Smooth And The Bully Boys "Old School Rebel"

(Smooth And The Bully Boys 2014)

Old Time Gone
Old School Rebel
Hu Hu Hu
At The Beginning
If It's You
Did You See My Cat
Devil Dices
I'll Be Rocking
This Train
Rockabilly Baby
Addict
Voodoo Kitchen

Rockabilly is a real bone of contention with me. It was my first love musically and led me on my merry way to psychobilly. I preferred psychobilly because it was wilder and had no rule book. I still love my rockabilly but a lot of it tries too hard to be "authentic". Bands strive to recreate that 50s sound which more often than not just ends up sounding like some shite demo tape with no energy. It even ends up sounding more like safe western swing than the raw wildness that was 1950s rockabilly...the original punk rock. Rockabilly in my opinion is a not a museum piece; it's a contemporary musical genre. It's the unimaginative bands that let it down with their churning out of the standard fare and lyrics that are so samey it's hard to distinguish one rockabilly song from the next. There's just fuck all variation. Jaysus you'd think after 60 years of the genre being around someone would inject some much needed adrenalin in to it. Enter our heroes: Belgium's finest Smooth And The Bully Boys. They take that vintage rule book and wipe their arses with it. They play that ballsy blend of rockabilly that slaps along with enough power and pace to appeal to both the rockabilly and psychobilly subcultures in equal measure. Unlike some of their psychobilly counterparts though, lead vox-man Michel can actually sing..and I mean sing! He has a great voice. The kind of voice I love with its whisky soaked/tobacco burnt tones. There's a lot of diversity on this album; be it slap bass heavy rockabilly, blues, straight up rock'n'roll or dark ballads, and his voice is perfectly suited to all. Purists mightn't like this album but I don't like purists so fuck em. Just when I was starting to lose faith in rockabilly, Smooth And The Bully Boys have churned out an album that has me born again!

The O'Prez

 

Sick Sick Sinners "Unfuckinstoppable"

(Crazy Love Records 2014)

 

Coffee Freak

Where Is My Baby Girl

3 Demons At My Door

Six Feet Underground

Wild Party In Hell

Same Breed

We Wanna Drink Some More

Unfuckinstoppable

Bacon Seed

Wasted Every Day

 

Fuck me pink...purple if you're able, but this is a ten track blitz on the aural senses. Vlad and the lads certainly have the pedal to the floor. Actually, if psychobilly was a souped-up engine I'd imagine it'd sound like this. Slap bass fans rejoice because the sound captured here of said instrument-o-orgasms shall send pulsations of pleasure up and down your own instrument-o-orgasms. Both drums and bass are recorded at the perfect level with lashings of clarity. The guitar is crunchy and powerful...rock but not quite metal. The vocals? Well, as you know by now if you read my musings I'm not a fan of the auld horror theatrics in the vox department but that's not the case with every band. Vlad being one of the few exceptions to that rule. Actually his vocal styling add to the whole sonic aggression of the album. The boys aren't just speed merchants though. They're craftsmen. They've put together some ditties here that you just want to go back and hear again. I love the production on this album. It's pretty much perfect. Now to go get my brand new box of tissues and listen to it all over again.

The O'Prez

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