"Tiger Army spreads gospel of psychobilly music"
Psychobilly sounds like a character from a low-budget horror flick, but it's actually a musical style embraced by singer-songwriter Nick 13 and his band Tiger Army.
Most Americans haven't heard of psychobilly, he said. But that's not the case overseas.
"Psychobilly is a subculture and a music style that developed just after punk and has kind of run parallel with it in Europe since the early 1980s," Nick 13 said by phone from his home in Los Angeles. "There was always a strong rockabilly scene in the U.K. In the early '80s a couple of those bands, mainly the Meteors, were inspired with what was going on with punk at the time with the (Sex) Pistols and the Clash. They decided to infuse some of that energy and some of that vibe into the rockabilly they were already playing and basically psychobilly was born from that."
Nick 13 was drawn to the music and formed Tiger Army in 1995. The band made friends with northern California punkers Operation Ivy (later Rancid), Green Day and AFI, with whom Tiger Army played its first-ever gig at 924 Gilman St. in Berkeley.
"When we started, there were only a handful of people in the United States into it," he said. "But it was something that was completely tiny even by the standards of the most underground punk. It was to the point where a psychobilly band who is well-known in the European scene might draw 10 or 20 people here in a major city like San Francisco."
That still befuddles Nick 13.
"I don't know why it hasn't taken off here until the last couple of years," he said. "Because whether it's two-tone ska or oi or punk rock, death rock, anything that has had a big scene in Europe has usually crossed over here, at least in the underground scene. But that wasn't the case with psychobilly and I really don't know why."
Now the word is being spread through the Punks vs. Psychos Tour, which will arrive April 14 at the New Oasis in Sparks. It's the tour's second year, and Tiger Army has represented the psychos on both. Last year, Hellcat Record labelmates Necromantix and the Distillers were on the tour.
This year, the tour includes The Business, Roger Miret and the Disasters, F-Minus and the U.S. Roughnecks.
"I believe the concept was made up by (Rancid's) Lars Frederiksen," Nick 13 said. "It's not really about competition, though. The idea of it is to promote unity between different subcultures and fans of underground rock 'n' roll."
While the first tour was more psycho than punk, it's in reverse this year, Nick 13 said.
"The Roughnecks are a newer, relatively speaking, hard-edged oi band from Sacramento. Their bass player, Big J, is also in the Bastards and he's a tech for Rancid. They've got an album coming out soon on Hellcat.
"We've played with F-Minus a few times over the years. They're a great band. They play really fast, old-school hardcore style of punk, more like '82 than modern hardcore. The Disasters have that New York hardcore vibe, but their music is much more U.K.-punk influenced. They're more 1977 rock 'n' roll style of punk. And we've never played with The Business."
Tiger Army is putting the finishing touches on its third CD --- and first since 2001 --- called "III: Ghost Tigers Rise."
With Tiger Army's success --- and several new U.S. bands picking up on psychobilly --- Nick 13 sees the music finally getting its proper due in America. He points to some new bands such as Black Rose Phantom, Graveyard Shift and 12-Step Rebels. He also mentioned his favorite, the Quakes.
"I'd like to see it take its rightful place alongside all the other subcultures that have a pretty strong foothold here," he said.
"It's a great alternative to a lot of the music that is coming out these days, a lot of which I think is crap. For kids who aren't into being what's fed to them right now, I think psychobilly is a really good alternative because it's aggressive and it's true, not only to the spirit of original rock 'n' roll, but also what punk rock was about when it first started. By the same token, it also can be appreciated by people who are quite a bit older who are into rockabilly."
Neil Baron
Calendar correspondent
4/8/2004 05:30 pm
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