DANNY GATTON

DANNY GATTON
IN CONCERT (1994)
320 KBPS

The performance captured on In Concert 9/9/94 happened less than a month before Danny Gatton's death, and from the sound of the album, it's hard to believe he was in a deep depression. Gatton's playing is incendiary and fiery, an extended display of sheer virtuosity, and the songs are consistently better than his studio albums, which were hampered by filler. Similarly, the studio polish of his albums tended to obscure how dazzling Gatton's pure, unvarnished talent was. That's not the case with In Concert 9/9/94, which positively sizzles. It might not be the best way to become acquainted with the guitarist — after all, it doesn't show all of his versatility (the jazzier numbers are noticeably missing) — but for fans, it's one to cherish.

1. Intro/Sunnymoon for Two
2. Land of Make Believe
3. Blues Newburg
4. 88 Elmira
5. Secret Love
6. Apache/Surf Medley
7. Caravan
8. Linus and Lucy
9. Orange Blossom Medley

DANNY GATTON

DANNY GATTON
88 ELMIRA ST. (1991)
320 KBPS

After years of knocking around the Washington, D.C.-area circuit, local guitar legend Danny Gatton finally got to cut his first album for a major label. It was indeed worth the wait, spot-welding blinding speed and immaculate chops that went in a million different directions (jazz, country, rockabilly, blues, you name it) to a musical sensibility that made this all-instrumental album a whole lot more than just yer average fretboard wanking jam-fest. Gatton's Telecaster really shines on diverse material ranging from Martin Denny's "Quiet Village" to the roadhouse shuffle "Funky Mama" to the off-the-wall rendition of the theme to The Simpsons. Kudos to Elektra for having the corporate balls to put this out; short, chunky, and middle-aged, Danny Gatton was a bona fide guitar hero for the '90s, putting the lie to the hard canard that only speedburner metal mega-hair dudes can make the front covers of the guitar mags.

1. Funky Mama
2. Elmira St. Boogie
3. Blues Newburg
4. Quiet Village
5. Red Label
6. In My Room
7. The Simpsons
8. Muthaship
9. Pretty Blue
10. Fandingus
11. Slidin' Home

REVEREND HORTON HEAT

REVEREND HORTON HEAT
LAUGHIN' AND CRYIN' WITH THE... (2009)
320 KBPS

The biggest chops. The most tour dates. The most kick-ass live show. The greatest rock-country-punkabilly performer of his generation, the Reverend Horton Heat is back after a lengthy recording hiatus with Laughin' and Cryin' with The Reverend Horton Heat. The man that first linked roots and alternative music is taking it back to where his heart is with Laughin' and Cryin'. A pomade-stiff romp down the dusty road less traveled, the album leans toward the hard-drinking, hard-driving 'billy' side of rockabilly with lounge love songs (Aw, the Humanity), odes to the good life (Drinkin' and Smokin' Cigarettes), comical takes on family life (Please Don't Take the Baby to the Liquor Store) and country guitar wizardry, Rev-style (Oh by Jingo!). Since his breakout album Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em The Rev has gained a diehard cult following who flock to his never ending string of gigs and continue to spread the myth of the biggest, baddest guitar man on the planet - the Reverend Horton Heat.

1. Drinkin' and Smokin' Cigarettes
2. Ain't No Saguaro in Texas
3. Death Metal Guys
4. River Ran Dry
5. Please Don't Take the Baby to the Liquor Store
6. Aw, the Humanity
7. Rural Point of View
8. Oh God! Doesn't Work in Vegas
9. Spacewalk
10. Beer Holder
11. Crazy Ex Boyfriend
12. There's A Little Bit of Everything in Texas
13. Just Let Me Hold My Paycheck
14. Oh By Jingo!

