Hells Bent on Rockin'
get on board the psychobilly cadillac
In keeping with the season, I knew what I had to do for this week’s article. What do you get when you combine hill country blues, surf rock, punk rock, and B-grade horror movies from the Fifties? You get psychobilly, the subgenre that time forgot.
Psychobilly is a direct result of two “screamers” from the late Fifties and early Sixties: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Screaming Lord Sutch. Hawkins made a huge impact in the United States with “I Put a Spell on You”, complete with a stage show pulled straight from vaudeville. Hawkins would emerge from a coffin, surrounded by rubber snakes and fog machines, holding a talking skull on a stick that he named “Henry”. Screaming Lord Sutch heard about Hawkins' act and established himself as a British version, complete with coffins and faux corpses. Whereas Hawkins was a good singer who sometimes despaired of being taken less seriously due to his theatrical flair, Sutch knew his vocal limitations and leaned into the kitsch of the act wholeheartedly. Sutch also had the good fortune of convincing first rate musicians to serve as his backing band; Ritchie Blackmore was a steady member of the Savages, while recordings featured Jimmy Page, Nicky Hopkins, Keith Moon, Noel Redding, John Bonham, and Jeff Beck. Unfortunately the musicians were frequently misled as to where the recordings were going and how they were going to be released, leading to tension and few second appearances.
Ultimately, both performers were seen as novelty acts, but they were formative for shock rockers like Alice Cooper, Arthur Brown, and later the Plasmatics. Shock rock combined with the then-nascent genre of punk rock in both the United States and the United Kingdom to produce two more bands who laid the foundations for psychobilly.
Stateside, Erick Purkhiser and Kristy Wallace met in Sacramento in 1972, bonding over kitschy art and obscure records. They decided to form a band and move east, making their way to New York City by 1975. Once there, they aligned with the crew at CBGB’s who formed the nexus of American punk rock. The Cramps, as they were now called, quickly attracted the attention of the music underground both nationally and internationally with their combination of rockabilly, psychedelia, surf rock, horror movie aesthetics, and punk attitudes. They began using a term they lifted from a Johnny Cash song to advertise their music: psychobilly. The sound of psychobilly would change over the years, but the term was first used with the Cramps in mind.
Across the pond, P. Paul Fenech, Nigel Lewis, and Mark Robertson formed the Meteors in 1980. The band took the same set of influences as the Cramps and made them into something both alike and different. The Meteors had more of a rockabilly sound but combined it with gunfighter ballads and western swing to make a booming treble-y sound that was somehow less punky but more raw. They tried to fit into the rockabilly scene, but were ostracized for not adhering to the straight-laced mold set by their contemporaries. The music was undeniable, though, and they transitioned fully to the punk side of things. They were also the first band to fully embrace the “psychobilly” label, creating a niche for themselves and others. The Meteors saw early success on Island Records, and toured with big bands like the Clash and The Damned. Fenech took the access he was granted and turned it into expertise with sound engineering and producing, becoming renowned for his audio skills with not only the Meteors but other bands.
Those two bands then influenced countless others in waves, beginning in Los Angeles and London and spreading out over the 1980’s. New psychobilly bands cropped up in the Netherlands, New York, Germany, Quebec, Denmark, and Austria. The 1990’s saw a relative nadir, but the 2000’s saw a minor revival with the advocacy of Tim Armstrong and Hellcat Records. The genre has never been popular in the mainstream, but dozens of bands have been able to support themselves over the years.
So what does the music sound like? What are some of the bands to watch out for? How messed up are my opinions? Let’s get into the list.
The usual caveats apply: this is my opinion taken at the time of writing. My opinion can and will change like the tides, so revisiting the topic later will result in a different list entirely. I’ve also taken steps to ensure that all of the bands involved embrace the term “psychobilly” unreservedly. This means that certain bands (like the Cramps) are left out. If you don’t like it, get your own list.
10. The Monsters - The Creature From the Black Lagoon
Psychobilly took hold in central Europe in the second wave, and the Monsters are a great example. They hail from Switzerland, formed in 1986, and this track is from their 1993 album The Hunch. The Monsters’ sound is as much garage as surf, with significantly more punk influence to boot. Their love of classic Universal horror movies permeates their music, with this song singing the praises of the Gill-man himself.
