The Diggerz "A Psycho's Tales"

(Crazy Love Records 2015)

Intro

Forgotten Son

Breakout

Fresh Flesh From The Graveyard

Dreamgirl

Hangover

BBQ On A Lost Island

Jealousy

I Want Her

Set Me Free (Live)

Hailing from Essen in Germany, this is The Diggerz début release (even though they've been together for 5 years, the lazy bastards) on everyone's favourite record label Crazy Love. Without even listening to the music I immediately tipped my hat to them for the their usage of the correct punctuation in the word "Psycho's" in the album title. Yes, I am that anal (ooooh matron) when it comes to grammar. So, having been filled with glee and merriment from the offset, I proceeded to place my sextastic headphones over my manly ears and have an aural perusal of the sounds emanating from betwixt....oh for fuck sake..I don't half talk shite. I put on me headphones and had a listen to the album, right? What immediately struck me (well, after I completely ignored the intro) was the crisp, clean production that I love. Many albums have good songs but shite production. This has good songs coupled with erm....anti-shite production! That's right. It's the ANTI-SHITE! My favourite instrument of all time, the slap bass is right up there in the mix, the guitar sound is clean with bits of twang and reverb where necessary and not overdone. The drums are snappy and crunchy. Great so far. Will the vocalist piss on the whole thing? No. No he won't. HOORAH! I hear traces of Pitmen vocal stylings in his voice. Before I go on, I'm not going to start making comparisons but I'll make one more. Vocally the band are Pitmen-esque and muscially, Gorilla-esque  (but cleaner sounding). Now, back to The Diggerz sound itself and leaving aside possible influences and getting back to these vocals, fuck me what vocal range. Mo is one of thee best singers the psychobilly genre has to offer. The backing vocals are spot on too! When paired on some tracks it's almost like listening to Joy Division with quiffs. Also, you can't second-guess where each song is going. Unique melodies abound. The hardest thing to do now is pick a single track to stick up on YouTube for you to sample the greatness of this album.

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Grave Stompers "Black Leather Ghouls From Fiendsville"

(Crazy Love Records 2014)

Grave Stomp

Borgo Pass

Getting On

Cemetery After Sunset

Awake By The Moon

Black Leather Ghouls From Fiendsville

The Spook

Phantom Rock

Black Bat

Rockin' At The Boneyard

Wraith Undead

Nocturnal Graveyard Mysticism

I think this is the fourth album from the German psychobilly stalwarts. I have three more anyway and I'm always right. It's a mixed bag musically with some of the songs having somewhat of a Cramps vibe to them in that they're dark mid-tempo compositions but with more of an emphasis on the billy rather than the trash. With that said though, the tracks on here would have blended nicely with the stuff to be heard on the Blood On The Cats series of LPs from back in the day. Actually they would have blended better than half the shite they stuck on there that shouldn't have been on there in the first place. It's not all doom and gloom though, well it is, but with more of a slap-happy neo rockabilly slant and of course psychobilly on other tracks. The album title and song titles really sum the whole thing up. You know exactly what to expect. It would make the perfect accompanying soundtrack to a 1950s B movie horror flick. Well, one that would have been immediately banned by the censors. 

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The Violetz "Hate You!"

(Crazy Love Records 2014)

Cruel Psycho Girl

Hate You

Perfect

Boy Like A Dead

9099

Crumblin' Tone Boogie

Dynamite

Monster March

Burn Into My XXX Kill

Crazy Rat

Never judge a book by its cover...or in this case a CD. I was expecting punkabilly with the emphasis on punk with fuck all billy and a female singer that sounds like all the rest (maybe even bordering on masculine as is their wont in a genre that oozes aggression). However, it's twangy, slap bass heavy psychobilly with a big nod to (neo) rockabilly fronted by female vocalist Rena who thankfully sounds female! And she can actually sing!! Sweetly!!! She can rip it up too though. A crackin' début release from this Japanese trio. Looking further at the pictures of the band in the booklet, I was probably hasty in my initial impressions. All that leopard print and quiifs-o-perfection do indeed give you a fairly spot-on impression (did you see what I did there? Leopard print? Spot-on?) of what to expect musically. Maybe I was subconsciously swayed by the fact that most Japanese psychobilly bands are speed merchants with a harder, punkier sound. The Violetz are the exception to the rule though. 50% psycho and 50% billy. Just the way I like it. And yes that is a cover version of the Fairground Attraction ditty...and yes she does hit the high notes at the end. Happy days at chez O'Prez.

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The Quakes "Live By The Sword"

(Orrexx Records 2014)

Silent Type

On The Rocks

Under The Radar

See You Again

Fuck You

Five new songs from the instantly identifiable pen of Paul Roman, yet manages to be an eclectic ensemble. Good things really do come in small packages. Having been a convert to the psychobilly scene since the mid 1980s I've had a few favourite bands but only The Quakes have remained a constant. They have consistently churned out great music for almost 30 years now at this stage. Do they deserve a wider audience? Yes they do. But I like the fact that this sub culture has always been somewhat esoteric. This is an unusual Quakes release in that it's the first time in as many years that it's not just Paul Roman erm...playing with himself! It has the live line up and guest musicians in the studio too. Have a gander here if you're a stickler for detail. I know I am. But anyway, the music. You've probably gathered I love The Quakes but that doesn't mean that if I think something is utter shite I won't say it. I will. This isn't. Production values are spot on. All instruments are perfectly mixed. Roman's new wave-esque pronunciation is there.  Indelible choruses abound. The Quakes make good music. It's as simple as that. As luck would have it, they're part of our scene. It'd be a jaded one without them. There's psychobilly on here, new wave, country and rockabilly. All with that Quakes spin on the aforementioned genres. Given the knight-based imagery throughout the artwork, bear with me here now...*ahem*...if psychobilly, new wave, rockabilly and country were four kingdoms in Westeros, they'd be ruled by The Quakes (but the throne in each palace would have to be big enough to seat three arses). Did you see what I did there?

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Route 67 "I Kill My Love"

(Crazy Love Records 2014)

I Kill My Love

Bring The Bottle

Color Of The Blood

Mummy's Curse

Two Tickets To Hell

Just One More...

Why

She Hates Kids, She Can't Cook

I Don't Wanna Die

Sharp Knife

Your Dog Is Crapping On My Lawn

Loser

I must admit that when I read the first few song titles I thought this, the follow up to their 2012 release "Sinful Way", was going to be some run of the mill horror psychobilly (not that Sinful Way was by any means). Reading down the track listing further I thought, hmmm maybe not. I had no real preconceived notion or indeed fears of aural pleasure being dashed prior to listening to this album. Their first album was good, don't get me wrong, I just wasn't expecting this second release to be so filled with pleasure inducing auricular trinkets . There. I've said it. It's not really psychobilly at all. It's more neo rockabilly but not of the sugar coated variety. It's borderline psychobilly I suppose in that it won't appeal to the crowd who insist on eating vintage 1956 Weetabix, but their edgier first cousins will lap it up. When I think of neo rockabilly I think of bands like The Juvies, The Cellmates, The Nitros...that kind of thing. Route 67 are in that kind of ilk. Good memorable guitar hooks and solid slap bass and drums backbeat driving the whole thing along for a real feel-good factor. They also remind me in places of the more punkabilly sound we've come to expect from The Peacocks. Fuck it, while keeping with the comparisons, some of the guitar breaks on here remind of the excellently crafted stuff Stas from The Meantraitors has treated us to. These comparisons are to give you an idea of the sound Route 67 have on this album; they're no rip-off merchants mind you. I just hear all these influences whether the boys were concious of that or not. You have to admit though, it's a sexy concoction.

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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!

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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.

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