Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Mixing the familiar sounds of Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, and the Ventures, Los Straitjackets create their own version of energetic surf guitar twang, complete with Mexican wrestling masks. Los Straitjackets began in the summer of 1988. Eddie Angel (guitar), L.J. "Jimmy" Lester (drums), and Danny Amis (guitar) formed an instrumental trio called the Straitjackets, which played local Nashville shows throughout the summer. After a six-year hiatus, the Straitjackets reunited, added E. Scott Esbeck on bass, and changed their name to Los Straitjackets. In November 1994, the band signed with Upstart Records. They released their first single, "Gatecrasher" b/w "Lonely Apache," on Sympathy for the Record Industry in February 1995. In March 1995, the band's first album, The Utterly Fantastic and Totally Unbelievable Sound of los Straitjackets, was released on Upstart. That summer the band went on its first major U.S. tour. In June 1996, the band released its second album, ¡Viva!; it was the last appearance on a Los Straitjackets album for Esbeck, who left the group in 1998, with Pete Curry taking over on bass. The Velvet Touch of los Straitjackets, their first album for Yep Roc Records, followed in 1999 and Damas y Caballeros! surfaced two years later. The mysterious musos decided to move on to holiday music the next year, and tackled several Christmas favorites on the fun 'Tis the Season for los Straitjackets! Supersonic Guitars in 3-D arrived in 2003, followed by a collection of outtakes, live tracks, and rarities called Vivos y los Raros in 2004. Twist Party dropped in 2006, which introduced new drummer Jason "Teen Beat" Smay, replacing Jimmy Lester who left the group the previous year. After releasing the all-star Rock en Español, Vol. 1 in 2007, which teamed the instrumentalists with a handful of vocalists, Los Straitjackets returned in 2009 with The Further Adventures of Los Straitjackets, a back-to-basics album that nixed guest singers and horns in favor of the Straitjackets core rocking guitar sound. The quartet expanded to a quintet in 2010 when Los Straitjackets added a third guitarist, Greg Townson. 2012's Jet Set, which marked the return of Amis to the band after recovering from a difficult illness, was recorded at the Pow Wow Fun Room Studios in Los Angeles, produced by Janne Haavisto, and featured guest spots from the Basic Cable Horns (best-known for their work on the Conan television show) and Finnish actress and musician Irina Bjorklund. The album also featured a new drummer, Chris Sprague, who took over from Jason Smay. In 2013, los Straightjackets shared billing with the Fleshtones and Southern Culture on the Skids for an album of horror-themed retro-rock, Mondo Zombie Boogaloo. Los Straitjackets renewed their commitment to "instrumental music with vocals" on the 2014 release Sings The Great Instrumental Hits, with Deke Dickerson (fittingly a man more celebrated as a guitarist than a singer) warbling little-heard lyrics to popular instrumental tunes, including "Pipeline," "Walk Don't Run," and "Honky Tonk."

Biography by Tracy Frey, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Los Straitjackets is one of the top dogs in the surf rock scene, and if you pop this disc into your cd player, you'll see why. This is some top notch surf/instrumental rock done by folks who obviously love this kind of music. It's very apparent that these guys are having alot of fun playing this music. Fun is something missing from alot of groups anymore. When I wanna take a break from my progressive rock snobbery and just have fun, these guys are great way to do it. If you ask me, you really can't go wrong with any Los Straitjackets material, but their debut is hard to top, and I would suggest it as your first one if you decide to get any. Slipknot can stick it where the sun don't shine.

Review by Stanley Runk, Amazon.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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The Shadows/Ventures of the '90s arrive as a quarter in Mexican wrestling masks, burgundy turtlenecks, black jeans, black Converse and bedecked in silver sun pendants. Live los Straitjackets effect an inscrutable demeanor and rock from a stage uncluttered with monitors. Because they actually listen to each other, the drummer sits in their midst at the stage's edge. The band is tight, fused and rocking. For me, there is no better guitar-based instrumental rock album of 1997.

