The song’s crime jazz vibe fits the title perfectly. They’re right up front in the mix, but also subtle and perfectly blend with the song’s cool, upbeat guitar riff. But we’re also including a song-by-song review below as a guide for those who prefer buying individual songs.ġ – Crime Scene (Amis): The rare use of horns on a Los Straitjackets song is pulled off perfectly, courtesy of Conan O’Brien’s house band.
We hope you buy the full album (preferably on vinyl or CD), either from your local independent retailer or from the Los Straitjackets store. As Los Straitjackets stares down its 20th anniversary, its comforting to have both Amis and the band’s creative juices back in center ring. Remember, this is a band that has donned wrestling masks since its first gig, when Amis pulled them out of a bag he’d brought back from Mexico City. Beneath this expertise also lurks an off-kilter sense of humor that always shines through, making for fun and repeated listens. Haavisto brought in fellow Cosmonaut Matti Pitskinki to play organ, and Finnish actress/musician Irina Björklund to play musical saw and lay down the album’s only vocals.īut Jet Set is – at its heart – a tribute to the experience and skill of the core musicians. The band is a favorite of O’Brien, who has featured them multiple times on his shows over the years.
He added more touches during mixing and mastering in Finland.Īnother treat are the small but distinctive contributions by other friends, such as Jimmy Vivino and The Basic Cable Horns from Conan O’Brien’s late-night TV show. Haavisto pushed the band to emphasize melodic songs, and he contributed percussion via bongos, tambourines and shakers. It was recorded by bassist Curry at The Pow Wow Fun Room in Los Angeles. The band also got a lot of help from producer and longtime friend Janne Haavisto (former drummer of the late, great Finnish surf rock band Laika And The Cosmonauts), who helps give the album a modern surf sheen. When Amis fell ill, his shoes were ably filled by Greg Townson (aka Gregorio el Grande), who continues as a touring member and also a contributing songwriter on seven Jet Set tracks. Within the confines of the guitar-bass-drums format, the band – Amis, Angel, bassist Pete Curry, and drummer Jason “Teen Beat” Smay – seems to enjoy branching into as many genres as they can cram into 15 songs. The new five-piece Los Straitjackets (from left): Danny Amis, Pete Curry, Jason Smay, Greg Townson, Eddie Angel. On top of that, the band has harnessed its decades of combined experience dabbling in a dizzying array of different genres and filtered it through the tight, surf-guitar-driven format that makes the band one of the leading lights of both the 1990s revival and current new wave of instrumental surf rock. Jet Set is a return to the insanely catchy riffs and high energy of the band’s early classics – The Utterly Fantastic and Totally Unbelievable Sound of Los Straitjackets (1995), ¡Viva! Los Straitjackets (1996), and The Velvet Touch of Los Straitjackets (1999). It’s great to see Amis – one of surf rock’s longtime practitioners (he started with the Raybeats in 1980-82) – back in action. “The godfather of Mexican surf” underwent a successful stem cell transplant in 2011, and he’s been pronounced well enough to play select dates on the band’s upcoming tour. “It took me out of commission for two years, even put me in a wheelchair for a while, but once I started recovering I began writing new songs like crazy and was able to record with the band again,” Amis says in a press release for Jet Set. Guitarist and co-founder Eddie Angel has been quoted as saying: “I think it’s remarkable that this far into our career, we could do something I’d consider our best work.”Īmis was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, in mid-2010. Jet Set, released Tuesday on Yep Roc Records, is the band’s lucky 13th studio album and perhaps its best ever. With co-founding guitarist Danny Amis (aka Daddy-O Grande) on the road to recovery from cancer, those masked marvels of instrumental rock have delivered one of the most diverse and polished albums in their 18-year career.
Like the lucha libre wrestlers who inspired it, Nashville’s Los Straitjackets has launched a high-flying comeback after being dealt a paralyzing blow that would have pinned lesser bands.