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psychobilly - Page 17

Stage Frite

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Stage Frite
Stage Frite

Stage Frite

Country: UK
Genre: Psychobilly

Clive Perchard: vocals, double bass
Dave Rounce: guitar
Stevie Death: drums

Stage Frite began their relatively short career as a rockabilly band in 1988 but soon opted for a more agressive sound and Psychobilly.
They supported bands like the Griswalds, Skitzo and the Frantic Flintstones and developped a friendship with Chuck Harvey who at that time was scouting band for Link. The result was two tracks recorded for the compilation album “Kats Keep Rockin’”. This gave them a wider exposition and audience and it wasn’t long before Link proposed them to record a full album.
Thus, in August 1988, they found themselves in studio with Mark Hunt (who at that time recorded most of the Frantic Flintstones albums) to cut their debut album “Island Of Lost Souls”.
It sold relatively well and as a result they played bigger gigs and appeared on the bill of a few all-dayers. But when the band was working on a possible second album they split in the Spring of 1991, each member having different ideas about the style they should play.
They remained active musically, Rounce later joined the Roswell Invaders, Stevie drummed for punk outfits and Perchard played bass for the East Coast Bluegrass band and the Ugly Dog Skiffle Combo.

Stage Frite later reformed and released an album in 2017 on Western Star records.

Adapted from the liner notes of the CD reissue of Island Of Lost Souls (Anagram-CDM Psycho 48) written by Alan Wilson.

Stage Frite - Island of Lost Souls
Stage Frite – Island of Lost Souls

Stage Frite – Island of lost Souls

Anagram cdmpsycho48 [1989 – reissue 2006]
Island Of Lost Souls – Pink and Black – Noises – One Last Dream – Bad Moon Rising – Black Magic – Slippin’ In – The Ripper – Take The Money and Run – Searchin’ – Baby Let’s Play House – Freight Train – Get Away Little Girl – My Baby’s Gone – Long Blond Hair – Island Of Lost Souls – There Goes My Baby – Get Away Little Girl

Island Of Lost Souls is a good album. Understand me; it’s not an essential one like The Meteors’ In Heaven, Guana Batz’s Held Down… At Last or Frenzy’s Hall Of Mirror to name but three of the classics but if Stage Frite’s Island Of Lost Souls was a movie, it would be a honest and pleasant horror B-movie you enjoy watching with friends. They have good originals like the title track, Black Magic or the Ripper. In comparison their covers are far less convincing, lacking of an angle to approach them. Produced and engineered by Marc Hunt, who was in charge of many Frantic Flintstones early recordings, it’s not a surprise to find some common point with late 80’s albums of the gang of Chuck Harvey. The cd reissue is completed with two tracks that were previously only available on vinyl on compilations and four early demos.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Scam

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scam-promo1Scam

Country: Holland – Genre: Psychobilly / Neo-rockabilly

Marcel van den Berg: vocals,guitar
Arie Versteeg: double bass
Raymond Fitsch: drums

 

Scam, formed around 1986. They recorded their first demo in the winter of that same year which caught the attention of Eddie and Johnny of Count Orlock. In October 1988, they recorded « Gamblin’ Fever » their debut album which is very representative of the sound of the day: light drums, slap bass and a clean electric guitar, influenced by Restless and fellow Dutchmen Batmobile. The sound is good though a bit thin at places. They have solid original (Hangover, Captain Caveman, Ready Willing & Able) but the long distance (12 songs) tends to disadvantage the band and the album sounds a bit repetitive, they could have reduced it to eight solid songs.
The album was well received and Scam supported big acts and played bigger gigs and festivals (the Rockhouse Psychobilly meeting, Night of the longknives) and doing national radio performances. They soon received demand for a second album. Not having enough material for a new album they decided to re record old songs from the first demo together with some covers.The mini album called “Infant Years”was released on Tombstone Records in 1990. Despite an ugly cover, this mini lp shows an improvement. There’s not a big departure in term of sound but the band is tighter and the songs less repetitive.

Their last album (to date) came in 1991. Released on Rockhouse, A Million Dollar Scam marks a new step for the band. They add a good dose of rockin’ blues with harp, saxophone and slide guitar to their usual brand of light psychobilly/neo-rockabilly,. The set is varied and the song inspired. A guest singer is present on a couple of tracks. A very good album that shows the evolution and the maturity of the band. The cd version contains four bonus tracks.

