Th’ Damned Crows – Image by Leon Visser

‘You’ve got to have somethin’ they can tap their foot, or dance to, or to make ‘em feel it,’ were the wise words of Fred Maddox of The Maddox Brothers and Rose. He was one of the first to develop the slap bass technique and his band thus one of the first to create this new sound, which could no longer be categorized as the familiar blues, country or rock ‘n’ roll. It became ‘rockabilly’ – a term that is derived from the words ‘hillbilly’ and ‘rock’. More than 60 years later the carefree feet-stomping honky-tonk spirit is still alive and resurging subtly but significantly in our very own Cape Town. Be it via the routes of reviving ’50s rockabilly, creating modern neo-rockabilly or being a part of the more aggressive subgenre psychobilly, more and more bands are surfacing and kicking it to increasing audiences of tattooed pin-up girl look-alikes and rebellious-looking greaser culture imitators.

While witnessing this nostalgic celebration breed with passion and enthusiasm, some questions arose. Why is it happening now? Has it existed in SA before? And most importantly, what is it about this special time and place — America of the 1950s – that has created such an impact on youth subcultures and fuelled such a worldwide dedicated cult following throughout the years? One way to find out was to consult the makers of the music that surrounds the mythical neo-’50s magic. Three Cape Town bands, Th’ Damned Crows, The Vodun Haunts and The Ratrod Cats, shared their insights on Cape Town as inspiring ‘psycho territory’, the cultural ‘uniform’ and simply creating quality music.

The Vodun Haunts – Image by Stephan Bester

To get things straight up front, here’s an admittedly brief background. Rockabilly’s mainstream popularity culminated in the ’50s, with guys like Eddie Cochran or Gene Vincent. If those names don’t ring a bell the following lyrics will, ‘there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues’ or ‘be-bop-a-lula she’s my baby’. Jiving greasers in leather jackets, swaying girls with spotted dresses, hot rods, muscle cars… you get the gist. This early rebellious rock genre never really died and lived on outside the mainstream up until today. Not only did the music survive, the culture had such a strong legacy that people still gather with likeminded and ‘like-dressed’ people at events such as the Summer Jamboree in Italy or Viva Las Vegas in the US to listen to revived rockabilly or neo-rockabilly. During the ’80s some guys in Europe thought they’d be inventive while keeping the jivey be-bop-a-lula sound and born was ‘psychobilly’ — a more aggressive punk-infused genre that often incorporates dark science fiction themes. Similar to its predecessor, it wants nothing to do with politics. It’s a holiday for the super ego and an opportunity for the subconscious to get out of control and go ‘psycho’, if you will.

Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent – Image by fanpop.com

The Meteors – Image by mumblerbeaner.blogspot.com

Making use of many influences, Th’ Damned Crows are an energetic four piece that fall into the broad ‘-billy’ genre, yet have more appropriately been described as ‘whatever-fuck-a-billy’ due to the versatile musical backgrounds (blues, industrial metal, punk and garage/psychobilly) each member contributes to the sound. Although they’re determined not to be a clichéd psychobilly band, they still manage to bring a devilish dark edge to the fore through lyrical content and lead singer Liam McDevitt’s steadfast vocals. Only having moved down to the scenically inspiring African southlands from Manchester about one and a half years ago, he agrees that there’s an increasing interest and potential for expansion within the psychobilly/rockabilly and broader Cape Town rock ‘n’ roll scene. Already firmly integrated into the network through being one of the organisers and DJs of the Shake Some Action events as well as hosting the sister show on The Assembly radio, he believes that a lot of hard work needs to be done in order to have a sustainable scene. ‘Without the bands there’s no scene, it’s just a whole lot of geeks on the internet,’ he explains when I inquire about possible improvement.

South Africa’s horrendous history included having to battle with ordeals such as political and geographical isolation and thus scanty record distribution. As a result many music fans’ access to psychobilly records when the genre reached one of its peaks in the ’80s was often only through purchasing them overseas — and that was only if you knew the genre existed. Consequently, although local bands like Joburg’s Psycho Reptiles existed, they were scarce. Today, the rise of the digital age has provided a new playground for music buffs and therefore created the seeds for a new scene. Teddy boy hairdos, leather jackets and ‘psychooo’ here we come. There’s more to it though, behind the scenes strategies need to be in place for the flower to blossom. Liam puts it angrily, ‘venues and promoters need to smarten their ideas up’.

