The New Duncan Imperials: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vegas

The members of The New Duncan Imperials are the clown princes of psychobilly, a musical sub-sub-genre that includes The Cramps, Mojo Nixon and Southern Culture On The Skids, and which isn't too concerned with being all that serious in the first place. As you might imagine, being the lightest group out of that bunch isn't easy, and NDI pulls it off by being… really, really silly. There's no other way to put it; there are 14 songs on this record, and the most substantial is a cover of Carl Perkins' "Right String Baby (But The Wrong Yo-Yo)." There's no denying that the band puts on one hell of a live show, dressing to the hilt and holding dance contests and playing brain-boilingly hard. But what works live, especially musical-slapstick-wise, doesn't always translate to the recordings: Who really wants to hear "Makin' Out With My Dad" twice, to say nothing of hearing it while alone at home It's a shame, but this is one band best heard live. In a fully digital home-listening environment, NDI overshoots its clown-prince target and ends up sounding like a bunch of plain old clowns.