9. Gutter Demons - House By The Cemetery
French speaking Canada has had a relatively large psychobilly following for several decades now, and the Gutter Demons are at the front of the movement. Formed in Montreal in 2002, the band plays creepy, spooky music with an aggressive edge. They make an effort to incorporate more country and folk influence than their peers, and Misery, Madness, and Murder Lullabies is a great example.
8. Demented Scumcats - Splatter Baby
Demented Scumcats is a a pseudo-all-star band composed primarily of members from Demented Are Go, which will be discussed later on (spoilers!). The band is more garage and sixties influenced, with farfisas making an appearance a la Question Mark and the Mysterians. The side project allows the band to stretch their wings a bit, which is usually a good idea for a band that’s been around for decades.
7. Rockin’ Ryan and the Real Goners - I‘m the Wolfman
Rockin’ Ryan started out as a purveyor of straight rockabilly before taking a left-hand turn into gothic country and horror movie imagery. The LA-based artist leveraged his experience in rockabilly to produce an album squarely in the psychobilly genre in conjunction with Rip Carson. “I’m the Wolfman” has howls and growls straight from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
6. Sir Psyko and His Monsters - The Crazies
A relatively new band in the genre, Sir Psyko and his Monsters was formed in Austria in 2006. If the Meteors shirt on the cover of their album wasn’t clue enough, SPAHM pays homage to their predecessors while trying to inject new life into psychobilly. The blast beats are directly sourced from extreme metal, and the tempos are similarly sourced.
5. Batmobile - Dead (I Want Them When They Are Dead)
Batmobile were the first big Dutch psychobilly band, forming in Rotterdam in 1983. They started out as rockabilly musicians, but quickly discovered the genre was essentially moribund and stagnant. They began playing faster and more aggressively until they found themselves playing psychobilly. Batmobile made the trip over to London to play the legendary Klub Foot in 1986, becoming the first non-British band to visit. They have continued playing on and off ever since.
4. Mad Sin - Psycho Sideshow
Mad Sin is a German band formed in 1987 that leans more towards the theatrical side than the rockabilly side. Their horror movie aesthetic melded well with their initially untrained music, and the resulting punk sound resonated with European audiences. Köfte DeVille is the only steady member over the years, having put out twelve albums on various labels. Survival of the Sickest was released in 2002, and showcases the slickly produced psychobilly that has become their trademark.
3. Nekromantix - Horny in a Hearse
Nekromantix is visually the most “psychobilly” band. Lead singer and double bassist Kim Nekroman is striking with his punked out teddy boy haircut, sleeves of tattoos, and most notably his coffin-shaped upright bass. Their sound is also prototypical, melding Fifties-era murder ballads with punk tempos and snarling vocals. Formed in Copenhagen in 1989, they are perhaps the most commercially successful psychobilly band in terms of American sales, having been the leaders of the Hellcat Records psychobilly movement in the early 2000’s.
2. Demented Are Go - Hotrod Vampires
Demented are Go is the artistic vision of Mark “Sparky” Phillips, by all accounts a drug-fueled tornado of instability. They became notable for memorable and illegal stage shows, including nudity, exploding vacuum cleaners, and the occasional immoral act with a rubber fish. Formed in the early 1980’s in Wales, the band found early success at Klub Foot before spreading to the international psychobilly scene in Europe. An early highlight is their cover of “Crazy Horses”, which seems to follow this newsletter around like a lost puppy. Eventually they found themselves banned from America after Sparky was found guilty of crimes of moral turpitude, limiting their commercial appeal. The band continues whenever Sparky is stable enough to tour and record.
1. The Meteors - Psycho For Your Love
It’s the Meteors, the most psychobilly of them all. Their sound is textbook, as they defined the genre and especially its first wave in the UK. The merging of B-movie lyrics with aggressive rockabilly is the template for all other psychobilly bands, especially those in Europe and abroad. A large part of their appeal was making sure that no political motives entered the discussion; psychobilly learned from both the skinheads and the mods that remaining politically agnostic was both a way to avoid alienating potential fans and a way to give a respite to otherwise politically engaged punks. The only requirement to be a psychobilly fan was to like hollowbody guitars and tons of reverb.
If you liked what you’ve read today, I invite you to click any and all of the following buttons:
…and if you’ve made it this far, please listen to this playlist: