Ken Nordine on a Bender??10 Days Until Halloween--Dead Bolt---Shrunken Head--

Some People Try To Know Us.......

Deadbolt is one macabre band. I found out about them by accident. I was in Phoenix Az browsing through the bins at a Zia Music branch. The store clerk obviously was a big fan of San Diego's "Scariest Band in the World," as I got to hear a lot of Deadbolt. Finally I went up to him and asked, "what the hell is this stuff?" So the clerk clued me in. I had never heard music quite like this. It was quite odd. I guess Deadbolt calls this music "Voodoobilly". I can't help but reference Ken Nordine's Word Jazz as a musical template when I hear this. But with crazy shit instead of whimsical humorous reflections.
So I picked up one of their albums, probably Hobo Babylon. Today however, I am featuring Shrunken Head. This is pretty darkly humorous stuff. Singing and on Bass is Harley Davidson. RA Maclean plays bass and Les Vegas is the drummer. Singing is probably exaggerating--Davidson is more of a narrator or tale spinner over a backdrop of a variety of musical genres. The songs are heavily influenced by old B-movies and horror films. Some songs are dark surf, like Shrunken Head or El Sadistico. The music is almost a loungier version of the Dead Kennedys. Some of the songs are bluesier like Voodoo Doll. You Don't Know Me is psychotic rockabilly. Some songs sound like a 50's educational film gone wrong, like the gone-postal tale Zip Code.

This is a good Halloween album, but it has its drawbacks. There isn't a lot of variety of songs, the songs sort of lurch into one another and there isn't much variation in tempo or volume. But if you are into what they do, or are a fan of The Gun Club, or The Cramps, their music could become pretty addictive. And luckily for Deadbolt fans, there is no shortage of material for them to check out. And as they are currently on tour, you might even have the opportunity to check them out live.