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The Magnetics

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Magnetics

The Magnetics – The Magnetics

Self-released [1989]
Lost A Lot Of Love – Prisoner – Love Position Number 9 – Hard Boys Life – Long Blond Hair -Neglected Woman -Now It Is The Time – Go – Never Seen…

the Magnetics

In December 1989, the Magnetics, now a trio (Frank Isfort on drums, Acki Sölter on guitar and Claudius Wolke on double bass and vocals), returned to the studio and recorded this excellent nine-song album.
On long distance, the combo has more room to express their talent and originality.
There’s plenty of first-rate Neo-rockabilly, like Prisoner, that plays in the same league as Restless (one will note the excellent vocals arrangement), but also a fine ballad, with saxophone (Neglected Woman) in the same style as the Speedos. The album benefits from a superb production, with a huge double bass sound. All three musicians are excellent, but Acki’s guitar really makes the difference. He plays clean and fast and sometimes brings a touch of Jazz for a result akin to the Nitros (Lost A Lot Of Love) or the Ringlets Trio (Hard Boys Life).Even the multi-covered Long Blonde Hair sounds original when the Magnetics play it!
Claudius later formed the Red Velvet trio and the Tin Cans.

The Magnetics – Police On My Back

Self-released [1988]
Police on My Back – Fear of a Girl – Everybody – Milk & Alcohol

Magnetics
The Magnetics – Police On My Back

The debut EP of the Magnetics, a German combo, can be placed somewhere between fast neo-rockabilly and psychobilly, close to the “Fight Back” era of the Blue Cats. The songs are terrific (Milk and Alcohol let some new wave influences slip into the mix), and they benefit from a perfect production with a huge double bass sound.

Same Old Shoes

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Same Old Shoes (the) – Gonna Go Bop

El Toro Records [2023]
Gonna Go Bop / Stella Got A Fella

Same Old Shoes

The Same Old Shoes, from Italy, released this single to announce their soon-to-be-released new album.
The A side is a self-penned tune. It is a good rocking’ and bopping’ tune, nothing too exceptional nor very original, but very good nonetheless. More interesting is their cover of The Fireflies’ Stella Got A Fella, which finds them playing with a fuller sound and including some early 60’s influences.

Ronnie And The Jitters

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ronnie and the jitters

Ronnie And The Jitters – Roll Over

Nervous Records – NERD 014 [1984]
Roll Over Richard – Wild Weekend – Love Somebody New – She’s Not The Girl – Rock Away – Black Slax – Truck Stop Song – Can’t Fool A Woman – Take Me In Your Arms – Crazy Place

Ronnie and the Jitters

Ronnie and the Jitters were a band from New Jersey that appeared on the New York scene in the late 70s. The band consisted of Ronnie Decal on lead vocals and guitar, Warren Keller on saxophone, Steve Missal on drums and Dave Post on bass.

They first released a single in 1979, then an album titled Roll Over in 1983 on an American label. The following year, it was licensed to Nervous Records and included the tracks from the single.

Eddie Angel (Planet Rockers, Los Straitjackets) is also credited for some guitars on this album.

Roll Over Richard opens the set. It’s a no-brainer powerful rock with a blasting sax and a wild Rock’n’roll piano. It’s reminiscent of George Thorogood, but the drums sound typical of the 80s mars it. Next is a cover of the Rockin’ Rebels Wild Weekend. Originally an instrumental, their version features lyrics, probably written by Decal since he appears on the credits. It conjures the recklessness of the 50s, and the result is not far from what John Cafferty did for Eddie and the Cruisers.

Love Somebody New is more modern and inscribed in its time by its arrangement and style. She’s Not The Girl is a bouncing rockabilly that evolves into Rockaway, a mean instrumental, before briefly returning to the song.

B-side opens with an excellent cover of the Sparkletones’Black Slacks. Next is another cover, this time from Kristy McColl. Though titled Truck Stop Song on the records, its original title is There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop, Swears He’s Elvis. In an attempt to conquer the American market, the label and McColl made a version named There’s A Guy Works Down The Truck Stop, Swears He’s Elvis. Anyway, the Jitters covered it, and it’s a great country rock in the vein of what Dave Edmunds had recorded. Can’t Fool A Woman is a ballad (every Rock’n’Roll album should have one) with the mandatory spoken part. Take Me In Your Arms is a modern rocker; think the Rockats (Make That Move era of the band) with a saxophone. It was a good idea to finish the set with a good rocker like Crazy Place; too bad that the band doesn’t seem to know how to conclude the tune, which could easily be one minute shorter. Roll Over is clearly not an album for the purists, but it tries, and often succeeds, to capture the spirit of a lost period but with a modern twist.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Christine and Her Rockers

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Christine and Her Rockers – Ain’t No Need

[2022]
Ain’t No Need – Come Here – Don’t Wait Up – Come On Baby – Gonna Rock My Baby

Christine and Her Rockers

Christine and Her Rockers is a Brazilian group made up of Christine “Carter” Ribeiro (vocals), Ale Marinho (Piano, guitars & backing vocals), Leandro Negri (Upright Bass), Denizard Basilio (Saxophone) and Pedro Leo (Drums). Marinho previously played in the Spaceballs.
This disc is an excellent surprise in more ways than one. First of all, it’s the best of both worlds with two Rhythm’n’Blues covers (Honey Brown’s Ain’t No Need and Lilian Briggs’s Come Here) and three Rockabilly/Rock’n’Roll songs by Laura Lee Perkins (Don’t Wait Up, Come On Baby and Gonna Rock My Baby). The group is solid and equally comfortable in both genres; one will particularly note the sax on the first two titles. But the surprise comes from the singer herself. In general, for some reason that I don’t know, female singers tend to do too much, whether it’s on the seductive side or, conversely, by giving themselves mean airs. How many good records are ruined by a singer who growls or snarls instead of just singing? Christine Carter sings without affectation, and like her group, she approaches both registers with the same degree of success. We can criticize a few minor details here and there, for example, the end of Gonna Rock My Baby, which is not particularly happy. Still, it is not such a big problem if, in return we have a singer who sings with sincerity and without artifice.

