No Summertime Blues

 

May was a quiet month here at Satanic Hillbilly as the real world kept me busy but that will change in summer, I promise. For a start here are a few pictures taken in April in Tampere:

Mike Bell & The Belltones

Cherry Casino & The Gamblers

Ruby Ann

Fin-A-Billy Part 8: Tex and the Dixie Rebels

In the late 70s/early 80s countless numbers of young Teddyboy bands were playing Crazy Cavan inspired Rockabilly in Finland. At that time Rockabilly was KING in this country and Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers got gold records. Tex and the Dixie Rebels was one of these bands. Mikko Takala (who later would play in the Tom Cat Rebels) on vocals and guitar, bass-player Pasi Valtonen and drummer Hannu Virtakallio were Tex and Dixie Rebels and in 1980 the three young men released their one and only record, their "Rockabilly Rebellion" LP on Heliander Productions.

I have never seen an original copy of the album but thanks to other collectors who are willing to share their vinyl-nuggets I was at least able to get it as download. And so can you, it is available here. Teddyboy Rock'n'Roll hardly gets rarer than this!

A Rockin' Good Read...Or Not? Part 7

Sometimes you buy a book because you've read a review about it and got curious, sometimes you buy a book because someone recommended it to you and sometimes you buy a book simply because the title sounds promising. Option 3 was the reason for me to buy William Jones's book 'Rockabilly Underground London 1980s'.

Progress isn't always a good thing as we know. One negative side-effect of the internet and computerization of people's life's in general is the fact that today everyone can publish a book(via print on demand for example). Which means a lot of rubbish is produced. Often these books have no decent concept, show lack of research, have an eye hurting layout and picture quality that shouldn't be legal any more in the 21st century.

'Rockabilly Underground' starts promising. The cover looks decent with pictures of young Rockabillies, some 45s and event flyers. But as soon as you open the book the disappointment begins. The layout is terrible, the table of contents is not recognizable as being one, the quality of many pictures is awful(you would think that someone publishing a book would make the effort to get good quality scans(or prints) of pictures), there's no concept and the book doesn't hold what the title promises.

Sure, there are some decent parts. The book starts with author Jones talking about how he got into Rock'n'Roll, how he became a young Teddyboy, hung around with other Teds, how he went from Ted to Cat. That makes a good read. But then he loses it. He doesn't talk about Rockabilly in London in the 80s, he writes about Rockabilly DJs and clubs in the 80s and includes lists of people's fave songs. He publishes interviews he made with Ray Campi and Mac Curtis. Interesting yes, but London Rockabilly underground? He has a chapter about a trip to Finland in the 80s. Again, London Rockabilly underground? He mentions chicks he dated. London Rockabilly underground? The two really interesting bits of information the book has to offer are when Mouse(Red Hot'n'Blue) talks briefly about Rockin' Squats in London(more on that would have been interesting) and when Rob Glazebrook tells how Rochee and the Sarnos started. As Jones talked to Mouse, Glazebrook, Paul Roman, Roy from Nervous, Dell from Fury and the Polecats he had had the chance to really write a book about Rockabilly in London in the 80s, but he blew it.

Happy Hunching Day

Yes that's right. Ole Hasil died just a few days before his 69th(?) birthday. I put the question mark because some sources says that the year of his birth is unknown, some say it was 1937, but on the funeral service announcement they stated his year of birth as 1936. Not that it really matters but I'm a nerd sometimes. So today probably would have been the Haze's 74th birthday. Happy hunching in heaven Hasil! What better way to celebrate but with some hunching tunes:

It's Hammer Time

Jeroen Haamers, frontman of Batmobile, recently uploaded a bunch of clips he recorded with a web-cam to his YouTube acount. No, not those kind of clips you like to watch when you are alone in the room and the door is locked. It's Jeroen playing an acoustic guitar and singing some of his favourite songs. And yours. At least mine. Like Del Shannon's 'Runaway' or Elvis' 'I Just Can't Help Believing'. Here's the link to his account. Enjoy! 

