With their echo-affected vocals and guitar twang, the Blues Explosion and Speedball Baby have, in the past, each created their niche with a unique fusion of rockabilly and punk rock. So it’s no wonder that as Heavy Trash, Matt Verta-Ray of Speedball Baby and Jon Spencer (the most exciting performer in rock ‘n’ roll today) have gone all the way and created a true rockabilly record. Yes, that’s right folks, a rockabilly record right here in 2005. Gene Vincent or early Elvis it ain’t, but it’s pretty close. And it seems to cover all the ground those classic records from the late 1950s tackled. It’s a smorgasbord of all the old love and death and god and murder themes rolled into one and ripped off at random. Case in point is the love-gone-wrong rebel on ‘Loveless’, or the betrayed lover who isn’t just crying, he’s sending his cheatin’ woman to the bottom of the ocean on ‘Under the Waves’, There’s the country hobo in ‘Walkin’ Bum’, the Bo Diddley gospel preacher in ‘This Day is Mine’ and the upstart romantic in the gorgeous ‘Take My Hand’. Jon Spencer sounds like he’s having the most fun he’s had in years, and Verta-Ray’s guitar is country-fried with extra twang. Carl Perkins would be proud. Joe Sullivan