They kept on playing but disbanded around 1993. Marcel remained active on the music scene. playing with the Penguin (Batmobile’s bassplayer side project) and can now be found in 69Beavershot, Triple Dynamite and Dee Ann & The Nightcaptains.
In 2005 they did a one of reunion show in original line up. A new album was announced but nothing materialized untill now.

  • Discography
    Gamblin’ Fever – Count Orlock – ROCK V (1988)
    Infant Years – Tombstone – Tomb-disc 679 (1990)
    A Million Dollar Scam – Rockhouse – lp9114 (1991)

Captain Coma

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Captain Coma - ThirstCaptain Coma – Thirst

Kix 4U [1990]
Texas landler – Night Of Terror – Unguilty – Frenzy – Let’s Play House – Ghost Hour – Made In Germany – Sweetheart – 16 Pints – Live To Kill – These Boots… – Evil – Jailhouse Rock – Take Good Care

Captain Coma were from Germany and played a heavy kind of psychobilly with electric bass and raspy voice which could sometimes remind of the Meteors but were far to have the genius of Fenech’s brainchild.

They could have done one average mini lp for they have a couple of not so bad self penned songs like “Western landler” or “Night of Terror”. Instead of that they filled the album with poorly written material and uninspired and unoriginal covers (Frenzy, These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, Baby Let’s Play House, Jailhouse Rock) that sound like a parody of rockabilly played by a drunken punk band (they turned “16 Tons” into… “16 Pints”). Played at the same pace, in the same key, with the same sound and always the same feedback to start the songs, “Thirst” soon turns to be very monotonous.

The Radioactive Kid

Captain Coma
Captain Coma

The Pussykillers

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Pussykillers - David Vincent les a vu
Pussykillers – David Vincent les a vu

David Vincent les a vu /Zombie Rockers
KRUEL K 8803 [1989]

The Pussykillers were a French Psychobilly band from Poitiers and consisted of Bill (vocals), Kub (doublebass / b-vox), Erick (guitar / b-vox) and V(drums / b-vox). They played  a brand of heavy psychobilly influenced by the Meteors and the early Coffin Nails. Actually, their singer shouted more than he sang. They also played some gigs with Thierry Petel (Happy Drivers) on drums but they split in the early 90’s. It seems that their guitar player later comitted suicide.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Quakes (the)

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The Quakes - Chris Van Cleve, Paul Roman and Rob Peltier
The Quakes – Chris Van Cleve, Paul Roman and Rob Peltier

The Quakes are one of the first (if not the first) american psychobilly band. Like their compatriot the Stray Cats they crossed the sea to find fame in Europe where by the time the psychobilly scene was growing bigger and bigger. Roy williams and Nervous record quickly signed them and released their first album, which soon became a raw psychobilly classic. Their second record “Voice Of America” was more neo-rockabilly, and stands for me as their best. They then find a big audience in Japan with sold out shows and albums like Quiff Rock and New Generation where they mixed the usual rockabilly and psychobilly stuff to Billy Idol and Adam & the ants influences.
This interview with Paul Roman took place in 2005 for the release of  “Psyops”. More infos abot their recent albums on their website www.thequakes.com .

by Fred “Virgil” Turgis

How did you become interested in music?
I was always interested in music as a kid.When I was 9 or 10 I started buying records. I was a big fan of The Beatles- The Rolling Stones- The Kinks- Monkees. I had older brothers and sisters who left those records behind when they moved out.

In what kind of musical background did you grow?
My parents always had music on in the house. My dad was from Poland and he liked polka music and my mom would listen to big band stuff. My oldest brother had a band and I used to watch them practice in the garage.

When did you start playing guitar ?
When I was 15 or 16, Dave “the ace” Hoy got an acoustic guitar for Christmas and we went out in the garage to jam. I was playing drums on garbage pails because I used to have a snare drum and cymbal when I was 12 but I sold it cause I never played it. Anyway, we switched instruments and found that Dave was a better drummer and I was a better guitar player- that’s how the whole band thing started.

Did someone influence you to choose that instrument?
YES! Absolutely- It was Brian Setzer- When I saw the Stray Cats on MTV I knew what I want to do! I had the snare drum like I said and that went no where and then I bought a keyboard because I was into New wave bands like the B-52’s and Devo etc. but I lost interest in that to -but when I saw the Stray Cats it was like I found my thing.

