psychobilly

created by Jack Black

(idea) by Jack Black (4.3 y) (print) ? (I like it!) Tue May 02 2000 at 16:06:30

This is a term used in America to describe rockabilly that has been influenced by punk and/or heavy metal. It is normally exemplified by The Reverend Horton Heat and The Cramps. The term is kinda loose and could mean other things depending on where ya are and who you are talking to.

Especially if you are talking to Europeans. They have some narrow definition of the term that seems to exclude every band that's not The Meteors. Those damn European Bastards

(thing) by too_fast_to_live (2.8 mon) (print) ? (I like it!) 1 C! Wed Mar 09 2005 at 18:19:46

Psychobilly is a genre of music that is generally described as a mix between British punk rock of the 1970's and American rockabilly of the 1950's. The bands music has a lot of influences from horror films, violence, sex, and other topics of that sort. Modern psychobilly often resembles horror punk.

The word "psychobilly" was first used by Johnny Cash when he used it in his top ten hit "One Piece at a Time," Where he described a "psychobilly Cadillac." A couple years later, the Cramps described their music as "psychobilly" and "voodoo rockabilly." Although bands like the Cramps rejected being part of the psychobilly scene, they are still an important band to the psychobilly scene, along with bands like Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the Stray Cats, and Motorhead.

The first actual psychobilly band was the Meteors who formed in south London in 1980. The Meteors also encouraged the concept of psychobilly being apolitical, and their shows being a "politics-free" zone in order to avoid fights between their fans, as politics were becoming extremely common in punk music. To this day, almost no psychobilly bands sing about politics.

In 1982, a nightclub opened in Hammersmith, West London called Klubfoot which became a home for the psychobilly scene. It was eventually demolished and became a bus station. Because the psychobilly scene has never become very popular, psychobilly fans often organize "Psychobilly Weekends" where many bands are featured on one bill to attract many people from all over. The first weekends were organized in the UK in the mid-80s.

Psychobilly fashion consists of a hairstyle called a quiff, which is a lot like a mohawk, but not quite. The clothing has a lot of punk influence, such as dyed hair, studded clothes and leather jackets, mixed with early rockabilly/50's fashion.

printable version
chaos

The Cramps	rockabilly	Reverend Horton Heat	klingon programmers
Flametrick Subs	25 cent plastic toy vending machines	Slap bass	Alien Sex Fiend
Quiff	Full Custom Gospel Sounds	The Blasters	Buck Naked and the Bare Bottom Boys
Screamin' Jay Hawkins	punkabilly	The Spectres	Batmobile
Angry Johnny and the Killbillies	Mad Sin	Johnny Thunders	Horehound
cowpunk	Smoke on the Water	924 Gilman	November 4, 2000

Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.

Login
Password

remember me
password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

The best nodes of all time:
Risotto
To His Coy Mistress
John Kerry
paleontology
The evolutionary purpose of human body hair
How to entertain young children on little or no money
lawnjart spills his guts to the press
Petrarchan Sonnet
Love is not an emotion
Magic: The Gathering
Why I did what I did
Books made me a person
Cowboy Bebop

Cuckowski
Slavonic Princess	(poetry)
Heitah
Posthumous Oscar	(thing)
ignis_glaciesque
University of South Florida	(place)
ignis_glaciesque
Flogstaskriket	(idea)
liveforever
Caesar's last breath	(idea)
dagnyswaggart
she wants to believe	(personal)
antigravpussy
he doesn't know, but her eyes widen too far	(thing)
dagnyswaggart
Wild tides guard her secrets	(poetry)
Lord Brawl
Caesar's last breath	(poetry)
locke baron
Forgotten things in space	(fiction)
sitaraika
Colours	(idea)
etouffee
Wild tides guard her secrets	(poetry)
Lord Brawl
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog	(review)
a8ksh4
regret	(idea)
Heisenberg
Editor Log: July 2008	(log)

This affordable entertainment brought to you by The Everything Development Company