HAMMER TIME 

Hunch That Thing

Five years ago, tuesday the 26th of April 2005 was a sad day. It was the day Hasil Adkins was found dead at his West-Virginian home. One and a half weeks earlier he had been run down by a teenager he had never seen before on an Atv. Hasil survived the attack but most likely suffered internal injuries that caused his death 10 days later.

Announcement for Hasil's funeral service. Notice the misspelling of his name.

Ever since I listened to the Haze's savage Rock'n'Roll for the first time I was hooked. It was the mid 80s and the only Hasil Adkins LPs available were the 'Chicken Walk' and 'Rock'n'Roll Tonight' albums put out by Hamburg based label Dee Jay Jamboree Records. A short time later Big Beat Records would release their Adkins LP 'He Said' and the following year Norton Records, USA put another reissue album on the market, 'Out To Hunch'. But until 1985 Hasil Adkins was as obscure as it could get. The only re-release available was the 'She's Mine/Chicken Walk' 45 on swedish Jan label from 1980 and less than a handful compilation LPs featured songs by the Appalachian wild man.

Hasil's first 45 for Florida based Air Records, July 1961. 300 copies were pressed.

When I saw Hasil's P.O. address in an american magazine one day I was exicted like a kid at christmas and sent him a letter, not really expecting any reply. I didn't believe that this one-man-wonder of minimalistic Rock'n'Roll could be reached so easily. I thought that the P.O.box was probably not used anymore anyway. I was wrong. Hasil wrote back.

At that time I was doing a fanzine called 'Something Wild' and asked Hasil if he'd be willing to do an interview by mail. He was. When I got it back I was partly disappointed and partly excited. It must have been the shortest interview by mail in the history of fanzine making but he had included a batch of private pictures to publish along with the interview. That was cool. So I wrote a rather long introduction, printed the extremely short interview and filled the pages up with the pictures he had send, no matter if Hasil was on them or not.

One of the pictures I got from Hasil.

At that time I was playing in a band(The Percolators) and we published our version of 'Chicken Walk' on an EP-compilation given away with the 'Demon Love' fanzine. I send the record to Hasil and he replied that he liked it. Needless to say that we were thrilled!

Besides the fanzine I was also running a small label(Jungle Noise) so I asked Hasil if there was any chance to release a record by him. Being a huge fan for years it would mean the world to me. As I was competing with Norton Records who seemed to have the monopole of releasing Hasil Adkins in the 90s I was sure it wouldn't be possible but I was wrong again. The Haze made it happen! One day a cheap looking cassette tape with 6 songs on it arrived and his message was 'Do with the songs what you want'. Wow... The result was the 'Slow Hunch' EP on red vinyl.

I never met Hasil but I was real close to do so. 2002 I was travelling the South and while in Kentucky I stayed at Jesse Todd Dockery's house in Lexington. Todd is one of the nicest and coolest people I have ever met and he definitely deserves an own article here at Satanic Hillbilly. Todd knew Hasil pretty well. He would drive all the way to Boone County, WV, to pick him up when he was booked to play a show in Kentucky. The plan was to visit Hasil so that I would finally get to meet him and to drop off another 100 copies of the EP for him to sell at shows. Unfortunately Hasil was down with pneumonia when Todd called to tell him that we'd be coming by, so we had to cancel the trip. I still got to talk to him on the phone which was nice. And challenging. If you've  ever heard Hasil talk you will  know that from 5 words he says you understand one or two. It was just like that for me being on the phone with him. 

Joe Coleman painting of the Haze.

Now it's five years since his death and there are more one-man-bands around than ever. Hasil's legacy lives on in various forms. What started in a little shack in the middle of nowhere over 50 years ago is now a worldwide phenomenon.

'I didn't try to be primitive. I just had bad microphones.'

