Lara Hope And The Ark-Tones "Love You To Life"

(Crazy Love Records 2017)

Fast, Cheap, Or Well Done

Love You To Life

Callin' My Name

'Til The Well Runs Dry

I'm Yours

Dr. Bartender

This Is What I've Got

I'm The One

Working Man's Tools

Luckiest Girl In Town (The Wedding Song)

Hotel Yorba

Jaysus Lara will you cover up them legs like a good girl. You'll catch your death. A nice pair of sensible slacks is what you want in this weather. Well, well I never!
So, now that I've dished out some leg-related life lessons, it's time to talk shop. Us lads from the psychobilly brigade will be interested to note that the name "Ark-Tones" is in fact an amalgamation of the names of big slapper Matt's old psycho outfit The Arkhams and Lara's previous rockin' ensemble The Champtones. You're welcome! What? It's not like I got that nugget of information from merely reading the band bio on their website. Well, it is yes. And stop glancing at Lara's legs!! On to the music. I see on the sleeve notes that Lara won the Best Female Rockabilly Artist at the 2017 Ameripolitan Music Awards. (That nugget is also on the band bio on their website...just SHUT UP, right?). Anyway, to my ears, on this album at least, yes there are elements of rockabilly but they're no straight-up rockabilly act. They encompass a broad spectrum of styles which all come under the broader umbrella term of rock'n'roll. Fuck sake, this is going to look like all I've done is read their website! But the band is exactly what it says on the virtual tin. A fusion of all things rockin' and roots. This kind of thing plays havoc with my music database genre entries! Lara's warm yet powerful vocals suit the full sound of the band to perfection. Speaking of which, it's that full sound that leads them out of rockabilly territory and into rock'n'roll territory. The prerequisite slap bass, guitar and drums is fattened up with horn sections and some keyboards here and there. They stray into calypso-esque and country territory too. It's quite an eclectic album which is a good thing as I find rock'n'roll can get boring if it lacks variety. They've certainly packed the variety into this package. Lara Hope And The Ark-Tones are the kind of band that have that je ne se quoi which makes them appeal to aficionados of the retro world and the denizens of the modern world in equal measure. The album...on vinyl...is out now on Crazy Love Records.

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Jayke Orvis "Bless This Mess"

(Broken Neck Records 2017)

Murder Of Crows

Kaw-Liga

Bound To Ride

West Wind

Pick Up The Steam

Clankertown

Crooked Smile

Slow Down

Lead Me Astray

Long Way Home

Blackship

Jayke's second solo album is out now on vinyl courtesy of Broken Neck Records. If you don't know by now, Broken Neck Records is a subsidiary of Crazy Love Records and has been bringing us the best in new roots and alt. country goodness for a while now.  I say new roots and alt. country. But the basic fact is that it's neither new nor alternative. It's just that the current state of the country music industry is so far removed from what it sounded like when it actually was what it claimed to be that artists like Jayke Orvis are now considered alternative! Well to my ears he plays proper Americana and roots music so I suppose he's an "alternative" to the absolute bollocks that claims to be what it's not! Anyway, since his first solo outing it would appear that our Jayke has healed that broken heart and is now bopping along in a much more upbeat and uptempo way. It immediately reminded me of UK outfit the Skiff Skats and what they called skiffabilly back in the mid 80s. But with that said, this 100% made in the USA stuff. Fiddle, banjo, mandolin, twangin' guitar, slap bass etc. and a Southern drawl coming from a mouth you'd expect to see slugging fuck knows what from a jug with XXX engraved on the ceramic. What I particularly like about Jayke's authenticity in the music he creates is that he deosn't give two fucks about Nashville. He has steeped himself in Americana in its purist form and injected some rockabilly backbeat energy into it. If you like your music comprised of instruments made of wood with f-holes carved into them with musicians who can actually play those instruments and knee-slapping stories put to verse then this is the album for you. She's out now on limited orange vinyl (99 copies) and good auld black vinyl. Links to purchase below...
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Jayke Orvis "It's All Been Said"

(Broken Neck Records 2017)

A Recipe For Tea

Yankee Taste

Feelings Like This

Beatin' My Head

Empty Bottles On A Broken Shelf

Thunderbolts And Lightning

Gone Forever More

Shady Grove Gypsy Moon

Streets

Dreadful Sinner

(Untitled Bonus Track)

If you don't know who Jayke Orvis is then you're a fuckin' eejit. This is (was) his début album that first saw the light of day back in 2010 on Farmageddon. It's now out on everyone's favourite format...vinyl..on Broken Neck Records. The Jaykester will be known to fans of The Goddamn Gallows...because he's one of em! See? Now the light bulb has lit up. Anyway, his solo stuff isn't a million miles away from the Gallows stuff but at the same time it's something completely different. They're both coming from the same melting pot of influences but Orvis's solo output keeps two feet firmly in the roots-infused clay of old time country and bluegrass without straying into folk punk territory. It has a certain musical purity to it. That purity extends to the song writing too. Apart from a few bluegrass stompers, the overall feeling of the album is one of desolation. Good old fashioned heartbreak is order of the day here. Our Jayke comes across as a very forlorn character if his lyrics are anything to go by. This is the kind of thing that'll have you crying into your pint. I quite like stuff that has that effect. The man has the ability to connect with his listeners. We've all suffered from that quivering bottom lip at some stage and he brings it all flooding back! But it's not all doom and gloom as I said. There's some fine upbeat bluegrass pickin' to be heard too. Actually, the musicianship on this album is nothing short of stellar. Oh, and while I'm at it. I hate sneakily titled songs like (Untitled Bonus Track) as I have all my music in a sexy database. So if you're as OCD as me...that song is actually an excellent rendition of Faron Young's 1958 ditty Alone With You. The album is out now CD and on red (limited to 105 copies) and black vinyl from Broken Neck/Crazy Love Records.
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The Wreck "Sailors Grave"

(Crazy Love Records 2017)

Axe To Beat

Space Outlaw

The Nosferatu

Jungle Planet

Attack Of The Giant Bumblee

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Morphine

4-3-2-1

The Curse Of Frankenstein

Muchalinda

What Are You Doin'?

Sailors Grave

Since I last reviewed The Wreck's two-dittied-delight I have invested in some disposable underwear and sphincter-tightening tablets. I'm wearing a pair of those paper pants now and have taken 10 of the sphincter-tightening accidental shite stoppers. Thank fuck I pre-prepared. The album has exceeded my expectations and my bottom-bomb-halting muscle is indeed twitching with nervous excitement. The Wreck have gone straight into my top 5 of favourite bands. Their sound is right up my street. They bring something new to psychobilly and the songs are constructed in such a way that they are never predictable. Don't let the run-of-the-mill psychobilly song titles fool you. These songs are very different to the usual psychobilly fare. It continues along in the same vein as the teaser they released earlier in the year. Psychobilly with a twist of post punk new wave goodness. By the way, the two tracks from that teaser are included here but are completely reworked versions. That fact alone is sure to turn the teaser into a collector's item. But back to the album....the difficulty I have is finding the words to give it the praise it deserves. The production and mixing give it that old school psychobilly appeal. Clean, crunchy, slap heavy excellence minus the bullshit demonic vocals that came later. But at the same time it sounds fuck all like anything from the days of yore. The Wreck are very much their own thing. Cast your minds back to when psychobilly had oodles of originality. Frenzy, Torment, Demented Are Go, Guana Batz, Batmobile etc. all had their own sound. That was probably easier to do 30 years ago when there was nobody else to copy. Not so easy for a band nowadays though as you might think it's all been done before and influences turn into replicas. Not so with The Wreck. One of a handful of bands to emerge in recent times to stamp their originality all over the psychobilly genre both musically and visually. And with that said, this album for me is indeed album of the year!
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Moonshine Wagon "Porca Miseria"

(Broken Neck Records 2017)

Mad, Unhappy & Stupid

Porca Miseria

Running & Hiding

Everybody Lies

Eu Não Sei

I Better Live Alone

Worman

Where The Fuck Are My Friends

My Liver Is Trying To Survive

Wasted

I really like this band. I like the vocals, the musicianship and the gritty honesty to their lyrics. Hailing from the Basque Country and calling themselves Hellgrass, what you get is an ultra-talented trio of pickers and slappers singing from the heart. Melodic folk-punk vocals atop a psychobilly slap bass and a combination of all your favourite acoustic instruments played with an adroitness that most of us would love to possess. It's mostly high speed stomping stuff but that fiddle playing adds a certain melancholy feeling to proceedings. I love that! I'm going to start a fan club and call it The Basque Street Boys....The Basque Street Boys! ....Anyone? Feck off then. The album is a hoedown-tastic bluegrass-with-balls banquet. The boys have obviously honed their respective skills through their incessant touring schedule. Fuck knows where they get the time to sit down and write songs of this calibre but they do. And what songs they are. Lyrically intelligent but not pretentious. They appeal to the common man. Basically, they take every day life happenings and make outstanding melodic rhymes out of them. Sounds simple enough but I'll be fucked if I could do that. The skills these three boys have are off the charts. The album is out now on limited (109 copies) red vinyl and sexy black vinyl on good auld Broken Neck Records.
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Spellbound "New Blood"