Review by Tom Schulte, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Los Straitjackets' third album, The Velvet Touch of los Straitjackets, contains more witty, knowing guitar instrumentals that appropriate the best of surf, jangly pop, rockabilly, and spaghetti Western soundtracks with aplomb. Driving surf numbers like "Tempest" and "Hornet's Nest" are mixed with sweeter sounds like "Close to Champaign" and a cover of "My Heart Will Go On" that places the song closer to the Pacific shoreline than Atlantic icebergs. Klezmer and Mexican elements flavor songs like "Tabouli" and "Tijuana Boots," and while the group's inherent cleverness and kitsch occasionally veer into self-parody, Velvet Touch is another solid effort from an always entertaining band.

Review by Heather Phares, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Welcome to the excitement of one entire los Straitjackets show just the way it happened during the summer of 2000 at The Foothill Tavern in Long Beach, CA. And where better to encounter the surf-riding, mask-wearing, Spanish-speaking garage rockin' of "America's premier instrumentalists" as their pre-recorded introduction claims? It's a wild, wooly 60 minutes of 19 nonstop twang/trash rock tunes delivered with precision and spitfire riffs blazing. While many of these tracks, like the quartet's innovative take on Celine Dion's smarmy "My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme from Titanic)," have turned up on three previous los Straitjackets albums, the black Converse-shod foursome add six covers of more like-minded classics to their set. Even though their jittery roots originals are well constructed, it's still a kick to hear them slow dance to Santo & Johnny's "Sleepwalk" and Floyd Cramer's "Last Date," as well as gallop through Link Wray's "Rawhide" and smoke into "I'm Branded" along with Louis Prima's "Sing Sing Sing" like they've been playing them all their life, which they probably have. Rather than rip into an obvious Ventures track, they unearth an obscurity with the appropriately titled "Driving Guitars" to pay tribute to their most obvious influence. Sure, it starts to sound a bit samey after a while, but the band's obvious glee in what they're doing and the energy they infuse to these songs, spurred on by a sold-out club crowd, keeps the show lively for its entirety. Not quite as good as being there to experience the band in full regalia with their syncopated stage moves, this hour-long souvenir is the next best thing.

Review by Hal Horowitz, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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A huge departure for this masked, previously all-instrumental surf quartet, their fifth album is, as indicated by its title, augmented by vocals. But not just any vocals. Eleven out of the 13 tracks boast a different singer (Big Sandy, who also toured with the band in 2001, appears twice) adding just the right touch to the disc's eclectic covers of rockin' soul (los Bravos' "Black Is Black" with the Mavericks' Raul Malo), British Invasion-styled pop ("Bumble Bee" with a rare vocal from Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell), good-time roots (Nick Lowe is guest lead bassist on his own "Shake That Rat," one of the disc's two instrumentals), weepy string-laden '60s ballads (Sixpence None the Richer's Leigh Nash gives a perfectly frail reading of Skeeter Davis' "End of the World"), Cramps-style high octane swamp (Reverend Horton Heat toughens up Roy Orbison's "Down the Line"), their usual twisted, twangy, hang-ten surfin' sufari (a husky voiced Dave Alvin sounds perfect on "California Sun"), and Link Wray-styled, reverb-laden scrappy punk (the Trashmen swing through a tight "A Huevo"). At only 34 minutes, it's a little on the short side, but there is a crisp conciseness to the tracks – the majority of which run less than three minutes – that harks back to the days when the perfect 45 rpm single packed in everything it needed. It also sounds like the singers were actually in the studio with the band, rather than overdubbed later, as they seem to feed off los Straitjackets' manic energy. A terrific concept that broadens the group's horizons while staying true to their American garage, rockabilly, and wave-riding roots, this is a most welcome addition to los Straitjackets' existing instrumental catalog, and a floorboard-shaking party disc as well.

