I don’t know much about the rockabilly scene in Phoenix, AZ but I stumbled upon this band “The Devil’s Daughter”on my twitter page which I update sporadically and get in the occasional “debate” with another twitter loser (you can follow me HERE).
I saw this video and thought to my sleep deprived brain “hmmm that is quiet different”.
Tell me what you think rockabilly enthusiasts… I was expecting some hater comments but didn’t see many on their you tube page. I mean after all these ladies are attractive and talented. Usually someone pops off with a “not really rockabilly” comment by now.. but lets see..
- Stand up bass (check)
- Retro sound (check)
- Retro look (Check)
- Shitty DIY video (uhhhhmmmm not check.. this video is pretty damned good).
I’m going to Phoenix soon (of course I am.. why wouldn’t I since I’m criss-crossing the U.S.A. working my a$$ off – next stop Texas BTW) and am afraid I won’t have time to do much other than the TV business at hand which involves begging a TV station to pikc up my “Raw Travel”…but maybe, just maybe I’ll have time to do a little interview for this here little ole’ blog or the Punktologydocumentary.
We’ll see. If not, it appears they’ll be playing Viva Las Vegas 2013, so maybe we can do something there.
In the meantime, check these guys out with their video “Pass That Bottle”.
Backstage in Budapest with the Horibillies… a crazy bunch!
Our buddies from Budapest, The Horibillieshave come out with their video for their little psychobilly ditty “Drinkin’ all night long”… I liked it live and I like the video. Good stuff guys!
Been reading the book “White Riot… Punk Rock and the Politics of Race” for the past few weeks. I’m almost finished and more on it later. It’s an intense book that is proving to be valuable in terms of the history of punk and of getting another perspective than the typical Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash history we so often are told over and over and over. I’ve got a lot to say about this book, mostly good, with a few criticisms, but for now I just want to bring to your attention an all Latino punk band from Chicago in the 1990s “Los Crudos”.
They were one of, if not the first U.S. punk band to sing almost 100% in Spanish, though as you can see form this clip, they also spoke fluent English. Also, as you can tell by the clip they are (surprise) very political and as you can tell by the short, burst of lyrics that are hard to understand regardless of language, very hardcore.
Not my favorite genre of punk music so I would have probably never stumbled upon these guys with pandora or ipod or any of that type of music had these guys come along a decade or so later. Yet their perspective as their self proclaimed “We’re that spic band” probably would have landed them on “American Latino TV” or “LatiNation” alongside NOFX, Tiger Army, Calavera, Madball, No Way Joseand any other semi-well known punk, pysychobilly or rockabilly hand that had a decent Latin following.
I was always trying so hard to counteract the popular notion that Latinos only cared about R&B, Rap, Hip Hop and “Latin” (Cumbia, Meringue, Salsa, etc.) music. We tried really hard to showcase underground communities where Latinos were so instrumental and that includes punk which, if you’ve been following us for a while, has a huge Latin American and American Latino (U.S. Latino) following as well as a history of participation.
Punk history is rich with Latinos in the scene including bands like Black Flag, Iggy & The Stooges and many, many more I won’t go into here today.
When I Executive Produced those shows, I was very involved in getting our producers to target these subcultures very strategically, covering not only bands but events like “The Warped Tour” and “Viva Las Vegas”from a U.S. Latino perspective and it worked beautifully.
Not only did I feel good about representing this ignored part of Latino culture, ratings in cities from California to Texas increased dramatically. We had successfully added to our following which was really important for a small, indie TV Show with no marketing budget to speak off airing in most of the country in the most fringe of late night or early morning weekend time periods.
Now, sadly, and predictably the new owners and producers have cheezed it up again. The shows look like a cheap version of TMZ, with nothing but pop culture after pop culture references. They even changed the show logos and theme music to gaudy, loud metallic purple and silver colors and cheeze ball electronica music.