(Self-released 2017)

Say It Isn't So

Belladonna

Take The Money (And Run)

Smash It Up

Celine

Write My Name On The Wall

Sometimes

Forget-Me-Nots

Burning Out

Legend Of The Past

I Seen The Face Of Elvis

Psychobilly. It can either be just that or an umbrella term for all sorts of rockin' goodness. The latter is more than apt when it comes to this, the 5th studio album by the Irish* quartet of wizard's sleeve merchants Spellbound  (*now with 25% British beef). The title "New Blood" alludes to the new members in the ensemble: Glen Carrigg on drums (a stalwart of many combos) and Gaz Marson of Surf Rats fame. The bauld Gaz has added his penmanship to a good few of the delectable ditties on here and flexes his vocal chords on 'Sometimes' and 'I Seen The Face Of Elvis'...I wish that song was longer! Spells slapper Simon takes over lead vocal duties on Celine and for all the rest, our very own Frankie gives his usual full-on powerful vocal performance. This man must be taking steroids for his throat. I've said it before and I'll say it again; he is thee best singer on the psychobilly (etc.) scene. Back to the title though for a second. Before Simon sexted me with the blurb pertaining this release, I was of the impression that the title "New Blood" was referring to the fact that Frankie's young lad Taylor was featured on the front cover...thus new blood as in new, younger, fresher blood being injected into the scene. Anyway, enough shite talk, onto the music. 11 songs, all originals, with each member of the band on quill duties. And what an eclectic bunch of quills they possess. There's everything going on here from Teddy Boy Rock'n'Roll, to rockin' country straight through to, as you'd expect, psychobilly delivered with a swift punch to the tympanic membranes. The album is almost like a record label compilation album...only it's the same band throughout! For me, the standout tracks are those penned by Gaz Marson. So with that in mind, between the musicianship of the boys, the vocals of Frankie and now the added bonus of Gaz's song writing, this is the dawning of a new era for Spellbound. I loved em before but now I want to enter into a civil partnership with em. Bollocks I want to marry them. That's legal here now you know! (Well, maybe the polygamy bit isn't but a boy can dream). Spells connoisseurs will notice some of the tracks have been previously available on a couple of limited edition 7 inches. So if you missed out on those, here they are in all their glory on a whopper of a 12 incher!  Which reminds me, this is a vinyl-only release which will be sure to please the audiophiles and those of us that like to hold something substantial in our hands (I do most nights). It's virtually impossible to pigeon-hole this release into any specific category as it has influences akimbo. God help the poor fucker down the record shop trying to slot this into the correct section.

The boys have a couple of release night coming up in Ireland in December: Friday 15th in the Harbour Bar in Bray (with Belfast psychobilly outfit Madhouse) and Saturday 16th in The Taproom in Dublin (with Dublin rockabillies The Slick Hicks). You can pick up the album on the night from either of these shows or of course you can buy it directly from the band. I'll whack in a direct link to their email below.

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The Retarded Rats "I Hate Chocolate"

(Killjoy Records 2017)

The Head And The Axe

Survival

The never-predictable Killjoy Records have unleashed on us some brand new *deep inhale* oldschoolpsychogaragesurfpunkabilly from The Retarded Rats. This time coming out on sexy flexi-disc no less! Jaysus I haven't seen one of those since getting one free on the front of some paranormal magazine years ago purporting to feature "voices of the dead". So, both band and record label breaking from the more traditional formats but with that said, download codes are included for all you psychobillies from the future. Before I crack on and talk about the music though, the packaging needs a special mention as it's excellent and very cleverly constructed. But you'll just have to buy it to see for yourself. It comes in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics included. I love it when that happens. Once again it's strictly limited to 500 so grab one now before they appear on Discogs for extortionate money. Oh, and F.-J from the Beam Orchestra is on drumming duties here as opposed to our Kris The Kid.  So, onto the music. Side A sounds like a sci-fi asylumesque mash-up. If you read that in a review pertaining to any other genre you'd probably give it a miss immediately and go back to watching The X Factor or some similar shite. But this is our genre and all the offshoots that go along with it so that description is appealing!....and apt. Flipping her over you get more of that evil sounding lunatic fringe fare that has become synonymous with The Retarded Rats. They definitely are unique. They seem to be able to blend genres yet retain a psychobilly core but still have so much more going on. If these are the sounds emanating through their respective heads whilst putting pen to paper or finger to fret board, then those heads much surely be deranged. God I love deranged heads. This is the kind of record that reverberates in your skull even after you've finished listening. Add to that some atypical psychobilly lyrics and you just know you're on to a winner. 

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