Th’ Damned Crows – Image by Leon Visser

Th’ Damned Crows – Image by Leon Visser

A band needs an audience, an audience needs a venue and a venue wants to make money. These entities need to pull their weight and be coordinated so that things run smoothly. Although, according to Liam, some places are doing it right, gigs often fail to be successful because so called ‘live music venues’ don’t have the appropriate in-house gear or promoters aren’t ‘promoting’ properly. Creating a Facebook event often isn’t enough to ensure coverage of a band’s expenses or — dare one say it — provide a bit of profit. Especially if there’s a door split. “Anywhere else in the world when you book a band, you don’t go, ‘Oh I will give you 40 percent at the door and if nobody comes in, then unlucky but I’m not losing anything,'” he explains while imitating the fictional voice of an exemplary ineffective promoter.

Although Cape Town has to battle with such financial fiascos, the fool’s paradise seems to offer the right environment for ‘horror’ and ‘psycho’ muses to provide inspiration. To stand out from the global mainstream, Th’ Damned Crows pay close attention to combining spooky tales with being proudly South African. The lyrics to ‘The Devil in Me’ are about the legend of Antjie Somers. According to the myth, s/he was a male serial killer back in the 1800s in Cape Town’s city centre, luring her/his victims in through making them believe s/he was a well-meaning prostitute.

Similarly, the six-headed psycho constellation often in zombie disguise, The Vodun Haunts (also not a straightforward psychobilly band because of classically influenced compositions, for example) are bringing SA’s hair-raising horror news stories often found in tabloids, such as ‘muti’ killings, to the fore. ‘We have a lot of dark shit and weird stuff going on in Africa. And we’re trying to tell stories about that,’ lead singer Le Riche Meyer explains. Cami Scoundrel (on the ‘bag of tricks’) adds, ‘psychobilly is supposed to be a non-political movement — more about fun and horror — so we’re taking that and making it our own South African B-grade creepy.’

The Vodun Haunts – Image by Stephan Bester

The Vodun Haunts by Stephan Bester

The Ratrod Cats, a three piece bowling shirt-sporting neo-rockabilly band made up of K.C. Royale, Rickabilly and Double Dave, are less bothered about South African heritage than about rocking a party ‘like it’s 1955′. ‘I know it’s a bit of a cock-up, but it’s about women, it’s about cars, it’s about booze and it’s about the party. If you put those together you’ve got 1955,’ K.C. admits, while a sheepish smirk spreads across his cheeks. That spot on the timeline is, according to the band members, surrounded by such distinct mysticism and beauty because of cult figures such as James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Buddy Holly that — although they all died at an early age — the impact of their legacy allows one to speak of an art form that goes beyond music. To them it’s about the smell, feel and ideology of rebellious ’50s culture. Rickabilly points out, ‘you don’t get the same appreciation out of modern vehicles for example — they all bloody look the same.’

This is why they take no offence if someone calls them wannabes. “If someone says ‘you sound like Elvis‘ then we say ‘thank you, thank you very much, that’s fantastic,'” K.C. explains. In fact, they believe that it’s important to stay true to the roots, especially in South Africa where a lot of people are still new to the genre. Falsely labelled experiments could cause confusion. ‘If we claim to be rockabilly, then we want to present what people want to hear,’ is a principle the ’50s admirers stick to firmly.

The Ratrod Cats – Image by Diane Styger

Another threat to the thriving scene could be what Liam describes as ‘off-the-hanger-psychobilly’ (or rockabilly). All three bands would agree that fashion can be a statement, contribute to entertainment value and thus be a firm component of the budding neo-’50s cultural ‘art form’. Yet awareness of the ever so dangerous manipulative force of the fad is encouraged by all. ‘Appreciation of the MUSIC is central,’ seems to be a collective thought and ambition that all interviewed musicians share. Yet K.C. is not worried that the shallow fashion followers will get in the way of true music devotees and cause the scene to crumble. ‘What’s going to happen is — and what we’re seeing already — rockabilly and psychobilly are reaching a peak now but they’re going to start fading. But the thing is, the people who will be left will really love it.’

So things seem to be looking good for Capetonian rockabilly and psychobilly lovers. This year, for example, Dusty Rebels and the Bombshells is planned for April 6th. Greased-back music fans and the like will be able to gather at the ’50s culture revival festival and tap their feet to musical nostalgia while showing off their most swell ’50s attire. The spirit is alive and will live on — for as long as humanity knows how to dance. K.C. muses with insight, ‘it’s almost built into people’s genes. This is the music you have to move to.’

IMPORTANT LINKS

While you wait for April to come, click here to download Th’ Damned Crows’ first single ‘Blue Eyed Devil’ for free via SoundCloud! They’re also collecting funds to record their debut album. Click here to help ‘em out.

The Vodun Haunts’ self-titled EP is for sale at Mabu Vinyl and Digital, The African Music Store and Revolution Records for R65. Follow their Facebook page for upcoming gigs!

The Ratrod Cats are currently in the studio and are working on getting their debut out by March. Check their Facebook page for updates.