(The Boone County Wild Man)

Spin That 45 - Part 10: Nazi Death Camp

And now to something completly different: The debut 7" of my favourite Finnish Punk-band Nazi Death Camp. In the early 80s Finland was famous for its extreme looking and sounding Punk-bands like Rattus, Appendix or Teervet Kädet. I never liked that stuff. Thank god the Death Camp Boyz  have only the nationality in common with these guys and are closer to the Dead Boys then Exploited. Less hairspray more Rock'n'Roll!  Or let me put it this way: If you like the Rip-Offs, Supercharger, New Bomb Turks and the mighty Nimrods you will also like NDC.

This 4-track EP came out late 2007 on Oulu based Psychedelica Records. There are two pressings available. The 1st one, limited to 500 copies and numbered, and the 2nd one, again around 500 copies, but this time in red vinyl. Since the release of this  7" the band put out tons of other 45s (and even a CD compilation of all those releases) but this one features their best song, the incredible catchy 'Baby, I'm An Alcoholic'.

TEDS!!!

There is a new Teddyboy super group in town: Backdraft! Members of well established bands Lou Cifer and the Hellions, Foggy Mountain Rockers and Ronnie Nightingale and the Haydocks joined forces to deliver some decent, no-bullshit, Teddyboy Rock'n'Roll. They have already done some recordings you can listen to at their MySpace site and the first gigs start rolling in, too, despite the fact that the band members are spread all over Europe(Germany, Holland and Finland). 

BACKDRAFT

Liverpool Teds 'Furious' have finally finished recording their debut album and boy it's about time. The band is around since 2003 and their one and only release, a CD single on Nervous Records, came out 2007. And there you have it, their complete catalouge. Have you ever heard about such a lazy band!?! But they make up for it announcing the release of the album on 180gr vinyl. Wunderbar!

FURIOUS

Köfte De Ville, singer of Mad Sin, announced his new project, a British Rockabilly band, some weeks ago. As British Rockabilly was how we called bands like Matchbox, Whirlwind or Cavan in Germany in the early 80s I hope that's what we will get. Decent ass-kicking Teddyboy Rock'n'Roll. Like so many Psychos +/- 40 years these days also Köfte has his roots in Rockabilly and said the first band he ever saw live was Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers. Just recently when he played the Satanic Stomp in Germany with Mad Sin under the name of 'Wild KDV and the Mad Kings' they had some Cavan songs in the set. I'm curious and I bet the traditionalists will hate it.

Fin-A-Billy Part 7: Barnshakers

The other Finnish 'institution' when it comes to authentic Rockabilly and Hillbilly besides the Hal Peters Trio are the Barnshakers and I don't believe that there is a single (post 50s)Rockabilly collector who hasn't at least one of their records at home.

Founded in 1992 by request of Goofin' Records head Pete Hakonen who needed a backing band for Johnny Carroll the 4 friends who had gained experience in Whistle Bait, Dr. Snout and his Hogs Of Rhythm and Hal Peters and his String Dusters got together to play some of the most authentic Rockabilly the world had heard since the 50s. Just 10 months after their founding they already recorded their debut album for Goofin' Records, the 'Cool Enough' 10". The rest, as they say, is history. The band played every major Rockabilly festival on earth, released tons of records, were one of the very few European bands that had a release on Willie Lewis' Denver based label 'Rock-A-Billy Records'(the great 'Big Sandy' 45) and became a popular backing band. The list of artist they worked with truly is impressive:
Hank Thompson, Narvel Felts, Hayden Thompson, Alvis Wayne, Johnny Carroll, Sanford Clark, Huelyn Duvall, Sid and Billy King, Martí Brom, Shaun Young, Johnny Carroll, Darrel Higham, Kim Lenz and Mack Stevens.

The next dates where you can catch the band live outside of Finland are May 28th when they play the Screamin' Festival in Spain and July 17th at the Riverside Jump in Ireland.

Coolville Losers

For a change some music to download here at Satanic Hillbilly n Sophisticated Boppin'. These are some recordings yours truly did ages ago with 2 friends. It's a mix of old-school Psychobilly(no Slap-Bass), Punk-Rock and Garage. All these songs were supposed to be released on various compilations but in the end none  was. Come on, they are not THAT bad...

Coolville Losers

I don't know about art but I know what I like...

...and I like Merinuk.

If you were buying Garage records and fanzines in the 90s you would automatically end up with a good collection of Merinuk artwork. He was doing it all. From french magazine 'Dig It' to the Basement Brats debut LP on Screamin' Apple Records, from his 'masterpiece' the Monsters 'Youth Against Nature' LP sleeve to tons of gig-posters. Of course he didn't stop in the 90s when every 2nd record I bought had his artwork, he's still alive and kicking.

To kill the waiting time between posts here at my blog I strongly recommend a visit to his great blog where he shows his work and talks about it. 

KING MERINUK'S PAD

Get On Your Knees - Reverend Beat Man in Helsinki - April 4th

Finland is a small country but it is no short of churches, priests and weird believes. Let alone in the small town where I live we have Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses, Scientology, other strange protestant churches I have never heard about, Muslims and sometimes you even get to meet a Hare-Krishna dude who wants to sell you self baked cookies. But no matter how hard they try, they can't trick me into their churches, temples and mosques. No matter how hard they try, they won't get my money. The only church I give my money to is the Church of Trash and the only reverend who's preaching I'm willing to listen to is Reverend Beat-Man.

April 4th 2010 was a double premier. It was the first time that Finns could see Beat-Man in their home country and it was the day I finally lost my Reverend Beat-Man virginity. I think I speak for both of us, Finland and me, when I say we don't regret it.

Been on stages around the world for over 20 years has turned Beat-Man into a pro. But not just yesterday, that happened already years ago. Everything that has his name on it means top entertainment: Something to tap your feet to, something to sing along to,  something to dance to, something that makes you wanna destroy, something that makes you laugh. Hell, even something that might makes you think. He is the ultimate anti-Las Vegas low-brow artist legends are made of. And he is real. 

I must admit, I loved Lightning Beat-Man, the records as much as the shows. Nothing I had seen before and have seen since comes even close to the experience of a LBM live gig, but the Reverend is a pretty good replacement. It's like seeing the older, wiser, not as crazy but still crazy brother of the King of Wrestling Rock'n'Roll.

 

As often as I got to see Lightning Beat-Man I never had the chance to see the Reverend before, which is a little bit strange. As soon as I heard that he was going to play Helsinki I got tickets as I expected the place to sell out in a heartbeat. Actually it didn't what surprised me. There was a decent sized crowd at Bar Loose, yes, but it wasn't the tight, sweaty sauna I was expecting. Maybe it's true what I secretly think: Finland is just not a Garage country. Yes, Pierced Arrows, Roky Erickson and the Sonics draw much bigger crowds here, but compared to Beat-Man they are mainstream anyway.

There was no support band but some local burlesque girls showed some flesh to warm up for Beat-Man. I guess they did well, it was crowded in front of the stage. I ran into the main act on the toilet, a quick hello (no handshake, I hadn't washed my hands yet) and just a few minutes later the gospel started.  Most of the hits were served: Jesus Christ Twist, Get On Your Knees, The Beat-Man Way, Blue Suede Shoes, I See The Light and even the LBM classic 'I Wanna Be Your Pussycat'. 

It was a good night!

Spin That 45 - Part 9: The Syn-Dicate

'It's Rockabilly and Disco fusion'. Wow. Just...Wow. And yes, it is as bad as it sounds. If it would be Boney M with slap-bass and a rockin' beat, maybe then it would work but as both, the Rockabilly and the Disco part, are incredibly bad the whole record is a contender for the 'Worst record of all times' award. 

