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

Vintage Review: Los Straitjackets’ The Utterly Fantastic and Totally Believable Sound of Los Straitjackets (1995)

Oh boy, did the movie Pulp Fiction really start something, as a hundred and one surf guitar-oriented instrumental bands have begun to litter the musical landscape with commercial and critical expectations. None of these wanna-be pretenders, however, can hold a candle to the awesome flame that is Nashville’s very own Los Straitjackets.

Los Straitjackets – the fantastic foursome of Danny Amis, Eddie Angel, E. Scott Esbeck, and L.J. Lester, mysteriously clad in colorful Mexican wrestler's masks – kick out a fresh, hard-rocking, toe-tapping collection of fourteen guitar-driven instrumentals on The Utterly Fantastic and Totally Believable Sound of Los Straitjackets. The guys throw everything into the pot, with musical influences as diverse as Dick Dale-inspired surf guitar and cheesy seventies-styled mondo movie soundtracks to jazzy lounge music and fifties retro-rockabilly.

The resulting effort is showcased on cuts like the dark, foreboding “G-Man,” the rollicking chaos of “Rampage,” or the bumble-bee, machine-gun staccato of “Tailspin.” If you're looking for something new, get your kicks with The Utterly Fantastic and Totally Believable Sound of Los Straitjackets. You'll be glad that you did! (Upstart Records, released March 1995)