I assume you play bass too…
Yes- I bought an upright bass when I was 17 cause we couldn’t find anyone to play it so I decided to get one and learn how to play then I could teach someone. (Ed. Paul plays bass on some of the Quakes’ recent cd’s)

In your bio, you’re talking about the Quiffs. Were you in other bands before?
Yes but they were all with Dave and me- there was The Runaway Boys-The Teenage Rebels- Rockin Wildkats

What was the style of the Quiffs,? Was it a pre-Quakes kind of band?
We played obscure rockabilly and modern covers and originals- it was kinda pre Quakes again with Dave Hoy playing bass and Chris Van Cleve on drums. We recorded some stuff in a studio but its terrible. We were not very good in those days but we had fun.

When you start playing with the Quakes, were you aware of the European psychobilly scene?
Well… yes and no- I went to London to try to start a band in the summer of 1985 and at that time I had heard some psychobilly and I hated it- to me it sounded like punk rockers trying to cash in on the rockabilly scene- I didn’t understand it. I was a real ROCKABILLY GUY. Then in 1986 I went to London again to try to start a band and I was staying right down the street from the Klubfoot- but I wasn’t gonna go there…My friend had just bought the first Guana Batz album and I remember I liked the song “Down on the line” but I didn’t like the rest of it- I didn’t get it. I was hanging out at all the rockin clubs in London listening to Curtis Gordon etc.When I went back home- I put the Quakes together but we were trying to be a modern band like the Stray cats-Rockats-Polecats etc.The things that lead us to psychobilly were 1) we couldn’t play our instruments like the bands we wanted to be like (frustration) and 2) no one was paying any attention to us around town(more frustration) So I started writing these songs like “You’re Dead” and others because I was pissed off at everything-we changed our look also at that time. After that the hardcore kids would all come to see us and we started getting more gigs. Hardcore music was real popular in Buffalo at that time so we tried to incorporate some of those ideas into our stuff. “Psychobilly Jekyll & Mr Hyde” is an example of the slow part- fast part thing from the Hardcore scene-a perfect example would be “institutionalized” by Suicidal Tendencies which was a big song at that time. I think all those “HEY”s in our music came from the Ramones which I always liked.

Is this what led you to move to London?
We moved to London because after realizing that there was this big scene over there, we wanted to be a part of it. We had sent a couple of demo tapes to Nervous and Roy said we were too slow, so naturally we thought the secret to success is just play fast so that’s what we did. We knew that the Stray cats had sold all their stuff and moved to London so we were kinda going the same thing. I was 20, Rob was 18 and Dave was 16.

How was the American scene at that time?
Ha ha there was no scene at all, people laughed at us?! That’s another reason we wanted to move to London.

Your first album was a graphic reference to the first Stray Cats album…
We did what they did by coming to London and getting a record deal. I thought it was a good Idea- I had seen pictures of the Bluecats album that references the Gene Vincent album and some Polecats pictures that were like the Beatles album cover standing over the railing. It was a cool idea and it worked for us.

Didn’t that deserve you, due to the fact of stupid people who classified you as Stray cats followers?
Well the sad reality is…if I COULD have sounded like Brian Setzer, I probably would have. We had no choice in the fact that we had our own sound-it was that way because we sucked ha ha.

Did you have reaction from the Stray Cats about this homage?
Yes- they saw it when they came over for the BLAST OFF tour in 1990 and I got to go to two shows and meet them backstage. Slim Jim says he still has it on the wall at his house!

During the first “split” of the Quakes you played with Demented Are Go. How did it happen?
I was in London working on a solo album (never happened) and I was living in a squat. I saw Ant Thomas in the laundry mat by my house-it turns out that he lived in the same neighborhood. He said that Lex had quit and they had a bunch of shows lined up that they were going to have to cancel so I said I would do it. It was a lot of fun but I wanted to do my own thing.

Even if each album has its own sound, the change between the first one and Voice of America was radical. How do you explain this evolution?
Well first and foremost we didn’t have Dave Hoy anymore, he was killed in an auto accident in Buffalo. Any time you get a new guy in the band, the sound is going to change.We also could play our instruments a lot better at that point. After that first record there was no place else to go- I mean..what would we do ? Try to make a faster record?? We did the monster- graveyard- thing and I could see that- that was no where and I didn’t want to be one of “those” bands.
I think the stuff on Voice Of America is more of what we sounded like BEFORE we did the first record.

