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old-school psychobilly - Page 5

Wigsville Spliffs

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Wigsville SpliffsWigsville Spliffs
Born To Ride

Killjoy records – Kill 022
Born to ride – Eyes on my baby

Wigsville Spliffs formed in the early 80’s with Ian Aitken on vocals and guitar, Mike Lister on double bass and Danny Mowl on drums. They split in 1987. During that time they appeared on numerous compilation albums but never had a single or an album of their own. Years later, in 1996, Raucous records released a cd gathering old songs.
Finally the band reformed in 2008 and their first proper album saw the light of day in 2011. Shortly after that Aiten left the band.
One could feel the worst with the loss of such a pivotal member. Instead the band kept on going and now have Spike Arrow who played with Frenzy and the Rapids on guitar on vocals. With Paul Richardson on drums, the trio recorded this killer single for Killjoy records.

Side one is penned by Arrow and has a strong psychobilly edge, powerful yet rocking and melodic. The flip is more familiar. Eyes on my baby, written by Aitken appeared on the band’s first demo in 1982 and on Dance to it in 1984 (or so). This is a brand new version. They kept the neo-rockabilly vibe but added a good dose of energy. Both are very good.
Hopefully we’ll get more releases and a full lp from this line up soon.
500 copies (400 black, 50 red and 50 grey)
Available here and here
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Scum Rats

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Scum Rats
Scum Rats – ep

Scum Rats
S/t

Rumble records – Gang 003 [1990]
I See Your Face – Too Much Pain – Blood In Your Face

Led by Charlie Fallensteller’s fast slap bass and vocals, this quator from Germany delivered a powerful three tracks ep of self-penned tunes on the extreme side of the Psychobilly genre with hard core influences. If you prefer they were closer to band like Demented Are Go or the Krewmen (when led by Tony McMillan) than the Long Tall Texans.
In addition to the supersonic bass, the ingredients are Fallensteller’s rasping voice, hard hitting and thud drums (with barely no cymbals) and fine arrangements that rely on the different sounds and textures of the two guitars. All in all an excellent ep.

Scum Rats - Go Out Into a Scum Dream
Scum Rats – Go Out Into a Scum Dream

Scum Rats
Go Out Into a Scum Dream

Rumble records – RUMBLE001 [1990]
Scum Rats – Go Out – Scum Of The Night – I Love Rock & Roll – Money – Runaway – Die To Be Free – My Baby Is Alone – Come On Little Sister – Scum Love – Cryin To Be Satisfied

The Scum Rats debut album doesn’t differ much from the ep in term of sounds (and show no sign of amelioration in term of cover design either).
The same ingredients can be found to serve solid and powerful originals and two covers (Joan Jett’s I Love Rock’n’roll also released on single and Del Shannon’s Runaway sung by the guitar player, probably not the band’s best moment).
Once again the way the two guitars interact is worth noticing, one with a distorded sound and the other with a clean sound. All of this makes of Go Out… one of the best Psychobilly album of the the early 90’s.If my memory serves me right the first pressing was on green vinyl.
It was later reissued on cd with their second mini album.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

The Jekills

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The Jekills - The Jekills
The Jekills – The Jekills

The Jekills – s/t

Tombstone [1989]
Aston – Nobody In The Street – Marilyn Monroe – Gladiators – The Girl Is Mine – You’ll Be A Priest – Psycho Beat – Dr Jekills – Ballade Du Chomeur
A short lp that is the only testament of the short career of this Belgian psychobilly band that had a bright future in front of them. They started in the mid 80’s under the name of Riot Guns and evolved into The Jekills. They never ceased to progress until the death of Sergio their bass player that marked the end of the band. Released in the late 1989, this self titled album quickly sold out its initial pressing of 1000 copies and was re-released by Tombstone. The band is clearly influenced by Batmobile both for the music and the voice but with enough personnality. The album is not flawless far from it. The sound is a bit thin at places, it’s not always in tune and there’s a couple of filler, for example “Marilyn Monroe” x-rated tribute to the famous actress (“I’d like to f*** her” doesn’t represent what I consider to be great lyrics). But at least half of the songs are very goog uptempo psychobilly numbers with good slap-bass including Nobody’s in the street, Girl is Mine and la Ballade du Chomeur that reminds of Los Carayos.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Cyclone

