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| LEE
ROCKER
Bulletproof 33rd Street In 1982-83, the Stray Cats added new-wave sleekness to the music and fashion of '50s rockabilly and were rewarded with three Top 10 pop singles and countless magazine covers. When the Long Island trio broke up in 1984, singer-guitarist Brian Setzer went off to explore jump-blues, big-band swing and hot-rod music, but bassist Lee Rocker recommitted himself to rockabilly. He stripped away the new-wave veneer and pursued a rawer, more Southern form of rockabilly in the trios Phantom, Rocker & Slick and Big Blue and as a solo artist. All that work has paid off, as Bulletproof is the most impressive rockabilly record of his career. Rocker can now shift gears smoothly from the frantic romp of the title track to the finger-snapping swing of "Dog Gone Right" to the brooding slow blues of the Elvis Presley tribute "Blue Suede Nights." The characters in these songs are no longer cartoon figures in weird clothes but working-class adults with women trouble. Rocker's command of the upright bass is most obvious on the unaccompanied instrumental "Bottom's Up"; it's most effective as the syncopated pulse that makes the Beatles' "I'll Cry Instead," Buddy Holly's "Midnight Shift," Johnny Cash's "Johnny, Frankie's Man" and Carl Perkins's "One More Shot" ready for a biker-bar dance floor. Just as impressive are the catchy, driving originals by Rocker and/or Tara Novick, his new guitarist. -- Geoffrey Himes Appearing Saturday at Bop 'n Bowl at the Falls Church Duckpin Bowling Lanes with Wendy LeBeau & Her Beaus and '52 Pickup. • To hear a free Sound Bite from Lee Rocker, call Post-Haste at 202-334-9000 and press 8105. (Prince William residents, call 703-690-4110.) |