But hey, the shows are in their 11th & 9th seasons respectively so I understand that change is inevitable. It’s ok. There are a couple of people there that do try to represent (Agnostic Frontwere featured last season and one of the editors is from the Colombian band “La Pestilencia”).
In the meantime, I leave you with a couple of videos of “Los Crudos”. I would sure like to interview these guys for “Punktology”documentary. If anyone knows how to get in touch with them, please hit me up.
Our final installment on Girl Punk Power and we thought we’d stretch genres to include rockabilly. I know you may be thinking “what kind of burlesque/pinup queen is Punk Outlaw going to feature now?”
Ah ha! So you think you know us? Well just when you think we’re going to ZIG… we ZAAAG!
Instead of the burlesque or pin up route, we’re giving a little love to the all girl Rockabilly band “Danger*Cakes”from that musical mecca, Austin, Texas.
Danger*Cakes fuses different elements of rockabilly, soul, jazz and blues for a genre of music that they call “Swing-Punk” “Neo-Soul” and “Psycho-Jazz”. Not sure what that means exactly? Me either.
But these ladies are heading out on tour later this year so look for them performing live and see for yourself. For now I’ll just call it some fearless female Rockabilly fuzed with some jazz for a whole lot of fun.
Danger*Cakes – Yes purist, they have play standup bass!
It surprised me to find out that Danger*Cakes has only been around for a year yet already have a release out on local Austin label Deep Eddy Records and their first cd is available HERE. Did I mention that they are also planning their first tour next month, so look for them at a city near you soon. Oh, I did didn’t I? OK, well now you’ve been warned twice so no excuses.
Dangercakes’ CD Cover
So until you get a chance to see them live, you can check them out at their band page HEREand on their FACEBOOK PAGE and enjoy the video from these lovely Texas rockabilly ladies below.
IT’S ALWAYS GIRL POWER TIME AT PUNK OUTLAW
I was inspired to do some kind of tribute to the ladies of punk by Russia’s Pussy Riotwho risked and got serious jail time for standing up to Putin and Malala Yousafzai, the brave 14 year old Pakistani girl brutally shot in the head by the big, brave Taliban (who I sense just really need to get laid, really, really badly). Malala was shot for expressing her desire that girls should have the same right to education as Pakistani boys.
How dare her? I hear she is recovering nicely and for whatever they are worth, our best wishes go out to her, her family and all brave young girls across the world still fighting for what should be the most basic of rights.
For some reason, I’ve seen a rash of domestic violence cases against women in the newspapers lately that has me quiet nauseated. From Hal Quin, a former high ranking NFL Executive & now Dallas Soccer Team Exec who decided a trip to NYC was a good time to allegedly pummel his wife (yet, she neglected to press charges).
To the poor young lady in the Lower East Side of NYC who was literally butchered to death by knives used to actually butcher livestock by her ex-boyfriend Raul Barrera. I guess Raul decided if he couldn’t have her, no one would and she would suffer like an animal in the process. He left her barely clinging to life, hopelessly dying in a pool of blood in one of the most horrific cases of domestic violence I’ve ever heard of.
They say Raul was off his meds, the excuse used by anyone who commits a crime of any magnitude this day. Not to downplay the seriousness of depression and mental illness, but if it’s used as a crutch to brutally slaughter people, I have no sympathy. If he wasn’t so delusional that he picked on an another big hulking guy, NFL Linebacker or MMA fighter.
I always notice so many of the “mentally ill” or bullies on the streets of NYC never f’cked with me or guys in general, they always f’d with girls or old ladies they could easily handle. Maybe some of them (certainly not all) are not so delusional after all?
Raul was not one of these poor on the streets souls anyway. He was a PR Executive. Rot in hell Raul.
Unfortunately domestic violence is typically a 2 way sickness. One person has to say enough. Otherwise, it will continue and someone very well may die.
It pisses me off to no end. There is almost nothing that makes me want to kick someone’s ass than a man beating a women, or an adult abusing a child, or anyone in power abusing someone less in power.
I hate liars, I hate thieves, but I hate cowards the most. And the world is full of cowards, I assure you. But there are different degrees of cowards. Some abuse animals, some children, some spouses, some complete strangers. Some abuse physically, others emotionally and others (bankers, con men, etc.) are just sociopaths. Most are harmless, all are spineless.
They DRAG ME DOWN and I’m sick of it. As Mike Ness/Social Distortionquotes in his song “Winners & Losers” – “We’re good and we’re evil, which one will you be today?”. I like to think I don’t have the capability to hit a woman, child or someone weaker than me. But I know, in my heart of hearts, I’ve done people wrong in other ways on occasion and for that I deeply apologize. We all, male or female, are guilty, I assume and I wonder/doubt if there is any way around that, assuming we live long enough.
I’ve put together just a few of the blogs we’ve posted over the last couple of years featuring some females who, in their own way, I think are pretty damned kick ass, just by doing what they do.
Have you ever noticed how every now and then you will rediscover a song that you had heard before but hadn’t gone nuts over initially? Then suddenly, weeks, months or sometimes even years later, you stumble across it again and this time it gets embedded in your conscious and you just have to listen to it over and over again… maybe even add it to your top 10, 50 or 100 of all time songs or something?
To me it feels a little like a metaphor for love or a relationship actually, I find these “rediscovered” songs often grab me the most, at least over the long term. Many times with a song that I instantly fell in love with on the 1st or 2nd listen, a few days, weeks or a month or so later, I’ll end up discarding them to the “every now and then” bin and more often than not, skipping the song after it pops up in shuffle on the ipod.
These songs I like initially are sometimes just bubble gum and it was all surface stuff I fell in love with, nothing really long term there and just as quickly, I’ll stop listening. Just like a relationship when you get to that 2nd level and you find the the things you liked the most about that person (song) you thought you dug so much, suddenly annoy the hell out of you and you need to get away before you say something rude or just end up being callous and cruel.
Dorados’ Felipe Ossa with a young Colombian Elvis fan
I’m not a huge rockabilly fanatic personally, I mean I like it, but I don’t love, love, love it like most rockabilly cats. But I DO like it and I DO get a good kick out of it. It’s very listenable music, especially live.
However, when I hear Dorados I tend to LOVE rockabilly suddenly. Something in the music, makes me want to throw away all inhibition and dance a silly dance and not give one iota about who sees me.
Especially, when I hear this “rediscovered gem”, which had been “with me all along”, “Little Baby”. Maybe I didn’t connect so powerfully initially because it takes a little patience to get through the intro.
I mean I like the intro, a lot. It makes the song, but in this day and age of quick, snap judgements and remote controls, and short, tight songs, I guess I may have clicked Fast Forward to “next” before “Little Baby” got completely up and running to it’s finger popping, bootie shaking rhythms, which now, I can’t get out of my head.
I envision even the most hardcore hip hop/R&B/Blues fan digging this song along with Rockabilly fanatics and any of the plethora of other type of music fans. But then again, maybe I’m just obsessed.
I can’t seem to get enough of “Little Baby”. But maybe it’s just me? “Little Baby”, I’m sorry I ignored you early on. You have me now, so please, please, please… don’t break my heart.
ON A RELATED NOTE:
We’re casting a rockabilly vixen for Dorados Rockabilly Trio “Diamond Girl”. Most of the video is shot, but we need the following:
- Vintage Motorbikes and / or Vintage Hot-rods
- Cool Rockabilly gal that wants to dance & star as “Diamond Girl”.
- Some rockabilly guys & gals as extras
- Cool location
If your in the Los Angeles area and know someone interested in participating, please comment or email us at info@punkoutlawrecords.com and we’ll be in touch.
