Vince and the Moon Boppers – My Window Faces The north
EL Toro Records – ET 15188
If You Can’t Rock Me – Vinnie’s Bop / My Window Faces The North – I’ll Never Kiss Your Lips Again
A year after the excellent Rockin’ Down the Tracks, Vince and the Moon Boppers, the combo led by Vince Mannino (ex-Vince and the Sun Boppers), returns with a second EP which, spoiler alert, is just as perfect from start to finish.
The band opens the set with a cover (the only one of the selection) of The Strikes’ If You Can’t Rock Me (also popularized in a slightly softer way by Ricky Nelson). The group injects a tone very close to Johnny Burnette and his Rock’n’Roll Trio, whether in the vocals, the mean guitar, or the frenetic drums: a superb introduction. Next comes an excellent country bop instrumental, Vinnie’s Bop, which evokes all the great pickers of the 1950s. Listening to this short track, one can dream how good an EP with Vince, Lester Peabody, and Deke Dickerson would sound like. Label owners, I’m throwing out the idea, you can make of it what you will.
My Window Faces The North is Vince’s answer to My Window Faces The South (Bob Wills). But here there is no Western swing, but Rockabilly in its purest and most traditional form. Note the perfect production by Ike Stoye (Lightning Recorders) which highlights each instrument, and underlines the importance of having a good acoustic guitar sound in the rhythm section. This excellent EP ends with the wild and bluesy I’ll Never Kiss Your Lips Again, on which Vince’s vocals become more aggressive and desperate.
Buy it here.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis
