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Tiny Minds

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tiny minds

Tiny Minds – s/t

Kix 4 U Records – Kix 3357
Trouble Bound – Tell Me – Don’t You Lie – Young And Restless – Wortless and Weak – Out For The Cold / Song For You – Made In the Shade – It’s Not Me – Psycho Music – Crazy – Psycho Therapy – Shout

tiny minds

File under “another Psychobilly album”. Tiny Minds was a Swedish trio formed by Dan (slap bass, some guitars), Henry (guitar) and Harry (drums and acoustic guitar). Not sure, but it seems that each of them sing.
Considering that the band looks pretty young on the cover (confirmed by the vocals, too), you don’t want to be too harsh, but honestly, this is a more than dispensable album. It’s not as bad as the Punishers, but you can easily live without it. There’s enough slap bass to satisfy the psychotic crowd, and some songs are original and could be very good (Don’t You Lie, Wortless and Weak, Song For You) if mistakes, uneven musicianship and approximate vocals didn’t plague them.

The Radioactive Kid

Sgt. Fury

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Sgt. Fury – Cold Cold Sunday

Raucous Records RAUC 10 [1989]
Cold Cold Sunday / Death Ship

Sgt. Fury

Sgt. Fury came from the Isle of Wight and was on this single: Mike Couch (vocals, guitar), Rog Hillier (double bass), Rick East (guitar) and Terry Cooke (drums), who replaced Aubrey Langridge, who played on their demo. Cold Cold Sunday, penned by Couch, is highly melodic yet also very aggressive. The band could be seen as a meaner and punkish equivalent to the Long Tall Texans. Death Ship, penned by Hillier, is a fast number on which you can hear mod influences (the Who, Jam).

Sgt. Fury – Psycho Vision

Raucous Records RAUC 16T [1992]
Psycho Vision / Summer in the Black Lagoon – Just Run Away

Sgt. Fury

Sgt. Fury continued in the wake of their excellent debut single and released this equally brilliant 10”. Psycho Vision is a perfect mix between Garage, Psychobilly and Post-Punk, on which a welcome organ enhances the band’s line-up. Summer in the Black Lagoon is more sixties influenced with a heady Kinks-tinged riff. Just Run Away is excellent and punchy but seems more average compared to Summer in the Black Lagoon.

Rusty Robots (the)

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Rusty Robots (the) – A Forest

Rob-O-Tone – ROBOT-001
A Forest / Carnage In Dark Streets – Twilight Love – At Night

Rusty Robots

The German Psychobilly scene is particularly healthy nowadays. Earlier this year, we were graced with the release of the excellent compilation album The Young And the Wild Ones featuring Rango Meißner, who replaced Paddy on slap bass in the Rusty Robots along with Norman’ Salmi’ Denks on vocals and guitar and Chris Harbart on drums.
This is their first release with this line-up and drum roll: this is a killer.
The band previously recorded The Cure’s A Forest for their debut album and placed it at the end of the CD as a hidden track. That was an already excellent version, but this new one is even better. It perfectly captures the angst of the original song, but Salmi’s voice and guitar add a manic and frantic dimension to the tune. Next to him, Chris keeps the beat, and Rango propels the song with a powerful slap bass.
But there’s more! When you think things couldn’t get any better and the song might end traditionally, the trio slides into something completely different and darker with added lyrics. In fact, this extended version takes its inspiration from the excellent live performance played by the Cure in Werchter in 1981, when the band was asked to leave the stage resulting in an epic nine-minute version of A Forest (go watch it on youtube, you won’t regret it!). How clever of the Rusty Robots to take a live ‘accident’ and incorporate it to propose a new version of the song. And you wonder why this trio is my favourite contemporary Psychobilly band? There’s another reason, to tell you the truth, more obvious: the Rusty Robots play Psychobilly in its purest form (yes, even a bastardized music like Psychobilly can have a purest form); I mean this is not sped-up Rockabilly or Punk with a double-bass or else. The band’s influences may come from various sources, but the final result is that every groove of that record screams ‘Psychobilly’. The three songs featured on side B, all penned by the band, perfectly illustrate what I am trying to say. Carnage In Dark Street is threatening but with a steady pace (like Wreckin’ Crew was), and Twilight Love showcases the excellence of the rhythm section. At Night closes the set with some syncopated/tribal drums and equals the Batmobile’s best moments.

So grab a copy of this perfect slice of Psychobilly, but be fast since it’s a limited edition to 500 copies.

Buy it here: https://therustyrobots.bigcartel.com/

Rusty Robots (the) – Sweethearts, Kisses, Bloody Knives

Killjoy Records KILL 029 [2018]

Sweethearts, Kisses, Bloody Knives – The Last Man On Earth – Dust to Dust

Rusty Robots

To my great shame I didn’t know the Rusty Robots until very recently. I must admit being some kind of a traditionalist. I like my vampires to look like Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee rather than Robert Pattinson and when it comes to Psychobilly I prefer a good old fast rockabilly slap bass, spare drums, light guitar and a mean singer rather than a punk-metal band with a double bass. And the Rusty Robots sound exactly as if they came straight from the 8O’s. Had they appear on the scene 35 years earlier they would top the bill at the legendary Klub Foot .

Their latest release for Killjoy records makes no exception. First, look at that cover! Have you seen something cooler since the front cover of the Scannerz or the back of Batmobile‘s debut album? Talking about Batmobile, the title track is a superb fast psychobilly number that would make Johnny Zuidhof and the Haamers brothers red with envy. Instant classic.

On B-side you’ll find the last man on earth, another classic old school psychobilly tune with nice changes of pace. It’s followed by Dust a Dust a demo recording. The sound is raw, but far from being a problem, this stripped down sound shows the qualities of the Rusty Robots in term of musicianship and melody.

