antiMusic.com: Electric Ray and the Shockers

Electric Ray and the Shockers - California Torpedo

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Songs like "T.R.O.U.B.L.E" might lull you into thinking Electric Ray and the Shockers' California Torpedo is little more than a rockabilly-tinged rave- up. Later, with "Tempt Me" though, the band charges into unbridled rock & roll fever. There is that lively element in the group's music. However, the acoustic guitar and nearly whispered vocal on the darker-than-dark "Memory Hunter" reveals an entirely different side to this act. Sure, the group can bring the noise; this act can also sing lines like, "One man's pleasure is another man's hell."

The band calls its album California Torpedo, yet it's not a native SoCal act. This unit that points to The Cramps and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds as influences, is from Linz, Austria. This is where the album was tracked, and it's a strong, consistent, lively and thoughtful series of songs. Electric Ray is, indeed, many times like a powerful jolt of energy.

Sometimes, with all the dance music hogging up the radio airwaves, it may appear that the future of true rock & roll is in danger. But if Electric Ray and the Shockers have anything to say about it, rock & roll is here to stay.

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Electric Ray and the Shockers - California Torpedo
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