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Tremors (the)

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invasioncoverThe Tremors – Invasion Of The Saucermen

Brain Drain Records – BD08
World War III Boogie – Invasion Of The Saucermen – Somatose – Idle Hands – Atomic Jesus – Jungle Fever – (I Ain’t No) Two Timin’ Man – Devil’s Eyes – Workin’ Overtime – Treat Me Right – The State Patrol – Shakin’ From Seizures – Late Night Drive-In Monster Show – The Crawdad Song
How can I resist a band that shares its name with one of my favourite movie (yes I admit I love “arty” movies ahahaha), an attractive 3D designed cover (glasses included) and songs called “Invasion Of The Saucermen”, “Atomic Jesus” and “World War III Boogie”? I simply just can’t. The album opens with an instrumental and then you’re bound to a journey through this trio’s own brand of traditional (Idle Hands, Kenny Parchman’s Treat Me Right), fast (Somatose) and super-fast rockabilly (Atomic Jesus) with predominant slap bass. “Late Night Drive-In Monster Show” has a tempo similar to the “Munster Theme” and could be coined as psychobilly while Two Timin’ Man is their own vision of a hillbilly tune. Apart of “Treat Me Right” the other covers are Charlie Feather’s Jungle Fever (great haunting jungle beat) and the traditional “The Crawdad Song” which receives the Tremors treatment : fast, raw and wild. Fourteen songs in thirty minutes (almost half of the songs are under the two minute mark), no time to loose and everything is said.

tremors_demon_boogieThe Tremors – Demon Boogie Fever

LOVE ME – SCREAMIN’ MIMI – BIG CITY – BLUE MOON WOMAN – ROCK BOPPIN’ BABY – YOUR WICKED HEART – HI-FI ROCK ‘N’ ROLL – FUSS & FIGHT – BLACK CAT BLUES – ROCKIN’ BONES – SWEET LOVIN’ MAN – DEMON BOOGIE FEVER – I GOT IT
The first thing that caught my eyes after the cover and the digipack (both nice) is: 13 songs for 25 minutes. Woah! It’s gonna be a hell of a ride. And during this 25 minutes (including 8 originals and 5 covers) you’re going to be exposed to fast paced and high octane rockabilly with strong double bass (Powerful guitar voice and drums too). But they always keep things enjoyable (like the Ramones they are speed but never TOO speed) and… rockabilly. I mean they never fell in the cliché of Punkabilly or bad Psychobilly though some songs actually deals with Psychobilly like Demon Boogie Fever. And as the cover design shows, their rural roots are never far away. It leaves you breathless but you should like this sensation.
Buy it at http://www.tremorsrockabilly.com/home.html.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Rantanplan

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Rantanplan - Two Worlds At Once

rantanplan_two_worlds_at_once_cdRantanplan – Two Worlds At Once

Link Records / Anagram  [1990]
Rantanplan ~ Watch Me Goin’ Off ~ Unknown Girl ~ Go Out Cherie ~ Bad Games ~ Container Love ~ Chinese Boy ~ Liberty Baby ~ Riding To Nowhere ~ My Bed Is Too Small ~ Inspite Of No Feet ~ Bikini Girls With Machine Guns.
Rantanplan, whose name comes from a famous French comic strip character,  never claimed to have big ambitions and played mostly for fun (and I suspect for free booze too). However they managed to have one album out on Link in the Chuck Flintstone serie which is reissued now on Anagram/Cherry Red.
This album is very representative of the psychobilly sound one could hear in the second half of the 80’s with a light sound (here, very light due to the thin production) and the slap bass to the fore. The result is neither good nor bad, it’s just average. It’s mainly due to the production, the lack of a good guitar player able to play solos and original numbers that are not very… originals. The booklet contains detailed liner notes with a history of the band. .

