Vince Ripper & The Rodent Show.....Smells Like ? The Cramps !

Out now on CD & Luscious Vinyl...

To coin a phrase....Fooking Hell !  What happens when you take demented 50's raunch & 60's punk sensibilities then put it in the hands of two certifiable nutcases ?........THIS !
Vince Ripper & The Rodent Show have their first slab of wax out this week (March 2015) and what a great piece it is with no less than 5 crazed Cramps covers (Ha, only 4 on the CD) ! On lovely green vinyl too. 'It's Fun To Be A Monster' is the follow up to their CD only release of  'Boneyard A Go Go' from 2012. 
Shock! After Shock! After Shock!!! This record is gunna bake ya, it’s gunna flake ya, it’s gunna boil you up and shake ya. Tune in and stay sick to the sounds of the Boneyard from Vince Ripper and The Rodent Show. The Cramps meet Alien Sex Fiend in a Bonearama Twist Off.....so says the blurb at Screen edge, the bands UK label, can't say that I disagree all that much either !

Stay Sick Purple Knifers !

Cop the Voodoo, JuJu man looking like some kind of Ghoulardi meets Nik Fiend meets Marylin Manson and Psychedelic Jungle era Lux on a bad day ! That's lead boneyard man and MC Zombie Bastard Ratty ! (The Rodent, although I bet his mother calls him something else). Our man Ratty has quite the pedigree in case you were thinking that they had only recently crawled out from some delapidated crypt ? Ratty actually started out in his late teens as drummer for the Blackpool based psychobilly band, The Turnpike Cruisers, he left them in 1987 to take up the sticks when Johnny Haha quit Alien Sex Fiend, the story goes that 'The Cruisers' had several slots supporting ASF on a leg of a particular tour and the 'Fiends' were at the back listening in on his soundcheck, no doubt hatching some dastardly scheme to kidnap him and subject the poor soul to some kind of mind control process, this is more or less what actually transpired, although the brainwashing simply consisted of giving him a shed load of mind altering substances ! For the full lowdown on that particular phase, you should read 'Once Upon A Fiend' the story of how it all came to be.

Vince Ripper (L) & The Rodent (R).

The other half of this dynamic duo, Mr Vince Ripper himself, was a rather renowned DJ plying his trade for 20 years and gaining something of a reputation during his time spinning the wax. Fast forward to late 2010, early 2011 and a chance discusion in a pub over a few beers (never heard that one before !) by two guys bemoaning the fact they didn't feel their musical tastes, The Cramps in particular, were being adequately catered to ! Taking the old addage that more beers lead to more ideas ! the two of them set about getting totally langered and coming up with the notion of  combining a Mad (Mike Myers) Daddy style DJ set with the visual presence of Ghoulardi by way of a 'Vega/Rev' duo, playing 50's & 60's Trash with more than a cursory nod to The Cramps, inevitably this led to them laying some tracks down and the release of Boneyard A Go Go,

Has to be seen to be believed !

however, much more than simply a band covering their favourite Suicide, ASF and Cramps tunes, the experience of a Vince Ripper & The Rodent Show gig is rather mind blowing, something akin to a Hammer House of Horror meets Rob Zombie at a 3D 50's drive in ! With a set of in excess of 40 tunes to choose from, gigs are far from samey, throw in the whole 3D element, yep they have a 3D projector and Ratty distributes out the specs to the unsuspecting audience who are then invited to revel in the surreal, trippy atmosphere. Going back to the newly released album, and to what's (probably) the important bits about the release...The CD version and the vinyl version are actually different due to issues of copyright, the CD being a UK release while the LP is a US pressing, so the mixes are different and their intended cover of 'Teenage Werewolf' is absent from both being replaced with 'Rippersville' a delightfully deranged spin on 'Peter Gunn'....and for those misguided souls among you who mistakenly believe that there is anything remotely 'Gothish' about these guys....I can assure you there isn't !  Even the question of were ASF a 'Goth' band ? is open to interpretation but I'll leave that to be debated among the black clad legions as I don't actually care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtTyw8r04mA

Give these tunes a listen to and if it's not pure Trashy R'n'R then I'm deaf ! 

UNDER THE WIRES : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y9tadiL_3o     
SOME NEW KIND OF KICK :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVEYlFqKf54
ZOMBIE DANCE :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tNnXJpMwHg



What you have here is a band (duo) that actually 'Get It' !  It's not simply about learning the chords and riffs, it's about fun, yeah there are theatrics but then The Cramps, or at least Lux wasn't opposed to letting rip either ! It's about the references, knowing where it's coming from, not just imitation, some may say "why do covers" ?  "why not do originals" ?  I'm sure they do, but when you have source material as good as The Cramps why bother ?.......they themselves certainly didn't after all ! 

good looking double bill !

With another album in the can due out at the end of this year or very early next year which has at least 5 more Cramps covers including Most Exhalted Potentate of Love, Mystery Plane, Love Me and TV Set.....Means I'm already looking forward to it, the album remains untitled as of yet but when it changes, you'll be among the first to hear about it !
They're also releasing a ltd 7" at some point this year too and there's talk of a possible live album...all in all a very promising 2015 !

You can contact the guys through the usual plethora of social media and their website which incidently should be your first port of call to get your dirty little hands on all manner of goodies including the albums and assorted merch !

Here's a link to a great interview with Ratfink : http://thatmakesitnotinsane.blogspot.ie/2013/12/a-chat-with-andrew-ratfink-wilson.html

Vince Ripper & The Rodent Show Website : http://vinceripperandtherodentshow.com/

Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vince-Ripper-and-The-Rodent-Show/177724172238416 

So, go see them, buy their albums, at the very least the vinyl.......

Stay Sick !