Review by Hal Horowitz, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Hard to believe, but being America's leading purveyors of hod-rodded vintage-style instrumental rock isn't the most lucrative career one might choose, so the boys in los Straitjackets are always eager to pick up the right kind of side gig, which is where Encyclopedia of Sound comes in. The CD is a collection of 22 short selections in a variety of classic styles – early instrumental rock, '60s garage rock, blues, country, Tex Mex, and jazz – which the band wrote and recorded specifically to shop around to television and film producers looking for short bits of incidental music. As a result, most of these pieces sound just a bit generic (that's part of the idea), and 17 out of 22 clock in at under two minutes; los Straitjackets fans looking for a solid chunk of fresh listening or beginners wanting to introduce themselves to the group should certainly look elsewhere. But this set certainly shows off the group's versatility, expert chops, and easy mastery of classic styles, and it makes for pleasant enough background listening. If you dig los Straitjackets, Encyclopedia of Sound is a pleasant but hardly an essential purchase, unless you happen to license music for feature films or television shows, in which case "Switchblade Stroll" or "Onion Dip" would sound pretty cool coming out of the car radio while your characters drive down a rain-slick street late at night.

Mark Deming, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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If you're looking for someone to help you share the joy and magic of the holiday season, who better than the world's leading masked instrumental surf band? Los Straitjackets don't offer up a whole lot of surprises on 'Tis the Season for los Straitjackets!, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing; Eddie Angel and Danny Amis serve up lots of tasty guitar work, and Pete Curry and Jimmy Lester are one solid rhythm section, just as they've always been, and on these 13 tunes (11 covers and two originals) the lucha libre-obsessed guitar wranglers show off the smarts, humor, and sterling chops that have become their trademark. The "La Bamba"-accented "Feliz Navidad," a version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" which channels the spirit of the Chantays, and the Ventures tribute of "Sleigh Ride" are highlights, and while this album will go over best with those who thrive on retro cool, this should send your next Christmas party into a state of dance fever with anyone who appreciates the era of enjoyable AM radio. How's the surf at the North Pole these days, anyway?

Review by Mark Deming, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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The association seems unusual at first glance, but Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater's roots rock and blues backed by Los Straitjackets' twangy surf results in a potent combination. Other than the participants' colorful choice of headgear, this joint venture urges Clearwater to his most rocking and uninhibited studio performances, while expanding his stylistic boundaries. Never a straight bluesman, the Chief's Chuck Berry tendencies are well established. But even though he tosses off another in a long line of Berry-esque rockers with a "Johnny B. Goode"-heavy "Hillbilly Blues," this album explores his non-blues roots more thoroughly. The opening cover of "You're Humbuggin' Me" kicks things off with a blast of '50s Little Richard abandon. Elsewhere, he moves into spaghetti Western, reverbed instrumental/rockabilly waters – no doubt provoked by the Straitjackets – on "Monkey Paw." Clearwater also tosses in a few Ray Charles-styled R&B '50s nuggets in "I Love You" and "Before This Song Is Over," both originals that sound like authentic lost gems due partially to Dennis Taylor's tough tenor sax. New Orleans rhythms rule on Clearwater's cover of Fats Domino's "Let the Four Winds Blow," and he hits an easygoing rockabilly vibe on "Midnight Groove," another horn and guitar-driven burner. "Back Down to Earth" also mixes swamp soul with country blues in an intoxicating blend. Closing with "Good Times Are Coming," a six-minute gospel-tinged slow blues with only a lonely organ as accompaniment, brings Clearwater full circle and ends the album on its mellowest note. The guitarist sounds jovial and inspired throughout, trading licks with Los Straitjackets' Eddie Angel and Danny Amis and singing with an upbeat affability that makes it sound as if he's in your living room. With its diverse menu and crackling performances, Rock 'n' Roll City demonstrates that Eddy Clearwater excels at far more than his existing catalog indicates.