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cyclonethefirstofthecyclonemancdCyclone – the First of the Cyclone Men

Klang Records KLG004 [1989 – reissue 2007]
The Devil Is Knocking On My Coffin – Psyclone Shock – Bates Motel – Doctor Cyclone – Jungle Cat – Telegram Sam – Lonely Zombie – Funny Toy – Freddy Is Back

Cyclone (Andrea Camerini: lead vocal, Andrea Pesaturo: guitar, Paolo Camerini: double bass, Roberto Berini:drums, Massimo Diotallevi:alto sax) was one of the first, if not the first, psychobilly band in Italy. Their brand of psychobilly is typical of the late 80’s with influences from Mad Sin, Demented Are Go, early Coffin Nails, Batfinks etc. with distorted guitars, fast slap bass and rasping vocals. It’s very well played and better recorded than many albums from the same era. And even if it’s not always very original (you find the usual zombie, Freddy Krueger, Norman Bates lyrics and the melodies are a bit repetitive), they had the good idea to keep it short (9 songs), so in the end this album works fairly well.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

cyclone cyclonecyclone

Scam

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scam-promo1Scam

Country: Holland – Genre: Psychobilly / Neo-rockabilly

Marcel van den Berg: vocals,guitar
Arie Versteeg: double bass
Raymond Fitsch: drums

 

Scam, formed around 1986. They recorded their first demo in the winter of that same year which caught the attention of Eddie and Johnny of Count Orlock. In October 1988, they recorded « Gamblin’ Fever » their debut album which is very representative of the sound of the day: light drums, slap bass and a clean electric guitar, influenced by Restless and fellow Dutchmen Batmobile. The sound is good though a bit thin at places. They have solid original (Hangover, Captain Caveman, Ready Willing & Able) but the long distance (12 songs) tends to disadvantage the band and the album sounds a bit repetitive, they could have reduced it to eight solid songs.
The album was well received and Scam supported big acts and played bigger gigs and festivals (the Rockhouse Psychobilly meeting, Night of the longknives) and doing national radio performances. They soon received demand for a second album. Not having enough material for a new album they decided to re record old songs from the first demo together with some covers.The mini album called “Infant Years”was released on Tombstone Records in 1990. Despite an ugly cover, this mini lp shows an improvement. There’s not a big departure in term of sound but the band is tighter and the songs less repetitive.

Their last album (to date) came in 1991. Released on Rockhouse, A Million Dollar Scam marks a new step for the band. They add a good dose of rockin’ blues with harp, saxophone and slide guitar to their usual brand of light psychobilly/neo-rockabilly,. The set is varied and the song inspired. A guest singer is present on a couple of tracks. A very good album that shows the evolution and the maturity of the band. The cd version contains four bonus tracks.

They kept on playing but disbanded around 1993. Marcel remained active on the music scene. playing with the Penguin (Batmobile’s bassplayer side project) and can now be found in 69Beavershot, Triple Dynamite and Dee Ann & The Nightcaptains.
In 2005 they did a one of reunion show in original line up. A new album was announced but nothing materialized untill now.

  • Discography
    Gamblin’ Fever – Count Orlock – ROCK V (1988)
    Infant Years – Tombstone – Tomb-disc 679 (1990)
    A Million Dollar Scam – Rockhouse – lp9114 (1991)

The Pussykillers

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Pussykillers - David Vincent les a vu
Pussykillers – David Vincent les a vu

David Vincent les a vu /Zombie Rockers
KRUEL K 8803 [1989]

The Pussykillers were a French Psychobilly band from Poitiers and consisted of Bill (vocals), Kub (doublebass / b-vox), Erick (guitar / b-vox) and V(drums / b-vox). They played  a brand of heavy psychobilly influenced by the Meteors and the early Coffin Nails. Actually, their singer shouted more than he sang. They also played some gigs with Thierry Petel (Happy Drivers) on drums but they split in the early 90’s. It seems that their guitar player later comitted suicide.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

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