The winter holiday season is a complicated thing. Literally, the whole reality needs to be packed into gifts under the Christmas tree, wrapped with garlands and other paraphernalia. That’s great in itself, we all love holidays. But sometimes you have to literally pull things that don’t fit this style by the ears. For example, such as the American cycobilly scene of the “zero” years.
Last year I wrote about the BZfOS Christmas album, so I’m not going to break with tradition and keep pushing the wild line. A collection with the telling title Psychobilly Christmas should be perfect for this. It was released by Cleopatra in 2008, and was later re-released on vinyl during the 2021-2022 holiday season. The 2008 version has as many as 19 tracks from representatives of the nervous genre.
But it’s not that simple! Only American teams are represented on the collection. How many American psychobills do you know? Offhand, I only remember the Revs. Horton Heat and The Quakes. The first one, by the way, opens this record.
Another point is the huge range of recording and performance quality of the songs. The punk component of most of these lost Americans comes straight from jokes: the music is evil, dirty and in some places frankly crooked.
Well, the third point: almost all of this is already the heritage of history. Most of the teams haven’t released anything in the last ten years. In general, this is not surprising, as you will understand why when listening.
The first track is slightly confusing. Reverend Horton Heath decided to surf us, which is somewhat at odds with the title of the record. The instrumental version of the popular Christmas classic We Three Kings begins with a perky rumba on drums, which I will praise separately right here. Such a kid’s jazzman turns out. Then the reverend himself comes in with the theme on the guitar, without oversaturating it with unnecessary bells and whistles. And there’s also an organ solo! It was probably played by Santa Claus Himselfus! Well, yes, this is the highest quality composition here.
Then there’s the full vocal Don’t Believe In Christmas from The Tabaltix, an old–school band from California. Perky, bouncy, a little dirty – everything is as it should be. There are also wonderful claps and bells that set a carefree mood.
Next is the frankly punk Father Christmas from Los Gatos Locos. This song is pure Ramones and there is no cycobilly, but apparently the veterans from Seattle know better.
But Coffin Draggers from Los Angeles are already presenting the most suitable psycho song from Jingle Bell Rock and Jingle Bells (complete). The first one is made closer to the traditional design, although it is noticeably stupid on the bridge, and goes into an absolutely insane acceleration from the second one. And at the end of the track, the sweetest congratulations from the musicians.
Their classmates from The Curs vividly reveal one of the disadvantages of this collection. The fact is that there is no elementary normalization of volume in these different recordings, and the recordings themselves are of very diverse quality. So it’s easy to listen, without twisting the volume, this layer will be extremely difficult to listen to. But all this is not so important, because here is a cover of the song Jackson 5 – I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus. Yes, the ones where Michael and his family are. It turned out to be very interesting, especially considering the sound of the old saiko school. My personal like for the tempo swing. It’s great.
Christmas Without You by The Triggers immerses us very deeply into American life, as it is a Spanish-language version. I don’t have much to say about her, because I don’t understand much about all this Mariachi. And it’s hard to relate it to Saika, but they also celebrate Christmas, so let the other gringos rest for one track.
I’m Getting Pissed For Christmas dramatically corrects the situation. The uncompromisingly assertive punkabilly song energizes the closing of New Year’s deadlines and the fine-tuning of olivier. It is a pity that the Californians of Bamboula have left behind so little discography. I would listen to these guys more carefully.
Dr. Bizarro’s Victims are not at all sorry in this context. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree was just blown away by them, and such a performance, even in the context of the genre, is not particularly encouraging.
Well, it was impossible without this song! You‘re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch! and… the Van Orsdels did something very strange. The sound of the guitar and its heavy metal overtones evoke flashbacks of the punk festivals of the noughties. Zoom 505, isn’t that you? At the same time, the rest of the song does not go well with the riff. And then there’s this vocal mess! So-so.
But a funny song about a granny who forgot to accept Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer from the crazy fighting young ladies from Thee Merry Widows turned out very organically. Well, it’s hard for me to praise the performance itself, but how does it fit into the concept of the band!
The next composition is the author’s this time. Gunslingin’ Santa by Knock Galley West rams your ears with the sharpest vocals, like a pair of revolver bullets. I would really like this song if it wasn’t so dirty. The image of a cowboy Santa Claus is very creative in itself, and it also fits the style perfectly. This song sticks in my memory very well, more than one surgeon won’t get it.
I’ll Be Home For Christmas by The Red Rippers and Run Rudolph Run by The Kraneos once again represent a senseless and ruthless crackdown on classics. Passable, but no more.
Merry Christmas, Everybody performed by Asmodeus is generally good. Compared to the BZfOS version, I will still choose zombies, but everything is also very cool here. By the way, these are the only visiting guests on the record. And the European school immediately shows its advantage.
The Coffin Caddies immediately bribed me with their Gothic, I really love this. Well, Halloween On Xmas is still an author’s thing, and it’s always more expensive.
F*#k Christmas – well, well…. This is strange. It’s very strange. A mysterious scream under the banjo. I would say that this is a children’s country grindabilly, I hope you will understand me. The God Damn Gallows clearly made fun of the compilers of the collection and the listeners. The track fully lives up to its name.
Shot My Baby For Christmas is a very curious thing. A really good author’s work by The Vaudevilles. And it’s kind of their only song at all, because I haven’t found any information about this line-up anywhere at all. Almost lost media, only lost band.
Blue Christmas performed by The Load Levelers makes Elvis Presley spin on his home planet.In general, this is a typical classic overclocking for this record. Nothing special except a crazy saxophone.
The album ends with Silent Night, Deadly Night from The White Coffin Terror. Frankly a horror-punk thing, not strong enough, for my taste, to close the collection.
Summarizing the above, we have an extremely strange collection, which I will not recommend to neophytes: everything is too dirty and monotonous here. There is a feeling that most of the teams were trying to come up with at least something on the Christmas theme, which actually resonates little with them. And what kind of Christmas is it in California? It’s not even snowing there.
The greatest value of the record is in a huge set of very underground gangs, which makes it possible to imagine the scene in those years. I’m kind of jealous that all this mess is recorded and published on a collection like this. It’s amazing how similar it is to our Ural-Siberian noughties, but we have lost much more.
If last year’s New Year’s Eve psychobilia resembled a blue light, then this is a local festival in a rock club in a provincial city, somewhere in the first week of January. Yes, the one with a lot of bands, a fucked-up sound, a half-empty hall and unreasonably expensive beer. All this together evokes fierce nostalgia for the spirit of 2007, where no one will ever return.
