Connie & the Rockets

Connie & the Rockets – S/T

Bullseye/El Toro BE158 [2024]
My Place – The Turning Tide – I Never Knew – Toda La Noche – Don’t Smoke – Your Misery – Hard Girls – I’m A Rocket

Connie & the Rockets is a Rock’n’Roll/Rockabilly band hailing from the region of Barcelona, Spain. The group consists of Connie Zahino on vocals, as well as Twang González on guitar, Juanma Rodríguez on double bass, and Carlos Callahan on drums. This is, to my knowledge, the group’s first album.
The album opens with an excellent “dark country” tune, which one would easily imagine sung by Mark Phillips and Emanuela Hutter (Hillbilly Moon Explosion). It’s not easy to follow such a good tune, but the band has the idea to cover The Turning Tide, a song by Ravenna & the Magnetics, a too-often forgotten (or at least overlooked) combo to which Connie and the Rockets do perfect justice. Both the band and the singer are perfectly at ease in this register on the border between classic Rockabilly and Neo-Rockabilly.
I Never Knew is a good, very fifties-style song with an obvious reference to Buddy Holly in its drum pattern. It’s a shame that the vocal backings are a little rough in places, but that’s just a tiny detail.
Then follows Toda La Noche, an energetic Rock’n’Roll sung in Spanish that leans more towards the sixties. It’s the perfect track for getting down on the dance floor and partying (all night long, of course).
Let’s flip the record over. The B side begins with Don’t Smoke, a mid-tempo Rockabilly, well constructed with a break in rhythm along the way. Twang Gonzales delivers one of his best performances on the album. Your Misery, written by Xavi Roman (Quasars, Broncats), is more modern, and we can particularly hear the influence of Brian Setzer on Gonzales on this one. The song is very good and energetic, but the genre seems to suit the singer a little less. The next track, Hard Girls, a Rockabilly with strong Blues intonations, is much more convincing. The register suits Connie perfectly, and once again Gonzales demonstrates the extent of his expertise. For this track, the group is joined by Anna Lee on piano and Los Marijuanas on backing vocals. The record ends with I’m a Rocket; The song itself is not particularly original, but it makes up for it with great effectiveness. And the group has enough know-how to make it work: good singing, solid guitar, and bouncing rhythm; what more could you ask for?
In conclusion, it is a good album, very effective (having only eight tracks avoids filler), and varied in the genres covered.