – Wish You Were Dead – The Cats – Far Far Away – In The Moon For You – Tough Guys – 44 (acoustic version) – In The Bar – Liar – Happy End.

Lucky 13 are a hot rockin’ trio centered around the charismatic personnalities of Ed Mind on guitar and Ani Romance on electric bass with, on this platter, either Jimmy Cash or or Lance Matthyssen on drums. Both Romance and Mind write solid originals and sing which brings a lot of variety in term of sound and style.
The songs gathered on “Come Back Home” have been recorded over a period that goes from 1998 to 2012.
Their music takes its roots in the rockabilly of the fifties and goes as far as Psychobilly in the style of the Anagram era of the Meteors with everything cool in between. You’ll find some rompin’ instrumentals, 60’s Girl bands stuff (Paul Anka’s You are My Destiny excellently sung by Romance), 80’s neo-Rockabilly (a superb cover of Red Hot’n’Blue’s Bad Girl or Moonshine that many of us discovered on the Deltas debut album), and some darker stuff reminiscent of the Cramps or Empress of Fur (and their bass palyer can stand proudly next to Candy Del Mar, Ivy Poison or Venus Raygunn in term of “girl with a bad attitude”.)
If you like real rockin’ music and don’t aim for a purist sound, and dig the bands mentionned above, be sure to grab a copy of this platter.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Lee Rocker

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Lee Rocker - Night Train to Memphis
Lee Rocker – Night Train to Memphis

Lee Rocker – Night Train to Memphis

Upright records [2012]
Rockabilly Boogie – Night Train To Memphis – Slap The Bass – Twenty Flight Rock – Wild Child – Honey Don’t – That’s Alright Mama-Blue Moon – Tear In My Beer – Lonesome Tears – Built For Speed – So Sad – All I Have To Do Is Dream

Covers albums usually don’t thrill me, that’s the reason why I didn’t expect much from this one. But Lee Rocker’s latest effort. was a surprinsingly good surprise. First he has the good idea to keep it short : twelve tracks like in the good old days of vinyls. Rock’n’roll albums are not supposed to be long. Then he manages to stay true to these classics and make them his own in the same time. With the help of his sister on some backing vocals, a great band (Buzz Campbell, Brophy Dale and Jimmy Sage),  innovative arrangements and an instrumation that goes beyond the drums/double bass/guitar format, like a dobro or a banjo on the Stray Cats’ Built For Speed, he gives to songs that you’ve heard a thousand times a totally new approach and manages to make them sound fresh again.
Vocally, Rocker’s is on top form and especially shines on the more country tinged tunes, like Hank Williams’ Tear In My Bear. The surprise, but that’s a good surprise, also comes from softer tunes like Buddy Holly’s Lonesome Tears and the Everly’s So Sad and All I Have to Do is Dream.
And when he rocks he takes no prisonners like on the Burnette’s Rockabilly Boogie. The sole self penned tune is Slap That Bass. As the title indicates its a slap bass driven rockabilly number with jazzy guitar licks.
There’s no mistakes, although the credits read Lee Rocker on just one track, this album is 100% his own.

Lee Rocker - Hot'n'Greasy Vol.1
Lee Rocker – Hot’n’Greasy Vol.1

Lee Rocker – Hot’n’Greasy Rockabilly Vol.1

[2012]
Rebel – Crazy When She Drinks – Black Cat Bone – Say When – Texarkana To Panama City – . Stray Cat Strut – I’ll Cry Instead – One More Shot – Blue Suede Night

A collection of live songs recorded at concerts and radio broadcast . The sound is very good, the performance perfect and the setlist perfect with songs taken from Bulletproof, Black Cat Bone and Racin the Devil and a cover of Stray Cats Strut. Nice addition to your collection. According to Rocker there’ll be two more volume released in the forthcoming months.

Kee Rocker - Cat Tracks
Kee Rocker – Cat Tracks

Lee Rocker – Cat Tracks

Stray Cat Strut, Rock This Town, Runaway Boys, Sexy & 17  [2012]
Digital only

The title says it all. Four of the best and most successful Stray Cats songs re-recorded by Lee Rocker and his band. They perfectly manage to recreate the sound of the Stray Cats early albums. I don’t know if Rocker plans to record more Stray Cats songs in the future but being a far better singer today than he was at the time,  it’d be good to hear him re-cut “She’ll Stay Just One More Day” and “Drink That Bottle Down” .