In June/July I traveled to Budapest, Hungary and was blown away by some of the excellent psychobilly bands there. One of the bands I was most impressed with was Silvershine. Their live performance simply rocked. Missed the write up? See it HERE.
I’m heading to France & Spain next in my continuing effort to bring you pics, video, sights and sounds from the global punk, psychobilly and rockabilly scenes and I’m pretty excited. But I’m also pretty bummed that I’m going to miss our friends from Silvershine as they head to the U.S. and Los Angeles to be part of what looks to be a damned good line up which includes the Rocketz, Los Difuntos, Los Creepers and more.
If you are on the west coast of the U.S., don’t miss your shot to see these guys who are more than a little bit punk and more than a little bit pyschobilly, but still not really 100% punkabilly either. I don’t know how to describe them. I guess you’ll have to see for your self. More info on the show HERE.
And here is a little video clip we took of the guys when we were in Budapest in June.
We know why people do voting contest right? It’ drives mad traffic for their website. And we act like monkeys and respond by voting, and asking our friends to vote, etc., etc.
Yet it’s not every day one of our artists gets a chance to be MTV’s favorite artist of the week, so I’m going to be the monkey now and ask you to vote for our buddies Dorados Rockabilly Trio.
You have until next Friday 8/24/12 @ 9PM EST. The future of Colombian rockabilly rest squarely on the tips of your hairless (hopefully) little fingers. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.
I finally made it to my “2nd home” of Medellin, Colombia and despite the big “Feria de los Flores”(Festival of Flowers) festivities going on all week, I immediately got to work.
First stop was lunch with my amigo and Dorados Rockabilly Trio founder and lead singer Felipe Ossa.
Felipe and I discussed the recent lineup changes, (San the new bass guitarist has joined Felipe on guitar & vocals and Camilo on drums to round out the trio), the surprising success of their first music video “Bettie Page… Donde Estas?” (missed it? See below!) and their future plans (could 2013 could see a U.S. Dorados tour?).
We decided that we should follow up the smashing success of Bettie Page with another music video and we selected the infectious “Diamond Girl” from their release “Conflicto de Espacio Blanco”(White Space Conflict) as a good follow up.
Felipe secured a local Harley Motorcycle paint and repair shop in the neighborhood of Estadio, just past the casinos and gaming halls of downtown Medellin.
The location was perfect and Felipe’s brother Pablo really saved the day, helping me out with a 2nd camera for the shoot. I’m really happy with the footage and can’t wait to get back to the U.S. to see what the Russians and I can do with it.
We were able to fire off a few low quality stills of the evening for your viewing pleasure. Note the sick Dorados Rockabilly Trio T shirt I’m sporting! Never fear that shirt design should be coming soon to a Punk Outlaw Store near you real soon.
In the meantime, we are in search of a rockabilly video vixen for the Diamond Girl lead role, preferably in the Los Angeles or New York City area, but all should feel free to apply. If interested, just shoot us an email to info@punkoutlawrecords.com and we’ll be back in touch as soon as we can.
Kiev, Ukraine. Site of the big Ukrabilly rockabilly festival. Home to EXCELLENT Ukrainian rockabilly band the Wise Guyz. So we traveled thousands of kilometers (and miles) just to visit Kiev and get a little glimpse of their punk, psychobilly & rockabilly subcultures.
Despite our best efforts to interview the organizers of Ukrabillyrockabilly festival in Ukraine, it was a big NYET! (well, that is not true. Actually, it was just bad timing as they were on vacation too so we didn’t get to hook up with those guys), so I can’t tell you much more about the rockabilly scene in Ukraine beyond what the Wise Guyz shared with us back in 2010 when we were both visiting Moscow Russia (below).
But what about punk, ska or psychobilly? Not much popped to the surface either other than our aforebloggedMadheadwhich plays some pretty cool ska influenced Ukrainian rock n roll.
