Vintage Review: Los Straitjackets' Sing Along With Los Straitjackets (2001)

It’s an established fact among experts in these sorts of things that Los Straitjackets have long been the coolest psychotronic surf guitar band in the known universe. Clad in Mexican wrestling masks, these mutant offspring of an unholy marriage of Dick Dale and Joey Ramone have kicked out four incredible albums of surf-garage-rockabilly instrumentals since 1995. With album number five, the fantastic foursome hit upon a novel idea – why not add vocals to the songs?

They do just that on Sing Along With Los Straitjackets, enlisting the help of accomplished vocal technicians like Raul Malo of the Mavericks, Leigh Nash of Sixpence None The Richer, Dave Alvin, Allison Moorer, Exene Cervenka of X, and many others. The result is a glorious collection of cover tunes, Los Straitjackets providing the power and various singers contributing the finesse to classic rock, pop, and country material like Roy Orbison’s “Down The Line,” Jessi Colter’s “I Ain’t the One” and Scooter Davis’ “The End of the World.”

Guitarists Danny Amis and Eddie Angel blaze like a house afire while beatmeisters Peter Curry and Jimmy Lester hold down the bottom line behind folks like the Rev. Horton Heat, Big Sandy, and Nick Lowe. The hippest CD you could buy this year, Sing Along With Los Straitjackets cements the reputation of these maniac musicians as the baddest surf-rocking daddios ever! (Yep Roc Records, released 2001)

Review originally published by the View From The Hill Community newspaper, Signal Hill CA