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The Cramps were an American punk rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist and occasional bass guitarist Poison Ivy comprising the only ever-present members. The addition of guitarist Bryan Gregory and drummer Pam Balam resulted in the first complete lineup in April 1976.
Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that mixes elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ramp[ing] up its speed to a sweaty pace, and combin[ing] it with punk rock and imagery lifted from horror films and late-night sci-fi schlock,...[creating a] gritty honky tonk punk rock." Dark imagery is also central to an offshoot of psychobilly known as gothabilly.
The Meteors are an English psychobilly band formed in 1980. Originally from London, England, they are often credited with giving the psychobilly subgenre—which fuses punk rock with rockabilly—its distinctive sound and style. Though the origins of psychobilly are debated, The Meteors are the second band to self-identify as psychobilly after The Cramps, and are often credited with the distinction of being a "pure" psychobilly band among fans of the subgenre.
The Gun Club were an American post-punk band from Los Angeles, California, United States, which existed from 1979 to 1996. Created and led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce, they were notable as one of the first bands in the punk rock subculture to incorporate influences from blues, rockabilly, and country music. The Gun Club has been called a "tribal psychobilly blues" band, as well as initiators of the punk blues sound cowpunk - "He (Pierce) took Robert Johnson and pre-war acoustic blues and 'punkified' it. Up until then bands were drawing on Iggy + The Stooges and the New York Dolls but he took it back so much further for inspiration."
The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name of American musician Jim Heath as well as the name of his Dallas, Texas-based psychobilly trio. Heath is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. A Prick magazine reviewer called Heath the "godfather of modern rockabilly and psychobilly".
The Prisoners were a British garage rock band formed in 1980 in Rochester, Kent, England. Their 1960s garage sound made them a regular live fixture in London's underground "psychedelic revival" and "mod revival" scene of the early 1980s, as well as a linchpin of the Medway scene.
Demented Are Go are a Welsh psychobilly band that was formed around 1982 in Cardiff, Wales. They were one of the earliest in the initial wave of bands to mix punk rock with rockabilly, and as a result, are considered to be highly influential to the psychobilly scene. The band often claims their name originated from the phrase "Demon teds are go!" as an adaptation of the phrase "Thunderbirds are go!" from the Thunderbirds TV series. Psychobilly is often associated with horror.
The Slickee Boys were a Washington, D.C. area punk-psychedelic-garage rock band whose most-remembered lineup consisted of guitarist Marshall Keith, guitarist Kim Kane, singer Mark Noone and drummer Dan Palenski. The group was named after a GI slang term for the rockabilly-inspired Korean street toughs who sold black market goods to American soldiers.
Big Beat Records is a British record label and import distributor owned by Ace Records, specialising in garage rock.
Gravest Hits is the first 12" EP by the American garage punk band the Cramps, compiling both sides of their first two 1978 Vengeance singles, "Surfin' Bird" and "Human Fly", with an added fifth track, a cover version of "Lonesome Town". It was released in July 1979 on Illegal Records and I.R.S. Records. The tracks were all produced by Alex Chilton and recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis in 1977. The EP's liner notes were credited to "Dr. J.H. Sasfy, Professor of Rockology, American Rock'n'Roll Institute, Washington D.C., U.S.A.". Gravest Hits is one of the first records of both the rockabilly revival and the psychobilly genres. The photograph on the back of the original sleeve, of the band in performance, was taken at the Palladium theater in New York.
Ace of Hearts Records is a Boston-based independent label founded in 1978 by Rick Harte, who also produced all its releases. It recorded and released Boston area post-punk and garage rock bands in the early 1980s, including Mission of Burma, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Roger Miller, Neats, Lyres, The Real Kids, John Felice, Nervous Eaters, Del Fuegos, The Neighborhoods, Martin Paul, Wild Stares, Infliktors, Classic Ruins, Crab Daddy, Chaotic Past, Tomato Monkey, and Heat from a DeadStar.
Batmobile is a Dutch psychobilly band from Rotterdam and Breda, formed in 1983. They were the first band not from the United Kingdom to perform at the influential psychobilly club, Klub Foot and are considered the seminal Dutch psychobilly band.
The Fog Band were an English garage punk/indie rock act from Bath, Somerset, England, that existed between 2000 and 2006 and were fronted by Bobby Grindrod. Originally instrumental, the band's lead guitarist persuaded Grindrod to be their vocalist after being intrigued by his unusual appearance. Although somewhat reluctant, Grindrod agreed after a period of intense insistence. He later claimed that:
"I only joined to stop Oli pestering me, but when we found ourselves supporting the likes of The Futureheads, Art Brut, The Buff Medways, The Dirtbombs, Neil's Children and The 5.6.7.8's, I realised that I'd definitely need more ties".
One Way System are an English punk rock band formed in the Fleetwood area of Lancashire, England, in 1979.
The Seeds is the debut album by American garage rock band the Seeds. It was released in April 1966 through GNP Crescendo Records and produced by Marcus Tybalt and Sky Saxon. After the release of two singles in 1965, "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and "Pushin' Too Hard", the album was released and charted in the United States where it peaked at No. 132 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart. Modern reception of the album is positive, with critics considering the album's similarity to punk rock a decade later.
The Grave Diggers were an American rockabilly, surf, jazz, punk band. They are notable due to their eclectic musical style, their early foreshadowing of subsequent music revival movements, and the musical careers of their members.
The Mystery Trend was an American garage rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1964. The band was among the first wave of San Francisco rock groups to emerge from the city's growing music scene. Exhibiting music prowess leaning toward R&B, the Mystery Trend were set apart from their contemporaries who later developed into psychedelic rock groups. Their recording output was limited, with the group's one single, "Johnny Was a Good Boy", being released in 1967.
The Midnite Sound of the Milky Way is a garage rock compilation available on compact disc put out by Big Beat Records (UK) that consists of songs recorded at the Midnite Sound recording studio in Danville, Illinois during the 1960s. The Midnite Sound studio one of many such venues pushing out obscure garage rock in the mid-1960s. The set was compiled by Alec Palao, who also wrote the liner notes. The compilation features twenty four tracks by different various artists who recorded there, and all except four have not been previously compiled. The Midnite Sound recording were often typified by an echo-laden sound, giving them a characteristically "outer space" vibe. The performers tended to be, even by 1960s garage rock norms, untutored and naively strange and noncommercial racket. The groups and artists who recorded at Midnite Sound tended to be less British Invasion-influenced than most, sometimes displaying rockabilly and pre-Beatles stylistics. The best-known act to record for the label was rockabilly/garage rocker Dean Carter, who is known for the song "Rebel Woman", which has appeared on several other compilations such as his Call of the Wild anthology on Big Beat Records. He does not appear on this set, but two performers here, George Jacks and The 12th Knight, do renditions of the song.
The Oxford Circle was an American garage rock and psychedelic rock band from Davis, California, near Sacramento, who were active from 1964-1967. They became a popular garage rock act with a proto-punk sound influenced by Them and other blues-based bands of the British Invasion, that, in addition to heavy guitar feedback, came to encompass psychedelia. The group began to make appearances in San Francisco, where they became a top draw in venues such as the Avalon Ballroom. They taped a show at the Avalon in 1966 and, after lying in the vaults for years, it was rereleased in 1997 on the Nuggets from California: Live at the Avalon 1966 anthology. In 1967, they released the single, "Foolish Woman" b/w "Mind Destruction", which is also included, along with several other studio outtakes, on the Nuggets from California compilation. In 1967, drummer Paul Whaley left to play in pioneering heavy rock act Blue Cheer. Lead vocalist and guitarist Gary Lee Yoder and bassist Dehner Patten left to form Kak, who recorded for Epic Records. Yoder subsequently went on to join Blue Cheer in one of their later configurations.
References
- ↑ David Stubbs, Rob Young Ace Records: Labels Unlimited 2008 p.87 "Another example of the type of group Big Beat worked with was The Stingrays. As Alec Palao, the American-based English expat, one time member of the band and subsequent Ace consultant, recalls: "The band was an amalgam of everything we were into, be it rockabilly, garage punk, 1970s punk, surf, northern soul, folk-rock; we were omnivores." The Stingrays were the classic example of a band who had supersized on Ace's ever-increasing and eclectic output of lost music."
- ↑ Martin Jones Lover, Buggers, and Thieves 1900486415 2005 p.153 "This, and the fact that Big Beat were releasing ... ...played a track by then-current psychobilly band The Stingrays."
- ↑ Marc Masters No Wave 2007 Volumes 287-292 p.267 "as punk rock mutated into psychobilly there was a demand for an outlet for the primordial rock music of such acts as Johnny & The Jammers, The Meteors, The Stingrays and The Cramps - and in 1980 the Big Beat label was born."
- ↑ George Gimarc Post Punk Diary: 1980-1982 1997 031216968X p.275 "The Stingrays are proponents of the "back to Billy Haley" sound that has been lurking in English basements for the last two years."
- ↑ The Virgin Encyclopedia of R&B and Soul 1998 p.369 "...in the UK where his influence on 'trash' guitar groups, notably the Stingrays and Milkshakes, has been considerable."
- ↑ Maximum Rocknroll No.15 1984 "The STINGRAYS look rockabilly, act punk, and sound more 60s than anything else (note their covers ...)"