Review by Hal Horowitz, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Following a Christmas album and a standards-laden outing (with some impressively diverse guest vocalists), los Straitjackets return to their hallmark surf-punk instrumental core with Supersonic Guitars in 3-D. Producer Mark Neill coaxes a bit more grit and grime out of the quartet for these sessions, and the band's feet are firmly planted once again in their accustomed roles. Even if the themes and riffs are all but played-out 1960s rock and roll cliches, the band never sounds stiff or bored with themselves. Still, for all the swagger and swing, the funky, 30-second-long, tremolo-laced tag at the end of "Can You Dig It?" is by far the most interesting thing happening here. This group has experimented with interesting rhythms in the past, and it's an avenue that deserves further exploration. Bitchin' idea to include 3-D cover art with glasses inside, though.

Review by John Duffy, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Released on Yep Roc in 2004, Play Favorites is a collection of cover songs. While primarily an instrumental surf CD, Los Straitjackets interpret a wide variety of material, including Bim Bam Baby made popular by Frank Sinatra, Joan Jett's Bad Reputation and the standard Moon River. Originally sold to fans at concert venue and not known to all fans as part of their catalog, the CD remains available online and through Yep Roc.

Despite the lack of original material, Play Favorites satisfies both surf aficionados with tasty covers of classics like Telstar, Out of Limits, Perfidia and live favorite Jack the Ripper, while adding amusing takes on standards and straight rock along with an obligatory cover of a 60's hit (Elvis' Girl of my Best Friend) in Spanish. Blending elements of Rock en Espanol and Velvet Touch, this release serves as a bridge to Rock en Espanol.

Guest vocalist Deke Dickerson makes his Los Straitjackets debut.

Review by surflover, Amazon.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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A slight concept, even by Los Straitjackets' standards, the masked men from Nashville time travel back to the swinging '60s and land in the middle of a suburban twist party. Special guest Kaiser George Miller handles honking sax and vocals on a set of 16 dance-ready tracks that fly by in a little over a half-hour. It's fun aplenty, but like that tasty Chinese food, you'll forget about it an hour after the disc ends. A few covers ("Domino Twist" originally recorded by, who else, Fats Domino and Joey Dee & the Starliters' "Peppermint Twist") shimmy and shake next to 14 similar sounding slabs of hip-swiveling, foot tapping twist music. It's a blast from the past for those who remember the days of hula hoops and lava lamps, or Austin Powers fans, and a kick while it lasts. Even at the abbreviated playing time, the band runs short of ideas, tapping into "Isn't Love Grand," a very non-twisty British Invasion/Merseybeat styled ballad circa Gerry & the Pacemakers. "All Back to Drac's" brings the group's beloved surf music to the table and "Mad Scientwist" nails the '60s instrumental vibe right down to sound effects and sax. A deluxe edition adds an hour-long DVD of the three Pontani Sisters (a burlesque troupe who appear on the cover but are not on the audio disc), decked out in their best bikinis, wigs and white go-go boots teaching us how to do a few of the album's dances and starring in a few intentionally cheesy videos. Like the album, it'll provide a few chuckles the first time around but it's doubtful that even fans of Los Straitjackets' shtick will return for a second helping.

