Ever wonder what
the Misfits
would sound like if they were a bluegrass band? Yeah, probably not, but that's a pretty good capsule description of
Stab!
, the second album by San Francisco-based "horrorbilly" act
the Pine Box Boys
. Lead singer
Lester Raww
's comically splatteriffic lyrics (the opening title track is a giddy first-person celebration of the joys of being a serial killer) are set to manic acoustic rockabilly tunes pitched somewhere between
Hasil Adkins
and the
Bloodshot Records
catalog. From the old English murder ballads to
the Cramps
, this sort of thing has always had a place in country and rockabilly music, and
are simply taking the idea to its logical conclusion. The humorless may well balk at the fairly explicit misogyny of tunes like
"West Memphis Daddy"
(with its opening line "She's outta range/I can't shoot that far"), but the songs are so
EC Comics
cartoonish that it's difficult to take them at all seriously. That caveat aside,
is a hoot for psychobilly fans. ~ Stewart Mason