Limited to 500 copies, 450 in black and 50 in yellow, though I’m afraid that the yellow ones are already out of print.

Available at Killjoy records or Razmataz records.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Various Artists – The Young and Wild Ones

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Various Artists – The Young and Wild Ones

Keil Records C.12-22-013 [2022]
Rango – We Are Rockers / Jerry – Undead / Marv – Stranger In The House / Jones – The Package / Paddy – A Life of Vanity / Jerry – Hot Rod Man / Jones – Treasure / Rango – Metro / Paddy – 666c Machine / Marv – Too Old To Live, Too Young Too Die
(+ CD with ten bonus tracks)

Various Artists - The Young and Wild Ones

You always feel like a kid at Christmas when you receive a new release from Keil records. You open your package, and you’re rewarded with tons of little extras. This compilation makes no exception to the rule: you’ll find a patch, stickers, pictures, two booklets (one with information and one with lyrics and illustrations), a poster, and a cd with extras, all in a beautiful gatefold sleeve wrapping a magnificent green vinyl.
But don’t let these pretty things distract you from the main thing: the music. As I said, it’s a compilation album. I’m old enough to have bought classic Neo-Rockabilly and Psychobilly compilations when they came out in the 80s. It was an excellent way to discover new artists.
There don’t seem to be many these days, so it’s a good reason to rejoice, especially when the artists are of that level.
The Young and Wild Ones gathers five young and very creative German artists with two songs each. The styles range from clean Neo-Rockabilly to wild Psychobilly, with many good things in between.
Jones (aka Jonas Heider)is the more traditional of the five. He delivers two excellent, highly melodic tracks co-written with Moritz Kruit (also on drums). Both songs are jumping and rocking with nice picking (in which one can hear some Setzer influences) and good use of the piano.
At 26, Paddy is the veteran of the five. His credits include, among others, the Rusty Robots, Sandy & the Wild Wombatz and the Minestompers. His two songs feature Mark Twang (Dave Phillips, Sandy and the Wild Wombatz) on guitar and Raphael Landauer on drums. Those tunes are on the thin line between Neo-Rockabilly and Psychobilly. They wouldn’t be out of place on a Batmobile album from the early 90s.
Jerry mixes Teddy Boy Rock’n’roll with Psychobilly to create a brand new genre, highly personal yet addictive.
Rango is the youngest. He was only 16 when he recorded his tracks. As if it wasn’t enough, he played all the instruments too. His music is a very original brand of Psychobilly with a propulsive slap bass in which elements of New-wave and post-punk subtly creep in. He’s something like the music link between the most recent albums of the Quakes and the Rusty Robots (whom he joined on double bass). Without a doubt, Rango is a force to be reckoned with.
Marv (who also plays drums on Jerry’s tunes) is the most extreme sounding of the five. His two songs clearly show the influence of the early Quakes and bands like Skitzo and all this kind of heavy Psychobilly stuff.
As you can see, this compilation’s quality resides not only in the artist’s talent but also in the fact that you have five different musicians with strong personalities. Each made me want to listen to a whole album from them.
The CD features ten bonus songs with alternate tracks, different versions and mixes, and unissued songs. It’s almost as if you’d had volume two on the CD.
Talking about that, I hope that the fine folks at Keil records with think about a volume two in the near future, and who knows, this time maybe with wild and young Psychobilly and Rockabilly girls.

Find it here.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Sons Of The Yompin’ Cockroaches

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Sons Of The Yompin’ Cockroaches

Sons Of The Yompin’ Cockroaches – S/T

KIX 4 U Records – KIX 4 U 3353 [1990]
I’ve Got No Time – Running Wild – Bad – Is This Love – Heartbeat – New Parts – What You Want Is What You Get – True Love/Divine – The Boogie Man – Let’s Go – Sex Craze – Cadillac Lies – Here I Go Again – Square

Sons Of The Yompin’ Cockroaches

Sons of the Yompin’ Cockroaches was formed by Ronald Van Oudheusden on bass, Franklin Bergman on drums and Ronnie “Roteb” Huisman on guitar. The group played with an electric bass, giving them a much more compact sound (also more in tune than most other groups) and a more solid base.
Even if their only album contains a good dose of Psychobilly, superbly crafted moreover, the group exceeds the strict limits of the genre. Thus, alongside tracks capable of competing with the best tracks of the genre (True Love/Divine; or the melodic Running Wild), we can hear influences ranging from Garage (Here I Go Again)to Hillbilly (New Parts) and even a Pogues-sounding tune with accordion (Square). Others, like Cadillac Lies, sound more traditional rock with an 80s touch.
The songs are all original compositions and are very neat. The production is very well done, and the group knows its business. We can only regret that this first attempt remained without follow-up.

The Dry Tortugas

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The Dry Tortugas

Up & down – Unbothered – Slidin’

The Dry Tortugas

The Dry Tortugas are a relatively young band formed during the pandemic. But if the band is young, the musicians are seasoned veterans. Tom the singer used to sing in the Roughnecks, and Felix (drums) and Marc (guitar) were in Lota Red. The younger element is Robin, Tom’s son, on bass.
The band plays Neo-rockabilly with heavy inspiration from the 80s and the early 90s though more modern ingredients crept in here and there.
Up and Down is an up-tempo number, very danceable. Unbothered is quite melodic and has a slight western feel to it. Sliding is heavier and leans toward Psychobilly (and by Psychobilly, I mean that distorted and mean offspring of Rockabilly, not the heavy-metal-influenced stuff). As you can see, these guys cover a wide range of genres. Tom’s voice is perfect and brings a touch of softness even on the wildest stuff, while the rest of the band does a solid job backing him. I hope to hear them on long-distance soon.

The Dry Tortugas on facebook.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

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