Rumblejetts

Music often tends to go round in circles. Back in the 1980's, the Stray Cats brought a new demension to the rockabilly scene from America. They couldn't get arrested over there so they brought their music to Europe and found an audience very willing to listen to their new sounds alongside those of The Polecats, The Blue Cats, etc. Nowadays, bands like that are a bit thin on the ground, particularly in the UK, where what is left of the scene seems to have gone retro to more authentic adaptations. It would seem that, with bands like The Rumblejetts, America is now ready to accept a more modernistic approach.
The Rumblejetts hail from Kansas City and feature Pedro Mora on upright bass and vocals, Jim Holopter on lead guitar and Judd Kite on drums. They write much of their own material with eight of the ten titles featured here being self-penned. The album was cut at the Sun Studio in Memphis with James Lott at the helm and the result is a first class recording which, I'm sure, will pick up a lot of fans, particularly after the band's recent Green Bay appearance.
It begins in fine style with the opening track, 'Clickity Clack 550 Is Back", a frantic slapp bass rockabilly with the spirit of Chuck Berry running through it. I really like this one. 'Roostina' has a more up-tempo country feel to it with the punchline, "Oh Roostina, I misstook you for a cock". Hmmm... Still, it's a great track and one that I'm sure goes down well at their gigs.
All of their songs, from 'Road Rockets' and 'That Girl Is Death' to 'That Will Be All From You' and 'Jagged Bottle', have a great slant to them and are full of energy - "reborn energy" the accompanying blurb tells us. Their street cred cannot be questioned with such material.
The two non-originals are Bill Allens' 'Please Give Me Something' ans Elvis' 'I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine', both of which work well.
This is a highly entertaining collection from a very talented American band.


-Steve Aynsley - Now Dig This magazine - UK

Let's just jump right into this, shall we? Then maybe afterwards we can have a little chat about blog-like things...or I'll just get on with my life. Do you like how I do that? I actually am trying to make people think I have a life, and I am doing that by telling them that in my blog.

Rumblejetts - Roostina. Well, what do we have here? It seems to be Rockabilly! Yes, pure, straight-up Rockabilly. None of that silly Psychobilly stuff, just great ol' Rockabilly!

Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri these bass slapping, Gretsch (and Gibson L-4...with P-90's, thank you very much) strumming drum pounding nuts play, like I said, traditional style Rockabilly. Don't come here looking to find these guys fusing Rockabilly with Punk and Death Metal. The production, while great sounding, is even more restrained sounding, paying fine respect to the history of the style. The guitars are clean, bright, and warm in the lower notes. The bass slaps along adding the perfect accent to the drums, which give just enough kick while never cracking your ears into submission. The whole mix is great, with a fine chorus effect over it all. I could listen to these guitar tones forever and never get tired of them.

Vocally our man Pedro at times brings about the ghost of Gene Vincent when he jumps into the higher pitches, such as on "I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine". Otherwise he just has a cool sounding voice, the kind perfect for the style.

One of the nice things about the songs is that nothing ever goes for the "flash for the sake of flash". When you get a cool guitar bit, it never jumps at you like it's showing off. In other words, everything stays tasteful and catchy on it's own powers.

Damn, what a fine guitar sound this thing has.

Best way to describe how I feel about the CD, I got it in the mail yesterday when I got home around 5 PM. It's now 12:30 PM the next day. No matter that the total time is about a 1/2 hour, I have listened to it now about 7 times since getting it. It's just a great listen that goes down about as easy as your favorite beer, even if it's from God's country and in a can.

- MySpace - Carl I.