We also sat down with each band for a face to face chit chat about band philosophies, future plans and favourite bands. Click here for Th’ Damned Crows’ interview, here for The Vodun Haunts interview and here for The Ratrod Cats interview.

Words by Christine Hogg
Images by Leon Visser, Stephan Bester, Diane Styger, MUMBLERBEANER.BLOGSPOT.COM, Christine Hogg

Image by Diane Styger

How did it all start?

K.C.: In short, I wanted to start a rockabilly band because I love the music and I posted an ad online and Rickabilly replied saying let’s give it a try. So we started fiddling and initially we got a bassist, which didn’t quite work out, so we put another ad online and Double Dave replied. We’ve been going with this line-up for about three years now.

Do you have a band philosophy?

K.C.: Don’t fuck up. (laughs)
Double Dave: Yeah pretty much.
Rickabilly: It’s really just about having a good time really. If we enjoy it, I think people who are listening to it will enjoy it.
Double Dave: We try to stay out of politics and the deep spiritual meanings of life. Rockabilly music is about having fun.
Rickabilly: We’re not one of those bands who stand up there and ramble on for about five minutes about what the song means, because it means fuck-all. Get up and dance and enjoy it and that’s it.
K.C.: Yeah,

you’re not going to hear sloppy love songs, it’s all upbeat and fun.

When did you start listening to rockabilly?

K.C.: Rick? Don’t say exact dates here you might give your age away…
Rickabilly: I started listening to rockabilly when I was about four years old. My dad was spinning records on the turntable — Elvis, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent — all those guys. Right from a very early age I just loved the music. I grew up with it with my dad and just got interested in it. I’ve always loved it.
K.C.: I started in my late teens with psychobilly. I kind of got into it after that. I then found out that I prefer rockabilly more to psychobilly.
Double Dave: My parents used to listen to a wide variety of music so I would listen to a huge variety of music.

Image by Christine Hogg

Did you always know that you’d play in a rockabilly band one day?

Double Dave: I was sort of looking for a band when I saw the ad online so I thought I’d give it a try.
K.C.: You didn’t really set out to be an upright rockabilly bassist did you?
Double Dave: No, I played blues, I played punk…but it all fits in musically.

You’ve obviously been listening to it for a while. Do you know when the first South African rockabilly band surfaced and did you listen to South African rockabilly bands?

Rickabilly: Until I met K.C., I didn’t know there were any South African rockabilly bands. The rockabilly bands that are around now have only been around for maybe 10 years at best. It’s not something that South Africa has had a history with. The roots of it were started in the ’50s and there weren’t really any South African rockabilly bands back then. I think everyone is just catching on to that hype decades after.
K.C.: At the same time though, the reason why I wanted to start this band was because the South African psychobilly and rockabilly guys got me into it. Acts like Them Tornados and Martin Rocka and The Sickshop were the inspiration for me to get into it. I’ve been doing music for many years and I’ve always loved rockabilly and psychobilly but I never really wanted to pursue it. And then I thought, you know what, I’ve been doing the rock thing for a while let me look at this. So I gave it a try and it sure as hell worked out.

It was the local guys more than the overseas guys that made me look for this band.

Rickabilly: It’s always been a goal of mine to eventually have a rockabilly band. I’ve been growing up with the music since I was a young child, and somewhere along the line I started writing my own songs. Then I started thinking it would be nice to start something like this because it’s not being done anywhere around here. So when I saw K.C.’s ad I jumped on it because I didn’t even hear anybody mention the word rockabilly around here before. I thought, ‘That’s exactly what I’m after and if he’s on the same page then this could work.’ The right thing came along at the right time.

Would you say the scene is growing at the moment?

Rickabilly: This scene is definitely growing. And we like to believe that we’ve got some small part in helping it grow as well, because there are bands out there that are getting some sort of inspiration from us by being out there and advertising the music and saying ‘well this is what it’s about’. And more and more you see the term being used and the whole throw-back to the ’50s resurfacing around here.
K.C.: Even psychobilly. The psychobilly is doing well now. Psychobilly, especially looking at the scene now, wouldn’t happen without rockabilly. Psychobilly is the darker side. And don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome, we love it. Seeing the little resurgence now, with all the cool bands. It wouldn’t have happened without the rockabilly element, you know, the guys like Them Tornados. So there definitely is a revival happening now and it’s awesome to see, but it’s kind of a nice in-between thing — rockabilly and psychobilly mixed together. And there’s a bluesy side to it. Rockabilly is fast blues. You see a lot of the blues guys now, like Crimson House Blues, Ballistic Blues and Sixgun Gospel… it’s slow rockabilly, it’s blues but essentially blues is slow rockabilly. So it’s all tying in nicely.

