Murderously Funny Rockabilly and Retro Sounds From Las Vegas Band the Royal Hounds

by delarue

The Royal Hounds claim to be Las Vegas’ premier rockabilly band. For that matter, they’d be the best rockabilly band in plenty of towns, maybe this one too. They’re more retro than Rev. Horton Heat but have a similarly explosive guitar-fuled intensity. A couple of years ago, they would have swung through Rodeo Bar if their tour extended this far east. This time around, they’re playing Skinny Dennis on 9 PM on Oct 25. Their latest album, Poker All Night Long (they’re a Vegas band, get it, haha?) is streaming at Soundcloud.

The album is a mix of noir-tinged and more lighthearted fare: when it’s really good, rockabilly in general can be pretty creepy stuff. The centerpiece here is Psycho, the creepy cult classic C&W murder ballad that’s been covered by lots of folks over the years. This one’s a little more propulsive than the Elvis Costello take, and frontman/bassist Scott Hinds’ dead-cool vocals are spot-on. Mema Wants to Dance is a twistedly menacing, scampering cha-cha. The band works a pounding monster surf groove on the instrumental Long Reef; and the cynical Apocalypse Boogie, with its blend of noir surf and Glenn McCallum’s period-perfect, jazz-tinged early 50s guitar, wouldn’t be out of place in the Simon Chardiet catalog.

The rest of the album isn’t as morbid. Elvis Is Haunting My Bathroom is a Stray Cats kind of strut, and it’s irresistibly funny. Bacon Time, with its soaring C&W pedal steel and a killer trick ending, is even more hilarious. The opening track, On the Verge, draws on the roadhouse rockabilly John Fogarty looked back to for swamp-rock hits like Green River. Make It Hail has a defiant My Girl Is Red Hot-style pulse from drummer Scott Billingsley, a snidely funny outlaw ballad spoof with a sizzling, spiraling guitar solo midway through.

Tune in Tokyo has a brassy mariachi bounce: it’s probably the only song ever to rhyme “sake” with “Old Milwaukee.” The instrumental Sneaky Tiki is a choogling mashup of Chuck Berry and Link Way. “We’ll say things we’ll never say,” Hinds sings on the oldtimey swing parody Gin Day: “Have a Gibson!” The album winds up with a cowpunk take of Johnny Burnette’s Train Kept A-Rollin’ Fire up the DeSoto, press “drive” and put some wind on those big tailfins.

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