Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Wigsville Spliffs "Born To Ride"

(Killjoy Records 2017)

Born To Ride
Eyes On My Baby

 My God have you ever seen such attractive men? Form an orderly queue ladies...for the emergency exit. Hmmm, maybe that photo was just taken at a bad angle (facing them in this case). But enough insults and on with the plaudits. I first heard the Wigsville Spliffs back in 1984 I think it was on the Lost Moment Records "Dance To It" compilation. They stood out for me back then with their infectious neo rockabilly sound. Next time I heard em was on one of the Stomping At The Klub Foot compilations and on The James Deans Of The Dole Queue compilation with their absolute gem of a song "If I Tell You I'm Lonely" and then saw em via the gift of Jettisoundz and their good auld VHS releases which captured the cream of the crop of the scene forever on celluloid. The neo rockabilly scene produced some excellent bands in the 80s...The Caravans, Fractured, Restless, Sgt. Bilko's Krazy Combo, Get Smart...and of course the Wigsville Spliffs. Like all the aforementioned bands they had a sound unique to them. The Spliffs have lost none of this uniqueness over the years and this new slab of vinyl is testament to that. They do sound more powerful though, but not in a rock sense, more in a not resting on their laurels sense. You'll see what I mean when you buy this 7" and compare the 1984 version to the 2017 version of Eyes On My Baby (a neo rockabilly classic). The title track is typical catchy-as-fuck Wigsville Spliffs. I'm glad these boys didn't just fade into obscurity and came back to the scene as they have excellent songs to unleash on us still. 2011's Fat 41 more than proved that point too. As usual with Killjoy releases, this is a strictly limited release of 500 copies. The 50 grey ones are gone already, the red (50 also) might still be available from the band but you can still pick up the black. Links below as always. Anyway, pick this up before it's gone and the boys over on Psychoholic start adding it to their wantlist over on Discogs because they missed the boat.
The O'Prez


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