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

X-Invaders

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x-invaders
x-invaders – Storm boys

X-Invaders – Storm Boys

Pinner Records 201
Storm Boys – Lover Boys

Shrillish guitar, sparse drums, fast slap bass and high pitch vocals: every ingredient for a 80’s neo-rockabilly/early psychobilly single are here. Storm Boys is more interesting and original than the b-side which is just “another” fast tune.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

X-invaders

The Boppin’ Kids

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The Boppin' Kids - Still Rockin' EP
The Boppin’ Kids – Still Rockin’ EP

The Boppin’ Kids – Still Rockin’

[1987]
Maybe One Day – You’ll Never Loose – Brand New Cadillac

This is the first recordings made by this Italian band and it’s a good neo-rockabilly Ep typical of the sound of the mid-80’s. “Maybe One Day” falls somewhere between Frenzy’s earliest work, Dave Phillips and Restless, “You’ll Never Loose” is faster and leans more toward psychobilly and Batmobile. The last song is a cover of Brand New Cadillac and is not quite as good as the other two.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

The Punishers

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The Punishers - Beat Me
The Punishers – Beat Me

The Punishers – Beat Me

Rumble Records [1992]
Sexy Sewer – Zombificatet – Beat Me – Red Rain – Midnight Dog – Virgin – Desert – Fish of Death – Freddy K. (Is Not Dead) – Stone Cold Rubber – Born to Be Wild
The Punishers came from Germany and were Sascha Walczyk (vox), Olaf Raffel (Guitar), Frank Schmitz (bass), and Roland König (drums) and released this album in 1992. They were part of this wave of bands that tried to cash on the psychobilly trend but were at best Punk rock or heavy metal with a double bass. Captain Coma is an excellent example of that sound too. This album consists of poorly inspired melodies, the usual horror cliches (Freddy K is not dead), a particularly lousy cover of Steppenwolf’s Born To Be Wild, and a singer who’d like to be Sparky (but is not). Add a muddy production with the guitar on the front, a barely audible bass, and a vocal far, far away, and the result is a dispensable album.

The Punishers - House of Rock'n'Roll
The Punishers – House of Rock’n’Roll

The Punishers – House of Rock’n’Roll

Rumble 12GANG008 [199?]
House Of Rock’n’Roll – Punisher Boogie – Sick Without You – Pervy Dance

Don’t expect to hear any change or difference between “Beat Me” and this ep: it’s is in the exact same vein. Loud, poorly produced, uninspired, and boring, even with only four songs. Avoid it if you can.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Something Shocking

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Something Shocking - Pink
Something Shocking – Pink

Something Shocking – Pink

Fury Records – F3015 [1991] reissued on Vampirette Vamp104 [2005]
1.Spend, spend, spend 2.Flight 101 3.Motorbike beat 4.Something shocking pink 5.Just ain’t a man 6.Jokers wild 7.Take me for a ride 8.Cheat 9.Going nowhere fast 10.Rocking disease 11.Feels so good 12.Only good for one thing 13.Love is blind 14.Who cares 15.Gun totin’ man

Something Shocking started around late 1986/early 1987 with Vanessa Emery on bass and vocals, Doug Shepperd on guitar and Pete on drums. They soon recruited Emma Goss on double bass, allowing Vanessa to fully concentrate on vocals. The four of them recorded one song that gave its name to the sampler “Something To Remember” for Fury records. Soon after Doug left to rejoin The Rattlers where he played before. His replacement was Mike who’s just left Demented Are Go. This influence can definitely be heard on Mike’s Flight 101, which is close to DAG’s Flight 103. Mike wrote the majority of the band’s originals which eventually caused a bit of tensions within the band. This line up recorded “Pink” in two days, an album that deserves to be rediscovered today.It’s a very good lp with a wide range of influences that makes of Something Shocking a one of a kind band mixing classic psychobilly with punk, 80’s pop and 60’s girl group. It seems very unfair they never achieved a higher degree of success. The band was tight, the song were really well crafted and melodic and Vanessa’s voice is quite good. But too pop to be a major act on the psychobillly scene (though they appeared on the Big Rumble) and too psycho to seduce a big label, the band was not in a comfortable position and quickly found itself in a dead end. Seeing how some bands cross over markets today, one can only think that Something Shocking came too soon.

 

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