DISCOVER: LOS STRAITJACKETS
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Mike Campbell knocked on the dressing room door and brought in a friend to meet Los Straitjackets. It was the late 1990s and through a chance encounter with Campbell, the band found themselves opening a series of shows for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Mike introduced his friend: “You gotta meet these guys. They sound like the early Beatles… if they didn’t sing.”
It was a high compliment because everyone in the band understood exactly how to take it. He wasn’t calling them the equal of Lennon & McCartney and company, just acknowledging that the band were high practitioners of the ‘combo’ sound: an early sixties line up of two guitars, bass and drums playing rock n’ roll music best exemplified by the Cavern Club-era Beatles.
Constantly tagged with a slightly reductive “surf music” label, Los Straitjackets are better characterized as “instrumental rock n’ roll,” and have been since founders Danny Amis and Eddie Angel met and watched drummer Jimmy Lester play drums with Webb Wilder at a Nashville club. Their influences range from the double-picking-surf-attack of Dick Dale, to the proto-rock of Link Wray, the hooks of The Ventures, to the groove of Booker T. & The MG’s, all played with an energy that acknowledges The Cramps and punk rock. And past the golden age of instrumentals of the 1960s, one could argue they have brought this music to more fans than any other band, having done it for more than 30 years.
They have taken their combo sound around the world, mostly making instrumental records, but also backing vocalists along the way, most notably for over a decade with Nick Lowe. It’s that collaboration that fuels this latest album, Somos Los Straitjackets. The lineup that has been touring since founder Danny Amis had to drop out of day-to-day operations because of his (winning) battle against multiple myeloma is Eddie Angel, longtime bassist Pete Curry, drummer Chris Sprague (The Sprague Brothers, Deke Dickerson) and Rochester guitar hero Greg Townson (The Hi-Risers, John Ellison). Playing hundreds of songs with and without Lowe, this four-piece has coalesced into an incredibly tight, rockin’ combo. “Playing behind a master like Nick Lowe makes you laser-focused on your playing. It has also made us very adept at coming up with twin guitar parts that complement each other,” says Eddie Angel.
After recording with Lowe at Alex Hall’s Reliable Recorders, the band knew they had met the man who could capture the sound of this group. Angel elaborates, “We trusted Alex’s instincts and we were fans of some of the studio’s other outputs like JD McPherson and The Cactus Blossoms.”
He continues, “The recording process we used this time was different. We got together numerous times at Pete Curry’s Powow Fun Room studio in LA to work up the songs, then we recorded demos to listen back to. Having some time to tweak the songs, and in some cases play them live, really helped when it came time to record.” They booked a session with Hall at bassist Pete Curry’s Marina Del Rey-adjacent studio, the Powow Fun Room, and followed up with a couple of sessions in Chicago. This list of songs built the first album of original material the band would record since Jet Set (2012). They worked on them at soundchecks and even peppered them into live sets. Somos is rounded out with two re-recordings of pandemic-era remote compositions (Townson’s “Genesee River Rock” and Angel’s “April Showers”) as well as revisiting “Spinout,” a track recorded by Eddie’s other band The Neanderthals (bolstered by some guest vocals from voice-over king Tom Kenny).
From Townson’s thrilling “High Wire Act” to Angel’s down and dirty “Numbskull” to the beautiful “Polaris,” Somos Los Straitjackets pulsates with wit, twang and thunderous rock n’ roll. On “Cry for a Beatle,” drummer Chris Sprague strapped on a rickenbacker, Pete Curry moved to his original instrument (the drums!), and Eddie Angel picked up a bass. Paying explicit tribute to the combo sound of the Beatles and evoking The Fab Four’s nod to The Shadows (“Cry for a Shadow”), this song closes the circle.
Somos Los Straitjackets demonstrates why Los Straitjackets have reigned as the kings of modern instrumental rock for over thirty years; with shimmering tremolo, relentless drum grooves, and hooks so catchy they don’t need lyrics to get stuck in your head. Produced with a vintage touch but packed with fresh intensity, Somos Los Straitjackets is both a love letter to rock and roll’s past and a declaration of purpose with feet firmly planted in the present: “We Are Los Straitjackets.”
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