THE HORRORPOPS

THE HORRORPOPS
BRING IT ON! (2005)
320 KBPS

Psychobilly. By its very name it's a kick in the pants, an emphatic wallop that metes out harmony between the greasers and punks by the thrum of standup bass. HorrorPops made a real impression with Hell Yeah, their Epitaph debut, and 2005's Bring It On! also delivers soundly. The band never gets carried away with establishing a rabid, rapid pace, or the genre's obsession with grabby ghouls and pools of blood. That stuff's in there, but it's cut with Patricia Day's endearing "girl group gone a little bad" lead vocals and dynamic songwriting that finds the most effective way to combine rockabilly thump with punk swagger, instead of the most obvious one. And HorrorPops aren't two-dimensional. While the cleverly self-referential stance of the Ramones and the Misfits forever lurks like a comforting shadow in the backgrounds of Bring It On!, "Hit 'n' Run" sounds like nothing less than an outtake from No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom and "Caught in a Blonde" is pretty straight-on punk revival. Likewise, "You vs. Me" has a slight new wave kick driving its punctuating guitar twangs. Those guitars are strong throughout, if just a little conventional — Kim Nekroman and Geoff Kresge (Tiger Army's former bassist) unleash blasts of raucous punk or atmospheric creeping pluck as appropriate, but the whole band seems to realize it's the HorrorPops' frontwoman who's the star of this show. Day is just incredible. She's a precocious babydoll, a vengeful lover (in the '50s-style murder ballad "S.O.B.," she's ruthless), a bawdy bandleader. But most of all she's a fantastic bassist, the thumping strings of her upright leading her band along like bold page numbers in the corner of a nickel pulp novel.

1. Freaks In Uniforms
2. Hit'n'run
3. Bring It On!
4. It's Been So Long
5. Undefeated
6. You vs. Me
7. Crawl Straight Home
8. Trapped
9. Walk Like A Zombie
10. Where You Can't Follow
11. Caught In A Blonde
12. S.O.B.
13. Who's Leading You Now

THE CRAMPS

THE CRAMPS
PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE (1981)
320 KBPS

Here, Kid Congo Powers and Ivy form just as fine a team as she and Gregory did on earlier releases, and if things aren't always as flat-out fried as on Gravest Hits and Songs, the same atmosphere of swampy, trashy, rockabilly-into-voodoo ramalama reigns supreme. The song titles alone show the band hasn't really changed its sights any: the opening two cuts are covers, "Green Fuz" and "Goo Goo Muck," while originals include "Caveman," "Can't Find My Mind," and the brilliant "The Natives Are Restless." Then there's "Don't Eat Stuff Off the Sidewalk," which almost sounds worthy of a Frank Zappa freakout (at least lyrically). Other legendary tracks like "Primitive" and "Green Door" get the Cramps makeover this time out, with the proper mix of respect and hot-wired energy, while "The Crusher" sounds like Interior's on the verge of going completely insane. The Cramps themselves take over the production this time out, resulting in a cleaner, crisper sound (especially when it comes to Knox's drums) that isn't quite as wired, for better or for worse. As commanding showmen, though, the quartet's style comes through big time, with Interior throwing in appropriate yells, yipes, and other sounds where appropriate; his antics at the end of "Goo Goo Muck" are especially gone. If anything, the moodier strutting throughout increases the creepiness of what's afoot; if things aren't psychedelic in the commonly accepted sense, it's certainly not easy listening. Interior sometimes sounds almost normal, but with the sense that something strange is lurking just around the corner, and Ivy is still one of the best guitarists around, her snarling reverb worth a thousand fret-shredders.