Fred “Virgil” Turgis


Out of Luck (psychobilly)

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Out of Luck – Killer Coupe

Part Records Part-coutofluckkillercoupecdd-6100.002 [2014]

The Change Of  the Plymouth – Killer Coupe – I Pack My Bags – Gangster – I’m So Lonely – My Baby Is A Centerfold – Heart Of A Fool – Your Best Buddy – My buckets got a Hole In It – I go For A Walk With My dog – Drop Dead – Demons In the Tank – Kickin’ Up A Row
Out of Luck returns with a brand new kick ass album featuring eleven originals and two covers (Heart of Fool and My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It). Led by the strong voice and the powerful slap bass of Karl Rascal with Rocky on guitar and Beppo May on drums, they perfectly mix their varied influences with classic Rockabilly, neo-rockabilly (one can hear shades of Brian Setzer in the guitar of I’m So Lonely), old school psychobilly kinda like the early Nekromantix or even the Scum Rats with, which is more unusual for this type of band, a heavy dose of country music which makes them sound at places like European cousins of the Reverend Horton Heat. A very good album.

outofluck-greetingsfromoutbackvilleOut of Luck – Greetings From Outbackville

Part Records Part-CD 6100.001 [2012]
Greetings From Outbackville – 49′ Plymouth – Ain’t Got No Job – Rockabilly Rocker – Black Kat – Midnight Drive – Johnny Ultracool – Out Of Cash – Josephine – Into The Valley – I Wanna Kill – Psycho Fantasies – Sunrise At The Foggy River – Cruisin’ – Rainy Day – Love Is An Expensive Affair – Several Ways To Die

Out of Luck is a terribly good and powerful trio who plays revved-up rockabilly that often borders on old-school psychobilly. This album is a subtle balance between the early recordings of the Meteors, Guana Batz and even Mad Sin and more traditional rockabilly stuff with some Reverend Horton Heat in between. The original songs (all but one) are very well written. The sound is also particularly good with a very natural and warm recording of the double bass (not that horrible sewing machine sound one can too often hear in that style of music). As a bonus they included six live tracks to convince you to see them on stage. It’s good to see bands like Batmobile or Skitzo (to name but two) reform, but this music needs new blood, and with band like Out Of Luck the future seems assured.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

The Speedos

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the Speedos - It's Only Rock'n'roll
the Speedos – It’s Only Rock’n’roll

The Speedos – It’s Only Rock’n’Roll

PART 647.001 [2010]
Ghostriders ~ Believe me ~ Remember then ~ From the bottom of my heart ~ Sandy ~ You’re driving me crazy ~ Cotton fields ~ I’m not a juvenile delinquent ~ A Zippe Di Zoom ~ Fly me to the moon ~ Come go with me ~ Lovely night ~ Rag Mop ~ I just want to know ~ Sh’Boom ~ West Virginia (Country Roads) ~ The Diary

Part has the good idea to reissue the Speedos catalog. First released in 1989, It’s Only Rock’n’roll was until this reissue only available on vinyl and I suppose long out of print.
This quartet could be described as the German cousins of the British Keytones.
They play doo-wop harmonies with a bit of jive on a rockabilly background. There’s even some hillbilly with their uptempo cover of Cotton Fields.
Like numerous debut album, it’s not flawless, but the few minor imperfections are well compensated by the freshness of their approach.
The repertoire goes from Frankie Lymon (I’m Not A Juvenile Delinquent) to the Del-Vikings (Come Go With Me) or Frank Sinatra (Fly Me To The Moon) with a couple of originals too written by lead singer/guitarist Olaf Prinz. On a couple of songs the line-up (guitar / doublebass / drums / saxophone) is augmented by Götz Alsmann on piano for a fuller sound.
As an added bonus,the band’s debut ep from 1987 – featuring a self penned song (I Just Want To Know) and three covers: Sh-Boom, John Denver’s Take Me Home Country Roads and a rockabilly-doo-wop rendition of Neil Sedaka’s The Diary – is included. Recommended.

 

the Speedos - A Dreamin' Life
the Speedos – A Dreamin’ Life

The Speedos – A Dreamin’ Life

King Hat [1992] – reissue Part [2010]
I call it bop – Duke of earl – Jungle book – I adore you – Quiet whiskey – Believe me – A dreamin´life – Dance town – Caledonia – Blackboard jungle – Forever – Hey you

A Dreamin’ Life is the band’s second album, and to get to the point, their best. It takes more or less the same ingredients than their debut but both the sound and the band are better.
It kicks off with “I Call It Bop” that wouldn’t be out of place on the Stargazers’ debut album. Next is the accapella doo-wop “Duke Of Earl” with top vocals and harmonies. They also do great justice to Louis Prima’s Jungle Book. “I Adore You” is a sweet ballad with a bluesy edge. The pace changes with Wynonie Harris’ Quiet Whiskey, a solid jiver also treated in a Stargazers style. Believe Me features Gotz Allssman and is a re-recording of a song from their first album in a more accomplished version. The title track is a soft rockabilly. “Caldonia” is the sole weak point of the album, but it’s quickly forgotten with Blackboard Jungle a great rock’n’roll. “Forever” is another great moment in the Keytones style while Hey You concludes the album on an uptempo note.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

speedos
The Speedos – Olaf Prinz, Bernd Eltze, Volker Naves & Frank Johland
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