The best bands in any genre are usually the ones who aren’t afraid to mess with formulas, have a little fun with things and generally shake things up....

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The best bands in any genre are usually the ones who aren’t afraid to mess with formulas, have a little fun with things and generally shake things up. The HorrorPops are that sort of band. While the act builds from a psychobilly foundation, Bring It On! is a huge step away from the hordes of similar acts with little to no imagination.

Breaking out of line from the zombies of Cramps wannabes and psychobilly clones, Bring It On! liberally borrows from straight-up punk rock to give The HorrorPops a bit of life. Of course, singer/bassist Patricia Day’s vocals – she’s one part Siouxise Sue and one part Gwen Stefani – make getting into the ’Pops’ bopping punkabilly a lot easier. Day and drummer 009dermeier lay down straight-from-the-’50s rockabilly rhythms with slapped bass and four-on-the-floor 4:4 drum work leading the act through swinging hillbilly rhythms. Instead of dipping into the worn-out world of creepy psychobilly rhythms, however, guitarists Kim Nekroman and Geoff Kresege rifle through punk’s bag of tricks to add a melodic, powerful punch to the band’s rhythm section. Instead of reinventing the Zombie Elvis vibe, Bring It On! acknowledges its place in the punk underground with a hearty dose of modern zip.

Similarly, Day doesn’t dwell on themes of the supernatural or creatures of the night, giving her songs a lot more substance than typical psychobilly. Don’t think it’s an accident, either: Album opener “Freaks in Uniform” condemns the conformity of the punk and psychobilly underground. Other albums touch on everything from tales of love gone wrong (“Hit’N’Run” and “Caught in a Blonde”) to simple drunken revelry (“Crawl Straight Home”) or pledges of devotion (“Undefeated”).

The HorrorPops might crawl around in the psychobilly underground, but they have bigger things on their mind than simple issues of credibility. They’re here to rock, one way or another, and have more to say than stupid tales of B-movie horrors. It’s enough to rescue psychobilly from the rut the genre settled into so long ago. Bring it on, indeed.

www.aversion.com

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The sophomore album from these psychobilly Danish darlings blows away their debut. Less cliched B-movie stuff and with more inventive takes on psychobilly...

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The sophomore album from these psychobilly Danish darlings blows away their debut. Less cliched B-movie stuff and with more inventive takes on psychobilly (including emphasis on 80s new wave), the Horrorpops finally sound like their own band and less like a female version of the Nekromantix. While no song matches the raucous intensity of the opening track ("Freaks In Uniforms"), the album is fun and gets better with each listen. Check out "Caught In A Blond" and "Crawl Straight Home."

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