You started to be quite known in Japan, even had a deal with a major. Did they try to change your sound?
No they didn’t?! In fact they didn’t care about the music at all… For them it was about the packaging?! We argued with them for months about what the cd booklet was going to look like.They wanted to use all this cliché’ stuff like switchblades and dice etc. etc. They also wanted us on the cover with our instruments- we were very against this. We were trying to cross over into a new audience and we didn’t want any obvious references on the cover. The rockabilly/psycho crowd already knew who we were so it was pointless to put all that stuff on the cover for them. That record was only meant for Japan- then Nervous licensed it but I knew our fans would not like it- some did- When we put out the Nervous one we did the cover ourselves and we are still getting crap from people who don’t understand what we were..or ARE about. I think its funny that people said we look GAY on the cover because we are wearing leather pants and make -up. You know to us, we thought all those cds covers with silly cartoons were very stupid- We always wanted to be taken serious- I believe that psychobilly is a valid style of music. Too many people who write for rock magazines see psychobilly as something silly and stupid. We were trying to break that stereo type. Its not a cartoon-its great MUSIC and it doesn’t have to be about graveyards and stupid shit.

Don’t you consider the psychobilly label too limited for a band like the Quakes? On a record like New Generation there are more than just rockabilly and psychobilly influences.
Yes for sure but we sort of fit into this scene- we still play psychobilly- we do all those old songs in our set-we are definitely not rockabilly. Im not interested in those labels-To me its all about the sound of the Slap bass and twang guitar.

You created your own label, is this because you had problems with records labels (you said you didn’t touch anything on the Nervous release of Live In Tokyo)
Ya- we signed a lot of bad contracts- we were kids and we wanted to be on a record. We didn’t bother to have lawyers look at those contracts etc.The “Live in Tokyo” story is a whole story in itself but we got screwed by a Japanese label on that one and now we don’t receive any royalties on that.

Will there be other artist on this label?
I don’t think so- I don’t want to be “the guy” at the record label- in other words I don’t want to be “the asshole” Its a lot of work just to put out the Quakes cds.

So, what about this new Quakes album?
Im working on it and I hope it will be out by May or June (this interview took place in april 2005 ).There is a lot of songs and Im going to have to leave a lot out.The new record will be different than the rest but its still me writing the songs so if you are a fan you will like the new one. Its gonna be what I call “Quiff Rock” rockabilly+psychobilly+hillbilly=Quiff Rock

A last word?
Stick to your guns?!

Lucky 13

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lucky-13-come-back-home-cdLucky 13 – Come Back Home

Part Records PART-CD 6111.001 [2014]
Black Slacks – Moonshine – Jungle Fever – You Are My Destiny – Come Back Home – Bad Girl – Get Off The Road – 44 – Maniac Babe – Bad Reputation – Purple Flames And The Lost 13 – Wish You Were Dead – The Cats – Far Far Away – In The Moon For You – Tough Guys – 44 (acoustic version) – In The Bar – Liar – Happy End.

Lucky 13 are a hot rockin’ trio centered around the charismatic personnalities of Ed Mind on guitar and Ani Romance on electric bass with, on this platter, either Jimmy Cash or or Lance Matthyssen on drums. Both Romance and Mind write solid originals and sing which brings a lot of variety in term of sound and style.
The songs gathered on “Come Back Home” have been recorded over a period that goes from 1998 to 2012.
Their music takes its roots in the rockabilly of the fifties and goes as far as Psychobilly in the style of the Anagram era of the Meteors with everything cool in between. You’ll find some rompin’ instrumentals, 60’s Girl bands stuff (Paul Anka’s You are My Destiny excellently sung by Romance), 80’s neo-Rockabilly (a superb cover of Red Hot’n’Blue’s Bad Girl or Moonshine that many of us discovered on the Deltas debut album), and some darker stuff reminiscent of the Cramps or Empress of Fur (and their bass palyer can stand proudly next to Candy Del Mar, Ivy Poison or Venus Raygunn in term of “girl with a bad attitude”.)
If you like real rockin’ music and don’t aim for a purist sound, and dig the bands mentionned above, be sure to grab a copy of this platter.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

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