Side A 'Synthabilly Baby' sounds like a Revival Rock'n'Roll song, a bit lame and recorded with bass-guitar but to spice it up there is the synthesizer which they used like a Rock'n'Roll piano. It just doesn't sound as great. It sounds like a musical nightmare all the way from Teletubby land. I would like to say that 'Rapabilly Boogie' on Side B is better, but it is not. It's just not as annoying as Side A. Of course it is neither Rap nor Billy, it's just a strange 'Pop' song. Why they called it Rapabilly I have no idea. Which makes me think, the closest thing ever to Rap-a-billy must be the Scallywags(the German Psychobilly band) and their 'My Home Is My Castle' Rap-Mix. Or the Meteors of course with their 'I'm Just A Dog' 12" version.

This 45 was released in 1981 on Rebob Records(RB 501), London, pressed in France and re-released by Nervous Records on the 'Hep Cat Hop' LP compilation(NERD 003). Why is a mystery to me because the record is really bad. So bad it's fun to have it.

Night Out With The Boys

The Rapids are returning to the stage, 10 years after their last show. Summer 2010 they will be in Hamburg, headlining(I hope) the '4th Psychobilly Fiesta Over Hamburg'. Of course they never played Psychobilly but I guess they just have more fans among them than amongst Teddyboys or Authentics. 

The Rapids are without a doubt one of the best Neo-Rockabilly bands and their one and only album 'Turning Point'(a matching title as it sounds very different to the band's early releases) should be mentioned together with the Blue Cats 'Fight Back' and Polecats 'Are Go' when talking about refreshing, new and still rockin' Rockabilly records.

June 19th is the day when you should be at the Knust, Hamburg. Other bands that night are Belgium's Psychobilly legends Swampys and the great Go-Katz from England. I won't be there but I pray(well, not really but I would if I was religious) that one day I will get to see the Rapids. For a very interesting interview go here: DO YOU BELIEVE?

And while you are there, look around. It is an amazing page for Psychobilly. The real deal, not the makeup-secretgoths-punkswithquiffs-wannabilly certain people try to sell as Psychobilly.

A Rockin' Good Read...Or Not? Part 6

Finally a rockin' good read from start to finish. The book about South Dakota based Rock'n'Roll group Myron Lee and the Caddies is one of the most entertaining and interesting books on music I have read in a long time.

Most of you will know the band for its Rockabilly classic 'Aw C'mon Baby', the B-Side to the band's self released first 45 'Homicide'. These two songs can be found on different European compilation albums. Other recordings by the band or Myron solo are harder to get hold of, unless you own the 'Rock'n'Roll Midwest Style' LP or 'Rockin' And Rollin' Out Of The Midwest' CD. Both include some more 50s and quite a few 60s recordings by Myron Lee, with the Caddies or solo.

This book starts right at the beginning with Myron as a kid and it takes us on a journey through his musical life until the point when he decided to finally put his guitar away in the early 90s. Yes, all those times from the 50s till the 90s Myron Lee and the Caddies were active and played countless amounts of gigs, not only in the Midwest. They toured the USA and Canada as well and during these times played in Texas together with an unknown young english band called the Rolling Stones or as the backing band for Dick Clarke's 'Caravan of Stars' in 1963 and 1965. They were in Dallas when Kennedy was shot, just blocks away from the assassination, Myron flew out to California to record with Dorsey Burnette, he became good friends with Buddy Knox, he organized sold out Rock'n'Roll shows in the little South Dakota town Spearfish in the Black Hills with the Everly Brothers and Conaway Twitty, a biker got killed during their show. All these stories and many more are in the book.

It is well written, sometimes funny(there's even a pee story) and if Myron has an opinion of any 'star' he met during his life on the road he will tell it, no matter if it's about George Jones drinking habits or Roy Orbison's hospitality. I was surprised to learn all these things about the band and Myron's achievements because all I knew before I read the book was that they had recorded one of my all-time favourite Rock'n'Roll songs. I had no idea there was so much more to say.

Seriously, this is worth getting! You won't regret it. It has tons of amazing old pictures as well. Get it directly from Myron Lee here: AW CMON