1. Greenfuz
2. Goo Goo Muck
3. Rockin' Bones
4. Voodoo Idol
5. Primitive
6. Caveman
7. The Crusher
8. Don't Eat Stuff off the Sidewalk
9. Can't Find My Mind
10. Jungle Hop
11. Natives Are Restless
12. Under the Wires
13. Beautiful Gardens
14. Green Door

THE CRAMPS

LUX INTERIOR
October 21, 1946 – February 4, 2009

Lux Interior, lead singer of the punk band The Cramps has died aged 62.
According to a statement, Lux Interior passed away from a heart condition at Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California Wednesday morning.
The Cramps were part of the early CBGB punk movement that emerged in New York, and by being the first known band to blend punk with rockabilly, are widely recognized as precursors of psychobilly, and innovators of garage punk.
R.I.P.

THE CRAMPS
A DATE WITH ELVIS (1986)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

After Psychedelic Jungle, the Cramps experienced personnel and record label difficulties; they would not release another studio album until this one, four years later. Gone here are the tinny sound quality and horror flick-based lyrics of prior releases, replaced by clearer sonics and an often hilarious obsession with sex (examples of the latter can be found on "What's Inside a Girl?," "The Hot Pearl Snatch," "Cornfed Dames," "(Hot Pool Of) Womanneed," "How Far Can Too Far Go?," and the uproarious single "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?"). There are numerous sly references in the verses to high- and low-culture icons, including "Shake it one time for me" (a line from Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"), "I'll be dancing through the flames/Like a devil in disguise" (a nod to the Elvis Presley hit), and "Now there's more things in Tennessee/Than is dreamed of in your philosophy" (a paraphrase of a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet). Most of the songs here are in various rockabilly-derived styles, featuring either garage band fuzz or Duane Eddy twanging guitar from Poison Ivy. Vocalist Lux Interior is in excellent form here, exhibiting a fair bit of variety within his usual 1950s-derived approach. "Kizmiaz" is unique in the band's oeuvre, being a smarmy parody of 1960s hippie feel-good music; Ivy joins Interior on vocals here. Intonation is off in a few numbers (notably on "Kizmiaz," "The Hot Pearl Snatch," and "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?"), but this is not enough to detract from the overall excellence here. This rollicking and energetic platter in particular is the equal of any in their canon and an essential listen.

1. How Far Can Too Far Go?
2. The Hot Pearl Snatch
3. People Ain't No Good
4. What's Inside a Girl?
5. Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?
6. Kizmiaz
7. Cornfed Dames
8. Chicken
9. (Hot Pool Of) Womanneed
10. Aloha from Hell
11. It's Just That Song
Bonus Tracks
12. Blue Moon Baby
13. Georgia Lee Brown
14. Give Me a Woman
15. Get off the Road

HAPPY DRIVERS

Originally a straight rockabilly band, the Happy Drivers' sound changed when Didier (from the Wampas, Los Carayos) joined the band and they signed to the alternative punk label Boucherie Productions. Two albums followed with powerful guitars, crazy thumping double bass and punkabilly drumming. War (1990) & Toowoomba (1991) are two insanely catchy albums, great singalongs, melodic songs with hints of metal (think Cramps meet Motörhead meet Stiff Little Fingers). The band did another album of this kind in 1993 but they kind of lost the magic recipe by then. Those two albums remain with (icing on the cake!) great cover versions of Madonna's La Isla Bonita & Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff. If you're into melodic yet powerful hard rocking psychobilly, this band's for you!

WAR (1990)
320 KBPS

1. La Isla Bonita
2. I Cry! Jerry Lee
3. I Shot Da Sheriff
4. Lame De Fond
5. Arena
6. Indians War
7. Crazy Life
8. Rock On
9. Fire Down Below
10. I Cry! Freedom
11. Blood And War

TOOWOOMBA (1991)
320 KBPS
1. The Door
2. Les Maudits Frères R.
3. Rosko/Captain Plumbridge
4. Le Coucou
5. I Hate Fish
6. Taratata
7. Tristan
8. Seul, So Lonely
9. Byron Bay
10. Armageddon
11. Midnight Train (live)
12. Nervous Man (live)
13. We'll Be Going On (live)
14. I Shot Da Sheriff (live)

password: MOODSWINGSmusic