Angry Johnny and the Killbillies are a band with a style that might be considered psychobilly, except I'm fairly certain that AJK (as they are henceforth known) are mostly just psycho with very little 'billy' at all. Consisting of 'Angry Johnny' on vocals, Sal Vega on drums, 'Goatis T. Ovenrude' on mandolin/banjo and Slabs Theilman on bass, they are/were on Tar Hut Records, but as Tar Hut's web site is now dead and gone, it's very hard to verify if this is still true. Anyway...

AJK is the sort of band that some people will find really good/funny, while everyone else asks 'What is this shit?' Roughly, if you like Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Rocky Erikson, and zombies, you may well be in the former category. Most of their songs have a feel of almost being a joke, but in a ha ha only serious sort of way. For instance, Hankenstein opens up with a song about the woes of cutting up the meter man with a chainsaw after thinking he was doing yer woman. And you'd never have thought a song about a dead raccoon could be so damned catchy, either.

Discography

Sadly, it seems that with the (possible) demise of their record label, neither of their CDs are very easy to find (in fact, they seem to be damn near impossible to find). They are still touring, however, so you might want to check them out if they come to a town near you.

Official website is http://www.getangry.com

† Which is not to say you have to like all of these things to appreciate AJK. But if you don't like zombies... fuck off.

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