Christine and her Rockers on Reverbnation

Christine and her Rockers on Facebook

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Bruce Humphries and the Rockabilly Rebels

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Bruce Humphries and the Rockabilly Rebels – Live It Up!

Self-released [2023]
Comin’ Down Hard – How Do You Do? – Jack Splat – In My Backyard – She’s Your Problem Now – Pitter Patter – Live It Up! – Leave The Lights Out – Cool Clad Daddy – Take Me Home

Bruce Humphries and the Rockabilly rebels

Bruce Humphries and the Rockabilly Rebels hail from Milwaukee, and they rock! Humphries is not a newcomer, having played with Dibbs Preston (the Rockats). he also opened for the Brian Setzer Orchestra. In addition to Humphries on vocals and guitar, the group consists of Lorenzo Ripani (guitars), Kurt Weber (drums) and John Steffes* (bass).
Let’s say it right away, Live It Up! is a very good album. But if I had to find a weak point (it’s always better to evacuate the negative points first), it wouldn’t be in the music but in the band’s name. That’s a minor detail, but I find ‘Rockabilly Rebels’ too restrictive. It doesn’t accurately reflect what’s on this record. As a matter of fact, the genres covered are much more varied and go far beyond the strict framework of Rockabilly. Their music is not that easy to pigeonhole, and one could compare them to Webb Wilder or the Leroi Brothers.
Thus, stuck between two Hi-octane Rock’n’Roll to open (Comin’ Down Hard) and end the disc (Take Me Home), we find, of course, Rockabilly (Cool Clad Daddy) but also a 60s country track with a touch of Psychedelic rock (the excellent She’s Your Problem Now), a menacing track on a slow tempo that sounds very Cramps (How Do You Do?), or a wild rock very close to the already mentioned Webb Wilder (Live It Up). Always quick to vary the atmospheres, the group also offers two instrumentals, a rock’n’roll and a surf one, on which Humphries plays the lead guitar, as well as country tracks like the sombre Leave The Lights On, on which his deep voice works wonders. The whole thing is perfectly recorded and produced. The work and the balance between the two guitars are perfect, the solos are continually inventive, and the rhythm section supports everything with the necessary groove.
In addition, Humphries wanted to enrich the experience by offering something more than music, which is why the cd is presented in a superb large format three-fold digipack, with 3D images and the glasses that go with it.
Put your hands on this superb object, and PLAY LOUD!

Available here: https://brucehumphries.bandcamp.com/album/live-it-up

*By a sad coincidence, I learned of the death of Steffes while I was writing this review.

Buddy Lee

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Buddy Lee – Let’s Rock Tonight

Self released [2023]
Let’s Rock Tonight – Careful Baby – Digging A Hole To Bury My Heart – Don’t Be Gone Long – Hip Shaking Mama – Long Blonde Hair – Everybody’s Loving My Baby – Pepper Hot Baby – If I Had Me A Woman – I’ll Cry Instead – Here COmes That Train – Gone Gone Gone – Have Myself A Ball – My Baby Don’t Rock – Ugly & Slouchy – Rock All Night

Buddy Lee

Buddy Lee is none other than Buddy Dughi, whom we know for his solo albums and his band, the Hot Rod Trio. He is accompanied here, as usual, by his wife Suzy Q on double bass and the faithful Pete Bonny on drums (both also play in the Hot Rot Trio, and Bonny and Dughi played together in the Rockits in 1988). A fourth member, Kevin Bullat, completes the band on steel guitar.
Let’s Rock Tonight! is made of sixteen covers ranging from classics such as Long Blonde Hair, Gone Gone Gone, and If Had Me A Woman, as well as less common tracks. There is also a cover of the Beatles’ I’ll Cry Instead, which is unsurprising because this track has a solid Rockabilly structure and shows that the Fab Four knew their roots. This song has been covered many times by Rockabilly bands, whether it’s the Polecats, Stringbeans or the Nitros, and before them by Joe Cocker in a fantastic version (go and have a listen, you’ll thank me).
Buddy Lee achieves a real tour de force with this album, remaining both faithful to the original versions while appropriating them, ultimately giving a very personal album.
If Buddy Lee covers these songs, it is with sincere love. He does not transform them into something they are not. It is this same approach that guides the instrumentation. The take-off guitar is clear, precise and inventive, the double bass propels everything up, and the drums remain discreet: there’s no doubt it’s a Rockabilly album.
The addition of steel is a great idea. It not only refers to the early years of the genre – think of the beginnings of Carl Perkins or Charlie Feathers – it also adds a second solo instrument and echoes the vocals in a subtle call-and-answer arrangement. Let’s talk about this voice, an authentic Rockabilly voice with hiccups and tremolo. Sometimes it sounds a bit like a hillbilly version of Levi Dexter.
So it is not by attacking the deep form of the songs, which would be too easy, that Buddy Lee appropriates them, but rather by his personality (his voice, his guitar playing), his talent and his respect. As the veteran that he is (I hope he won’t blame me for the term), Buddy seems to know these tunes so well and understand them that he knows where to place subtle variations and how to play with them so that, eventually, they become Buddy Lee/Buddy Dughi tracks.
If you add to that an excellent band, you get a more than recommendable album!

https://www.instagram.com/buddyrockabilly/

https://www.facebook.com/thehotrodtrio

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

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