Los Angeles located Death Valley Girls returned with a new single of cover versions. DVG are active since more than a decade playing their very own style of garage/psychedelic rock with often surf fragments in their sound. I don't know why their mastermind Bonnie Bloomgarden has selected this two songs with covers of two extremely sick classic rock songs but I have to admit that it was fun to see how good Stevie Nicks' song is when you add the right instruments and sound to it. Fire and Brimstones is just a reverence to Link Wray and they made a Phil Spector meet the girl groups sound out of it.
The older I get, the more I appreciate the qualities of singers and songwriters. One of them is Sheffield's Richard Hawley, who announced a new album last week. The Wiener Standard labelled his music "somewhere between Roy Orbison bombast, soft rockabilly rumble and songs from the Lee Hazlewood and Johnny Cash school". Two For His Heels exactly a song in this label, a sparse, atmospheric and cinematic song about a deal that goes wrong, its low blues rumble reminiscent of Link Wray and Duane Eddy. Nothing less the song of the week for me.
In the early 80's Manchester's Inca Babies appeared on the scene with a great fresh kind of post-punk and Rock and Roll. I was surprised what these kids are able to do because seldom in these days I heard this kind of mixing genres and influences by Link Wray, The Cramps of The Birthday Party with the energy of new wave. The spine of their sound was a deep rolling bass combined with sharp guitar riffs and drifty drums - perfect for three minute hymns.
This was the title of a documentary I saw last weekend. It featured an artist that I never had on my radar. Henry Padovani was born 1952 in Bastia, Corsica. As a musician he moved in the middle of the 70's to London and soon he was a part of the upcoming punk scene. He was the forming member of The Police until Andy Summers kicked him out of the band because he wanted to be the only guitar player in this band. After his discharge he joined another punk band from the values - Wayne County and the Electric Chairs where he played guitar in their early days. This also didn't last forever and so he collected some band mates that grew up in the early punk days to form The Flying Padovanis, a band that tried to establish an instrumental sound based on legends like Link Wray. After this period he got the offering to have a leading role in IRS Records. He was one of those who signed a lot of new great artists in these days - but this will be a story that would be told on these sites soon. At least he managed Italian rock musician Zucchero for a couple of years. I have to admit that his name wasn't close to me to the punk revolution but watching the documentary I saw that he was more than a satellite to the punk and new wave scene in London almost 40 years ago.
The Police - Fall Out
Wayne County & the Electric Chairs - Fuck Off
Back in 1978 a collaboration between Link Wray and Robert Gordon was shown on TV. Robert Gordon got his first merits as a member of the punk rock bank Tuff Darts showed up in the 70's at CBGB's. Years later he turned into rockabilly and old school Rock 'n' Roll and made a collaboration with the legendary guitar player Link Wray who is famous for it is effective work on guitar sound. This is a footage I remember darkly seeing it the first time. Right now I think it is a classic collaboration that still works decades later.
I started this series as a little retrospection to the twanging sound of the 50's and 60's. That it lasted for almost two years I never thought about. But there were a lot of bands/songs that should be featured here. So I think that number 100 should be enough. It was also hard to find good songs for this series. It made fun to me to presenting those songs to you all. I thought a lot about to finish this series with a suitable song and decided to offer once more one of the best and unique guitar players in this genre. Link Wray and his guitar are remarkable to this genre and should be played more. Thank you for joining me during the last years to this series and I think I will post some twangy songs in the next months.
La Luz is a Seattle-based band that brought us back surf sound like Link Wray and The Ventures made famous on their first regular LP Weirdo Shrine. Added with ingredients by The Ronettes and The Chrystals. Nothing really new but I love this record and played it during the last summer. Brian told me that La Luz is big at his place and well known their live appearance. Just music that makes you a good mood and could be played almost any time. Sadly missed their concert in autumn. Therefore their music still makes fun.
Seems like the twangy sound doesn't lose it's attraction to young musicians. La Luz is a Seattle based band that will release their new record Weirdo Shrines these days. Deeply based in surf-rock, The Ventures and Link Wray these four ladies takes us back to the urban sound of the early 1960s. Their songs could be classics if they were released decades ago. Produced by Ty Segall who put fuzz in almost every song. The record includes a few weird love songs and songs about being a creep. Most of the songs have a fiery setting combined with those guitar and echoed vocals. It's new, it's old, it's great.
Todays track is one from The Shades. I searched the internet for some more informations about the artists. But I found some informations about an English band from Yorkshire. But they aren't the same. I think it must be one the forgotten bands that played long long time ago. I took this from a sampler I bought a few years ago. Rockabilly from Hell is a sampler with instrumental rockabilly tunes. Most of them are close to Link Wray and his Rumble. There are a lot of gems on it. If you are able - get this album.
Robert Gorden is an American rockabilly musician who played in other genres like rock 'n' roll, punk rock and alternative rock as well. After playing in a local band that was influenced by Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran he joined the punk band Tuff Darts in the middle of the 1970s. You can hear them on the compilation Live at the CBGB's. In the 80s he turned to rock 'n' roll again and started a collaboration with two great guitar players: Link Wray and Chris Spedding.
Currently I'm in the mood for some rockabilly. While browsing in my records and my hard drive I always noticed the name of Link Wray. His style of guitar playing has influenced so many musicians from different stylistic direction significantly.
Building on the overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound of early electric blues records, his 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble" by Link Wray and his Ray Men introduced "the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists, making possible punk and heavy rock. The stalking, menacing sound of "Rumble" (and its title) led to a ban on several radio stations, on the grounds that it glorified juvenile delinquency. Nevertheless it became a huge hit, not only in the United States, but also the United Kingdom, where it has been cited as an influence on The Kinks, The Who, and Jimmy Page among others.
The reason, why he's in instrumentals is, that Wray served in the US Army during the Korean War, and contracted tuberculosis, which laid him up in a hospital for a year. His stay concluded with the removal of a lung, which doctors predicted would mean he would never be able to sing again.
This video is a good example for his attitude to Rock 'n' Roll