Review by Hal Horowitz, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Nashville-based instrumental rock combo Los Straitjackets have been proving for years that rock & roll is a truly universal language by doing away with vocals, but for this album the masked guitar manglers have decided to focus on a more specific tongue – namely Spanish. For Rock en Español, Vol. 1, Los Straitjackets have recruited three talented friends to perform a set of rock & roll classics in Spanish – Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, Big Sandy of retro-country kings Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, and Little Willie G., lead singer with legendary East L.A. soul-rockers Thee Midnighters. While most folks will be familiar with these tunes in their English-language originals, many of the versions that appear on this album were taken from Spanish rewrites recorded by in the '60s by Mexican teen groups such as Los Teen Tops, Los Locos del Ritmo and Los Rebeldes del Rock. Sometimes things change a little bit in translation, as "Hang On Sloopy" gets turned into a lover's plea to a gal named Lupe, "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" is transformed into "El Microscopico Bikini" (speaking of another universal language), and "Wild Thing" becomes "Loco Te Patina el Coso." While this all might sound like a goof to some folks, Los Straitjackets play these tunes with their usual mixture of chops, fire and effortless swing (and guitarists Eddie Angel and Danny Amis are in great form on these sessions), while their special guests really deliver the goods. The tough but supple voice Cesar Rosas has been putting to such great use with Los Lobos over the years gets another worthy platform here (he also produced the album), while Big Sandy (who cut a great album of classic Low Rider R&B in 1998 called Dedicated to You) gets to show off the passionate range of his voice on "De Dia y de Nocha" (aka the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night") and "Dame Una Seña" (aka Brenton Woods' "Gimmie Little Sign"), and Little Willie G. steals the show with a heart-tugging version of Arthur Alexander's "Ana." And Los Straitjackets do throw in one token instrumental, a cookin' cover of Thee Midnighters' "Whittier Boulevard." Rock en Español, Vol. 1 is a fine tribute to some of the less commonly explored aspects of rock & roll's Latin roots, and it's great stuff for either listening or dancing.

Review by Mark Deming, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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It's back to basics as everyone's favorite Mexican wrestling mask-wearing, Chuck Taylor-clad, surf and garage instrumental rock band ditches the guest vocals (in English and Spanish), occasional horns (save for the honking sax on one track), and '60s dance moves to concentrate on what it does best. The baker's dozen songs zip by in a half hour, and while there is little that any Los Straitjackets fan hasn't heard before, the quartet chugs through its paces with requisite retro energy, conjuring up the ghosts of the Ventures, Dick Dale, Link Wray, and – name your favorite '60s twangy instrumental combo here – along with writing new wordless classics for its set list. The sound is somewhat rawer and slightly more punk-influenced, especially noticeable on the "Lust for Life" riff powering "Teen Beast." At nearly four minutes, that is the disc's longest track by a wide margin, as most get to the finish line in under three and a handful even make it before the two-minute buzzer. "Sasquatch" injects some patented Who chords before taking off on a boogie train, and "Nocturnal Twist" is more of the same hip-swiveling clean guitar rock the band has trafficked in since its 1995 debut. The thick reverb on "Mercury" could be the shady soundtrack to an old late-'50s black-and-white noir gumshoe flick. A few fuzz lines muss up the finger-snapping vibe on "Blowout!," not to be outdone by "Minority Report"'s guitar that seems like it was recorded underwater, a clever change-of-pace effect that isn't overdone. For the most part, though, these songs would fit just fine on many of the foursome's previous releases, but that doesn't make this any less eye-opening for newbies first getting on board Los Straitjackets' grimy surfboard. Older enthusiastic followers will enjoy the fresh tunes, typically classy delivery, and genre-bending licks, yet moderate fans won't find enough revelatory here to make this release stand out in Los Straitjackets' catalog of similarly rocking fare.

Review by Hal Horowitz, Allmusic.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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This is Los Straitjackets’ second holiday album, following 2002′s ‘Tis the Season for Los Straitjackets, and judging by the results, the surf rock band can crank out satisfying carols until they exhaust the canon. As the Ventures and Santo and Johnny proved, Christmas songs are awfully adaptable to surf rock beat; in this case, Los Straitjackets one-up their forerunners by giving everything a post-modern twist. Not only are these carols updated to the rock ‘n’ roll era, but their done in a way that refers to other rock classics. ”O Come All Ye Faithful” near-quotes “Apache” and “Telstar,” “Deck the Halls” adds a bit of “I Fought the Law,” and “We Three Kings” merges with Dick Dale’s “Pipeline.”