Tent City in Kiev to “Free Julia (Yulia)”, whom many contend is a political prisoner
I know, it’s there. It has to be. There is just too much $, too many changes since “independence”, too much political strife still going on, the imprisonment of one of their former prime ministers (some say for petty offenses that amount to political retribution), too much corruption (money rules the day and the people who rule the people), too many Babushkas(old ladies or grandmas), begging for spare change (imagine your dear old grandmother having to do that) for there not to be a burgeoning punk scene to protest these injustices and gross inequality.
When I checked into my apartment, I was literally feet away from the Kiev Ferraridealership. I don’t think I’ve seen such a concentration of expensive vehicles in one place than in Kiev’s City Center.
Now I haven’t been to Monte Carlo or other money havens, but I have been to over 25 countries and Kiev’s City Center has more Porsches, Ferraris, Audis, Jaquars, Mercedes and BMWs parked along it’s wide pedestrian sidewalks than than anywhere else in the world that I’ve traveled.
There was money and luxury galore and according to my contact there, a local resident whom we’ll call Alex, it would be rare if that kind of car was purchased by $ gathered from any means other than what could be deemed as dishonest. According to Alex, graft and corruption are so ingrained in Ukrainian life now, that it is almost impossible to achieve wealth in Ukraine without being dishonest. Alex describes it as “unsustainable” and thinks the system will “collapse in on itself” eventually.
“Babushka” panhandling
Justice? Well, it appears injustice is as common as the cheap, little blueberries sold on the street that are “allegedly” grown at Chernobyl (I found out after I had ingested a good 2 or 3 cups of these potentially radioactive delights.. gulp!).
Radioactive blueberries?
While graciously showing me around the sites of Kiev, Alex relayed to me a story that had been in the local papers where a pedestrian had been mowed down by an SUV. The victim died and when his family took the driver (who happened to be quiet wealthy and connected) to court, the judge, a close friend of the driver, rather than recuse himself, judged the dead pedestrian’s family to be liable for the damages to the SUV! The judge ruled that the victim must have thrown himself under the vehicle in order to purposely damage the man’s SUV. Incredible.
There are too many stories of the current Presidenttearing down historic buildings (Kiev is one of Europe’s oldest city) to build heliports for him and his rich buddies.
But is this anything new…government corruption, cover ups and dishonesty?
This kind of stuff goes on all the time from Havana to Guatemala City to Moscow to Washington DC. There are just different degrees and as Alex expressed, the difference in Ukraine is perhaps the blatant nature the public officials get away with it. At least in the U.S. they have to sneak around and work a little… I suppose.
Yet, Kiev is a lovely city. It felt extremely safe and by and large, the protest and tent city to free the jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko notwithstanding, people seemed pretty happy with the current system. Parents snapped photos of kids in front of the Ferrari dealership and almost every time I walked by, some one had their nose pressed against the window, daydreaming about the day they might be driving one of those $100,000+ machines.
But I know from my travels, looks are deceiving. Rockabilly music is big in Ukraine, that we know. And we know Rockabilly started off as rebel music but those days are gone.
In such an otherwise beautiful country where unfortunately corruption and inequality is rubbed in people’s faces so blatantly, what are punks doing? Are they trying to expose the corruption and injustice in Ukraine? Or are they just so happy that things have gotten “better” that they are satisfied with the status quo?
I know you are out there. What do you say punks? Are you there? Give me a sign, give me a “Da! We are here!” Let me and the world know you are alive and fighting the good fight.
Below is a video segment we produced on the popular punk band Tarakany! (Cockroach) from neighboring Moscow who tour Ukraine quiet often. Enjoy!
My name is Robert G. Rose (I use my middle initial because I’m not Robert Rose the Jewelry Designer, Robert Rose the football player or any of the other thousands of Robert Rose’s in the world).
I travel all over the world and document punk rock music. This page is dedicated to Punk music and it’s [...]
