by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

They say if you can remember the ’60s, you weren’t there. Montreal’s Alley Dukes, purveyors of revved-up, raunchy rockabilly, would add this: if you’re under 65 and claim to remember the rock ’n’ roll ’50s, you’re full of shit.

“The world is flooded with boring, derivative rockabilly bands,” says guitarist Zak, “who sing about hot rods and kittens and rockin’ and boppin’ all night. Know what? That’s fucking bullshit. Whatever you like about ’50s rockabilly, it was the original punk rock. It was a big extension of the middle finger to straight society. These people didn’t sing about doing the Charleston all night and how great it was in the ’20s, so what the hell are rockabilly bands doing singing about the ’50s now, about fucking malt shops and drive-ins? How is that relevant today? If bands want to keep a music form alive, they have to do something to keep it vital and contemporary in this day and age.”

Which isn’t to say that the Alley Dukes are lugging around synths and sequencers in some pissant attempt at post-millennial revisionism. They’ve got that classic tangy guitar twang and bumpin’ thump of the stand-up bass, just cranked up ferociously.

“Our music is really, really traditional,” says Danny, the Dukes’ singer, guitarist and founding member. “We kept the music of the ’50s, but I don’t see myself singing about boppin’ in my Cadillac with my baby, or I’m the biggest daddy-o or whatever.”

A lot of what the Dukes do sing about is perhaps best not reprinted here—keep in mind that Danny’s also a charter member of Vulgar Deli, so booze, blood and body parts are on the menu. The Dukes’ first few songs were actually pretty tame, though Danny brought in a little bite. Then Zak joined the band and any veneer of decency evaporated.

“I wrote songs like ‘A Way Out,’” says Danny, “all about fucking a chick in the ass, and then we started having fun with the jailbait stuff. We didn’t stop—it got worse and worse all the time. Right now, the song we start the show with is ‘If This Ain’t Rockabilly You Can Suck My Balls,’ which actually talks about all those clichés I will never sing about—Cadillacs, Bettie Page, those icons. I can’t stand that at all.”

With the Brains at l’Hémisphère Gauche on
Saturday, June 18, 9 p.m., $6

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