Danny “O” & The Astrotones “Introducing Danny “O” & The Astrotones”

A couple of years back there was a band called The Caezars who seemed to be doing a pretty good job of breathing some new life into the rockabilly scene. Sadly, that mission failed but thankfully Danny has now formed this new band.

After a brief intro, “Machine Gun” confirms that this release is very much in the same vein as The Caezars. It’s a straight up rock n roll song with the simple purpose is to entertain. That’s the same case with tracks like “Drinkin’ On A School Night”, “The Same Old Story” and “Effect & Cause”. They’re numbers that seem designed to get you up and dancing.

Songs like “Take Me Back to Yesterday”, “Do The Astro” and “Fool Out Of You” can easily be classified as old school rock n roll or maybe rockabilly tracks. They even throw in a bit of Stray Cat Strut in the Burlesque tune in waiting “Time”. However, similar to the music of JD McPherson, there seems to be a different dynamic to them which ensures they seem relevant in todays music world. Maybe, it’s just the fact that the fun time rock n roll of numbers like “Paint The Town” and “Everyday Chains” are truly timeless.

Rockabilly bands always face the risk of just being too retro and, if we’re honest, quite ‘samey’. Only a few artists (eg JD McPherson or Darrell Higham) are able to transcend that genre and deliver something a bit special. Thankfully it appears Danny “O” & The Astrotones are a band to add to that list. Whether they can drag the sound out of the dedicated rockabilly club scene is another question. But, for now, we sure would like to see them playing their cool rock n roll sound live.