As smart as the album is, it’s not brainy nor overly self-conscious. If you don’t recognize the references, Yuletide Beat still delivers straight-ahead holiday rock ‘n’ roll.

Review by Alex Rawls, Offbeat.com

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Los Straitjackets - Albums Collection 1995-2014 (16CD) [Re-Up]

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Jet Set, the 14th studio album from Nashville's masked marvels of instrumental guitar rock Los Straitjackets, sounds pretty much the way you'd expect an album from this band to sound – and that's one of the most satisfying things about it. Guitarist and co-founder Danny Amis (aka Daddy-O Grande) was forced to drop out of the band after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, but after a grueling two years of treatment, he returns to action on Jet Set, and longtime fans will heave a sigh of relief as they spin this disc and hear that Amis and his bandmates are sounding as sharp as ever. Los Straitjackets have been mining '60s instrumental rock for inspiration since 1988, and Jet Set demonstrates they haven't hit bottom just yet. From the slam-bang intro of "Crime Scene," the exotic escapades of "New Siberia" and "Sardinian Holiday," and the soulful strut of "Brooklyn Slide" to the frantic report of "Pop Rocks & Coke," the Latin accents of "Walking Down 3rd Street," and the easygoing pop melodicism of "Aerostar," Los Straitjackets still have lots of tuneful notions after more than two decades on the stand, and they thankfully still have the chops to make them fly. The light-speed picking by Amis and Eddie Angel on "Space Mosquito" is nothing short of dazzling, drummer Jason Smay masterfully drives the tunes and punctuates the melodies at the same time, and bassist Peter Curry keeps the bottom end locked down tight. Los Straitjackets haven't reinvented themselves on Jet Set, but that's not what this album is about. Instead, this music celebrates survival, perseverance, and most importantly the sheer joy of making music, and Jet Set captures a great band having a ball in the studio. Give it a listen and you'll be having a pretty fine time yourself.

Review by Mark Deming, Allmusic.com

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Some songs are born instrumentals, and others have their non-vocal status thrust upon them. Los Straitjackets are the band that leads the field in recording instrumental albums with vocals, having made two albums (2001's Sing Along with los Straitjackets and 2007's Rock en Español, Vol. 1) where guest singers lend their voices to the band's acres of expressive, usually lyric-free twang. Now the Masked Men of Instrumental Rock have added a third vocal album to their list, and this time they've put a new spin on the concept by covering 14 well-known pop, rock, and surf instrumentals, and brought in Deke Dickerson to warble the oft-forgotten lyrics the tunes had all along (except for two numbers where Mark Winchester has come up with fresh words to match the melodies). Of course, part of the gimmick is that Los Straitjackets have partnered with a guy best known as a master guitarist to do the vocals on Sings the Great Instrumental Hits, but Dickerson is a solid and capable singer, and he has enough of a sense of humor to know how to play the (usually unintentional) silliness of these verses, and his con brio approach to "Fury," "Magic Star" (better known as "Telstar"), "Perfidia," and "Kawanga" is fitting and happily shameless. Of course, you also learn why hardly anyone sings the words to "Honky Tonk," "Walk, Don't Run," or "You Can Count on Me" (which in instrumental form was the theme song to Hawaii Five-0) by listening to these recordings (which Dickerson delivers in glorious deadpan). Los Straitjackets tear into these songs with their usual skill and guitar fire, and they put imaginative twists on a few numbers, playing "Miserlou" as a song of exotic romance in the desert, and referencing both Jørgen Ingmann and the Sugarhill Gang in their take on "Apache" (and Dickerson's rapping on the latter is itself worth the price of admission). Ultimately, Los Straitjackets are at their best without a singer, but in spite of this, Sings the Great Instrumental Hits works because the band is at the top of its game here, and Dickerson is an entertainer who knows what to do with this concept.

Mark Deming, Allmusic.com