Image by Christine Hogg

Is there a rockabilly sound that’s unique to South Africa?

Rickabilly: Not really. I think our accents would be the only thing.
K.C.: I don’t think there’s anything from the dress to the tattoos to the actual music to the actual lyrics. I don’t think anything really differs to overseas. It’s all pretty much similar. Yeah, the only thing that I can think of is our accents. Everything else can be traced to overseas.
Rickabilly: Even that’s hard to tell when you’re singing.

So would you call yourselves a rockabilly revival band?

K.C.: What we’re doing essentially is called neo-rockabilly. Neo-rockabilly was started with The Stray Cats in the late ’70s. And it was a bit of a harder version of normal rockabilly. It wasn’t psychobilly, but it was kind of in-between. That’s called neo-rockabilly. So I think what we’re doing is neo-rockabilly. It’s a modern day slightly edgy throw-back to rockabilly. That’s what we would be classified as if we really had to dig deep.

Would you want the scene here to reach the stage that it is at overseas?

K.C.: We would love that. As we said before, we live the scene! In the sense that it’s Rickabilly and old motorbikes… and I have an old muscle car — we live this thing! So, the scene isn’t only about the music, it’s about the lifestyle. If we could see more classic cars on the road and hot rods, we would be very happy. If we could see more people getting their hair done and grease back that would be cool too. It’s about living, it’s not only about the music. And if we get five people that look rockabilly and the rest don’t, we don’t care. It’s cool to see those five people who are living and feeling it. We would love to see it grow like it did overseas, but it probably won’t happen because we don’t have that many muscle cars in South Africa. And we don’t have that many clubs to play in, but we can definitely see how far we can take it. And there need to be more bands, which is happening now so it’s becoming more accessible. More people from the punk genre are looking at psychobilly because they’re very close. And more traditional rock and blues bands are coming to rockabilly shows.
Double Dave: There are also other guys working on building the hot rod and muscle car community in Cape Town.

Image by Christine Hogg

So the spirit will live on?

K.C.: I think it’s going to live on, it’s going to be — not necessarily niche — but it’s going to be true. The people who are going to come through will really enjoy it. And that’s going to grow, but you’ve got to read out the people who are just there to be seen because it’s the thing at the time. We’re finding a lot of people like that.
Double Dave: We wouldn’t mind it becoming more mainstream but at the same time we don’t want it to become just a fad.
K.C.: And don’t get us a wrong, we’re not saying we want to be niche. We want to be mainstream because that’s where people come in the door, that’s where we essentially make money as musicians. We want to expose ourselves to as many people as possible. We want to expose ourselves to people who appreciate it and get a kick out of it.
Double Dave: But we don’t want to compromise our sound to fit in.
K.C.: Yeah.

If music changes in six months time, and in another six months time, and in another six months time, we’re still going to be making rockabilly.

Is rockabilly going to live on in the form that it is in now?
K.C.: ‘Rockabilly’ in inverted commas, the style, the music, the genre is going to live on. It’s not going anywhere. You’ve got people restoring and trying to maintain. If it’s lasted from the ’50s until now, then it’s not going anywhere. That’s what I say. Rockabilly was the first rock ‘n’ roll ever and if it’s still around, then it’s not going anywhere.
Double Dave: If you go to a club and they start playing ’50s music, people get on the dance floor and dance. If they start playing Elvis, people will be dancing.
K.C.: If you play Elvis to any person in the universe — be it the biggest hip-hop fan or the biggest house DJ — if you play Elvis to them they know the song. Everyone knows rockabilly.
Rickabilly: Even if they don’t know the specific song, they connect with the rhythm, the beat, the swing… those are primal things that you relate to regardless of whose singing it or when.
K.C.: And that’s something that’ll never go away because it’s fun.

So it’s kind of like an eternal genre that’ll always live on in its subculture.

K.C.: It is. It may never ever again be a mainstream thing but it will always exist. If you look at the United States where rockabilly was the only music in the ’50s and was kind of dead in the ’60s and ’70s and then kind of resurged again… but whatever happened, it never went away completely. But if you look at music scenes like disco, that died after how long? Or psychedelic rock in the ’60s? So much has died and never really resurfaced. Rockabilly has always been there and influenced so many other people. If you look at what The Beatles were doing in the ’60s, they got their influence from the guys from the ’50s. It’s not going anywhere. It’s going to stick around. Like you said, as a subculture or just under the radar, but it’ll always stick around.

IMPORTANT LINKS

For the main article ‘Let’s Rock This Party Like It’s 1955′, click here. For the interview with Th’ Damned Crows, click here. For the interview with The Vodun Haunts, click here.

Interview by Christine Hogg
Images by Diane Styger, Christine Hogg