Rockabilly Kicks Up Its Heels -- Seattle Is Seeing A Revival As More Nightclubs And Bands, Such As Southern Culture On The Skids, Get Greased Up For Some Fun

------------------------------------------- Concert preview

Southern Culture on the Skids and the Dusty 45s, 9 tonight, the Showbox, 1426 First Ave., Seattle; $10, 206-628-0888. -------------------------------------------

When rockabilly first reared its greasy, pompadoured, duck-tailed head 40 some years ago, it did what youth-oriented popular music was destined to do from that time forward: scare the hell out of adults.

Today, the kids who emulated such 1950s rockabilly icons as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins are adults with children of their own. And many of the newer generation are now dancing to that early country/rock, not because it's scary, but because it's fun. It's even fun in the angst-ridden town that spawned grunge: There are now more places than ever to kick up your rockabilly heels in Seattle.

Every Wednesday night at the Showbox, rockabilly disc spinner DJ Hubba Hubba throws the "Pomade Rockabilly/Swing Revue," with local rockabilly acts like the Matadors and the Dempseys interspersed with Hubba's stack of classic rockabilly wax (see accompanying interview).

The Tractor Tavern, which frequently features Ray Condo and His Ricochets, will launch a new monthly rockabilly night on Jan. 12 called "Tony's Big-S Jamboree." It, too, will combine live music with old recorded favorites. The Crocodile Cafe, which began smuggling in Canada's Rattled Roosters six years ago, still regularly features rockabilly.

And the annual "Shake the Shack Ball," a rockabilly party that drew barely 200 fans when it started 11 years ago, last September ran three nights in two clubs and was jam-packed. Host Leon Berman, disc jockey of a rockabilly show on KCMU-FM every Friday, said the ball brings in people from "their 20s to their 60s," and many are decked out in the black peg pants and mile-high hairdos that rockabilly fans favor.

"It has always been about having fun," according to Rick Miller, lead guitarist and singer of Southern Culture on the Skids, a North Carolina-based trio that has been burning up the road for more than 10 years with its surf- and blues-influenced brand of rockabilly. Southern Culture played the Showbox just two months ago, but returns to the club tonight for a special "Pomade" production with the Dusty 45s and DJ Hubba Hubba.

"I don't mind coming back to Seattle so soon. We always have a blast," Miller said in a phone interview from his home base in Chapel Hill, N.C. "We just finished up a tour in Atlanta New Year's Eve so we'll have time to get over our hangovers before we play there."

Roots traced to Memphis

Rockabilly originally came out of pioneer producer Sam Phillips' Sun Studios in Memphis in the mid-'50s. Young, dangerous, hip-swinging discoveries like Elvis and the audaciously unrestrained Jerry Lee Lewis led the way.

The black blues/white country amalgam was simple and frantic, the instrumentation usually heavily vibratoed twanging guitar, hard-slapped stand-up bass and a simple snare drum snap. Voices warbled and wavered through a wind tunnel of reverb, assailing the moms and dads of Eisenhower's America with godless songs about sex, cars, sex, money, sex, clothes and sex.

Although Miller was a little kid during the inaugural years of rockabilly, it became his music of choice.

"The first record I ever bought was Blue Cheers' `Vincebus Eruptum' in 1970. I got it because it had a version of `Summertime Blues' on it. I read the credits and it said it was written by someone named `E. Cochran' and so my education began. It was the first music I truly loved."

The original rockabilly rush ended with the '50s, replaced by the more sophisticated rock-'n'-roll permutations that took place over the next four decades. Those who didn't stay with rock, like Johnny Cash, went country. Rockabilly became passe.

But it was never forgotten. Each new decade of rock bands was influenced by the music's first banner carriers. The Beatles, Stones and the Who did rockabilly - it has long been a pub staple in Britain. Credence Clearwater Revival and the punk band X owe much to the music. The Stray Cats, in the early '80s, aped not only the music, but the hair, clothes and tattoos.

Rockabilly to "psychobilly"

Southern Culture on the Skids - Miller, bassist Mary Huff and drummer Dave Hartman - mixes rockabilly, rock, Tex-Mex and surf music, the latter an influence of Miller's years in San Diego. It's been accurately described as "psychobilly." The music is fast, furious and funny.

The band's newest release, "Plastic Seat Sweat," is described as "the unholy union between vinyl and flesh." The trio's look is stereotypical "white trash," and chucking fried chicken at the audience is now an expected ritual at their concerts. Their songs sometimes border on novelty, but the playing is so good and true to its roots that it transcends the jokes.

"I look at a lot of today's bands and they just don't seem to be having any fun," said Miller. "Rockabilly may not be the biggest thing in music but it's always going to be there because it's always going to be about having a good time. That's what really counts." ------------------------------------------- Five songs every greaser should know (according to DJ Hubba Hubba):

"Red Hot" by Robert Gordon.

"Big Red Rocket of Love" by Reverend Horton Heat.

"Fujiyama Mama" by Wanda Jackson.

"Bopalana" by Ronnie Self.

"Hot Rod Monteley" by the Hot Rod Trio.