Dec 14

Steve Huey

Under Appreciated

STEVE HUEY
 

The Allmusic piece on Dick Dale by Steve Huey begins:  “Dick Dale wasn’t nicknamed ‘King of the Surf Guitar’ for nothing:  He pretty much invented the style single-handedly; and no matter who copied or expanded upon his blueprint, he remained the fieriest, most technically gifted musician the genre ever produced.  Dale’s pioneering use of Middle Eastern and Eastern European melodies (learned organically through his familial heritage) was among the first in any genre of American popular music, and predated the teaching of such ‘exotic’ scales in guitar-shredder academies by two decades.  The breakneck speed of his single-note staccato picking technique was unrivalled until it entered the repertoires of metal virtuosos like Eddie Van Halen, and his wild showmanship made an enormous impression on the young Jimi Hendrix.” 

 

(December 2014)

 

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With his fractured vision and his frantic singing and playing style, Mojo Nixon perhaps best personifies what is meant by “psychobilly”; he is a native of Chapel Hill (real name:  Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr.).  Steve Huey provides a cogent synopsis of his mystique in his biography for Allmusic:  “One of the most out-sized personalities on college radio in the ’80s, Mojo Nixon won a fervent cult following with his motor-mouthed redneck persona and a gonzo brand of satire with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.  Nixon had a particular knack for celebrity-themed novelty hits (‘Elvis Is Everywhere’, ‘Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child’, ‘Don Henley Must Die’), but he was prone to gleefully crass rants on a variety of social ills (‘I Hate Banks’, ‘Destroy All Lawyers’, ‘I Ain’t Gonna Piss In No Jar’), while celebrating lowbrow, blue-collar America in all its trashy, beer-soaked glory.  All of it was performed in maximum overdrive on a bed of rockabilly, blues, and R&B.” 

 

(January 2015/2)

 

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The opening track on Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls by Coven is called “Black Sabbath”. Coincidentally, or perhaps not coincidentally, the opening song on the debut album Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath is also called “Black Sabbath”. The Allmusic article on this album by Steve Huey, which came out the following year, opens with: “Black Sabbath’s debut album is the birth of heavy metal as we now know it. Compatriots like Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple were already setting new standards for volume and heaviness in the realms of psychedelia, blues-rock, and prog rock. Yet of these metal pioneers, Sabbath are the only one whose sound today remains instantly recognizable as heavy metal, even after decades of evolution in the genre.”
 
(June 2016)

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I recently bought the first album by Kid ’N Play, 2 Hype (1988) – mostly because of the hair, I admit, since I really didn’t know anything else about them – and found it to be a really enjoyable record.  The cover shot is about as non-threatening as you can get.  Allmusic gives the album 4½ stars. with Steve Huey raving:  “Accusations of being soft notwithstanding, those qualities are exactly what give their debut album, 2 Hype, its refreshing charm.  There isn’t much on the duo’s minds other than friendship, dancing, and dating, and everything stays pretty innocent – Kid even confesses to being shy around girls on ‘Undercover’.  If all of this seems safe and lightweight, it’s also a tremendous amount of good, clean fun.  Hurby ‘Luv Bug’ Azor’s production keeps things danceable and engaging throughout; the sound is fairly spare, with funky and occasionally club-friendly beats, catchy instrumental hooks behind the choruses, and basic DJ scratching. . . .  And even if its sound and style are very much of their time, 2 Hype still holds up surprisingly well, thanks to Kid ’N Play’s winning personalities.”
 
(September 2016)
 
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Allmusic says about this bunch (courtesy of Steve Huey):  “The Dickies were the clown princes of punk, not to mention surprisingly longstanding veterans of the L.A. scene.  In fact, by the new millennium, they’d become the oldest surviving punk band still recording new material.  In contrast to the snotty, intentionally offensive humor of many comedically inclined punk bands, the Dickies were winningly goofy, inspired mostly by trashy movies and other pop culture camp.  Their covers were just as ridiculous as their originals, transforming arena rock anthems and bubblegum pop chestnuts alike into the loud, speed-blur punk-pop – basically the Ramones crossed with L.A. hardcore – that was their musical stock in trade.  As the band got older, their music slowed down little by little; but their sound and their sense of humor stayed largely the same, and they were an avowed influence on new-school punkers like Green Day and the Offspring.” 
 
(March 2017)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021