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The
Village Voice, January
1, 1999
The most rip-roarin,'
butt-kickin,' combo yet to bust out of the so-called No Depression ranks.
- Holly George-Warren
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Entertainment Weekly, June 12, 1998
Tony Scherman
Unremitting three-chord stab-and-slash fests (some quite tuneful), written
and sung by the guitarist/artist who painted the cover for Dinosaur Jr's
Where You Been. Angry Johnny delivers the '90s equivalent of Dock
Boggs' old Appalachian murder ballads. In 50 years, academics will ponder
this stuff, drawing conclusions about the dark side of the American soul.
Will Johnny snicker at their gullibility, or nod in assent? Only he knows.
B-
Billboard, May 2, 1998
Chris Morris
FLAG WAVING: "White trash music" is how Angry Johnny describes the sound
he and his band, the Killbillies, make their sophomore Tar Hut Records
album, "What's So Funny?," due May 5 through E-Squared/Alternative Distribution
Alliance. The Easthampton, Mass. based trio, which also includes bassist
Jim Joe Greedy and drummer Dwight Trash, plays a somewhat-befouled mash-up
of punk rock and country music, with distinctive black-comedy lyrics sporting
violent trailer- park scenarios. On several tracks, the band is augmented
by guitarist Eric "Roscoe" Ambel and members of the local outfits The
Lonesome Brothers and Steve Westfield & The Slow Band, who bring a
drunken Dixieland feel to some tracks. Imagine Shane MacGowan or Tom Waits
playing the Hank Williams songbook, and you get the idea. Angry Johnny
(who is listed in the Easthampton phone book under that name) explains
that his band's style was bred by a strange confluence of influences.
"I was listening to Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and Edgar Winter, but
I couldn't play that," he says. "Punk rock came along, and I could play
that . . . I was raised on Tex Ritter and Marty Robbins by my dad before
that." The movies also had an impact on Angry Johnny's weird worldview:
He cites such bizarre B-pictures as "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry," "Vanishing
Point" and "Race With the Devil" as favorites. You can hear echoes of
these oddball road pictures in such seething Killbillies narratives as
"High Noon in Killville" and "The Joneses." And let's not forget another
prominent band icon: Massachusetts bank robber Michael O'Driscoll. "He's
a Robin Hood [figure]," Angry Johnny says, 'He vowed he'd never be taken
alive. Now he's doing 315 years in a federal pen." Aside from his cracked
country music, Angry Johnny gets some kicks as an artist. He has designed
both of the band's album covers: Its 1996 debut, "Hankenstein," featured
Williams as Frankenstein's creature, while "What's So Funny?" features
a chilling portrait of killer clown John Wayne Gacy wielding a bloody
ax. He also contributed artwork to a Dinosaur Jr. Set. "I must have painted
a thousand fucking paintings,' he says. "I've had a couple of shows. The
art world never really welcomed me with open arms." The Killbillies have
developed a loyal local following but not a young one, Angry Johnny explains.
"Kids don't seem to get this shit, and that's cool . . . our audience
is old. They drink whiskey, and they buy me a lot of whiskey." In May,
the Killbillies will play live dates in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and
Connecticut; the band has tentative dates in the South and Mid-west this
summer and hopes to tour Texas in September.
Stereo Review, October 1998
Alanna Nash
**** (4 out of 4 stars) They're on the loose again. Set to thrashing guitars,
saxophone, tuba, and banjo, this sonata for serial killer is far too well
done to dismiss as novelty. But it's Angry Johnny's punked-up vocals and
obsessed songwriting that you'll really remember. Of course, after listening
to this stuff, you'll want to drive a stake through the heart of anyone
who ever looked at you cross-eyed.
Magnet, July/August 1997
Matt Hickey
Legend has it that at one Angry Johnny gig, during a song's pause, a befuddled
concert goer remarked, "He really is angry, isn't he?" However, thanks
to the cover painting of Hank Williams crossed with Frankenstein (Hankenstein
- get it?) and a generally scary-on-the-surface demeanor, Angry Johnny
and the boys have occasionally been branded as something of a novelty
act. I don't buy it; Angry storytelling, often painfully told in a Waits-esque
croak, is way too vivid to be so cavalierly dismissed. Has he really lived
tales such as "Life, Love, Death and the Meter Man" ("so he fired up that
chainsaw and he laid that sucker low") and "Brand New Girl" ("I'm gonna
skin you alive/And make a suit of your hide")? Certainly not, but his
heartfelt brand of traditional country/inspirational rock surely rings
true. Hankenstein may not be everyone's plate of roadkill, but if you
listen to it and see this band play, you shouldn't be scared shitless
so much as bowled over by Angry's integrity and intensity. If not, perhaps
he's got a chainsaw with your name on it.
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