***Rocket 808’s self-titled debut album came out in late 2019, and luckily, absolutely nothing happened in 2020 to divert the world’s attention away from the release. Combining the primitive analog drum machine of 1970s New York underground icons Suicide with the raw guitar of Link Wray, Rocket 808 blasted rock n’ roll guitar into our new, weirder present. Now Rocket 808 returns with a new LP, House of Jackpots, taking up where the previous record left off while adding some new elements to juice things up. Still channeling Alan Vega, the Cramps, and Duane Eddy influences from the first LP, House of Jackpots further explores 1980’s television cop show themes and Ry Cooder film scores. “Punk rock Mike Post” might not be something you knew you needed, until you hear the first cut of the record. Slide guitar gives you your own personal screening of Wim Wenders’ "Paris, Texas" in your mind’s eye, or imagine if instead of the Barry De Vorzon intro, "Simon & Simon" opened with a trash-rock instrumental instead. Saturated in big-screen iconography whether its surf tunes for 100-foot waves or David Lynch soundtracks for a grimy 1970s Las Vegas strip, House of Jackpots takes you out of our current reality that frankly, we all probably want to forget anyway. Covers of 1950s proto-goth Jody Reynolds and reviled eighties electro-rockers Sigue Sigue Sputnik give nods to the obscure rock n’ roll weirdos of the past while dragging them into the future. Recorded by Grammy-winner Stuart Sikes and...
LP $21.95
05/12/2023
***BACK IN STOCK!!! Following a late 2018 debut 7", ROCKET 808 is the eponymous debut LP from the latest brainchild of JOHN SCHOOLEY, a guitarist with an impressive resume in the American underground going back a couple of decades with bands including but not limited to the REVELATORS, THE HARD FEELINGS, JOHN SCHOOLEY'S ONE MAN BAND and MEET YOUR DEATH. This, however, might be his most daring gambit to date. Combining the primitive analog drum machine of 1970s New York underground icons Suicide with the snarl and twang of guitar progenitors Link Wray and Duane Eddy, Rocket 808 has created a unique aesthetic mixing minimalist proto-punk noise and roots guitar into a new futurism, finally giving us the tomorrow with flying cars we were promised in 1950s EC Comics, Blade Runner, and back issues of Popular Mechanics. If Martin Rev had produced ZZ Top’s Eliminator, or if Ry Cooder’s score to Streets of Fire was instead heard on Sid and Nancy, you’d have an idea of how Rocket 808 blurs the lines between guitar-heavy styles and eras using artificial percussion. Just as The Cramps updated their 45 collection for a new generation, Rocket 808’s cover of Suicide's "Ghost Rider" exists alongside rockabilly classics like Ersel Hickey’s "Goin' Down That Road," while the band name conjures images of both Ike Turner’s supposedly “first rock n’ roll song” "Rocket 808" and the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, the world’s most famous drum machine. ORVILLE NEELY of OBN IIIs...
LP $17.75
10/18/2019
***Since the mid 1990’s guitarist/vocalist JOHN SCHOOLEY has been performing CPR on a succession of raw musics—as of this moment in time, he’s the only person who can claim to have been a member of the Crypt, Goner, Sympathy For The Record Industry and 12XU rosters, which either qualifies him for a plaque or combat pay. While this label presided over projects as idiosyncratic as Schooley’s acoustic collaboration with Walter Daniels (2014’s Dead Mall Blues) or the electric Meet Your Death (2016), neither are sufficient preparation for John’s other one-man project, ROCKET 808. An ingenious mix of 1970's analog drum machines with raw guitar, this is less of a style clash and more akin to a minimalist tour de force. Like Suicide adding Link Wray as a third band member, Rocket 808’s debut single is an incandescent, noirish hint of what’s in store for a full-length album in early 2019.
7" $7.75
09/28/2018