Watch out, greasers! DiDi Deluxe and The Dirty Devils have broken into the music scene like a bat out of hell! These central Pennsylvania natives are taking timeless troubles of heartache and crime and wrapping them up in a warm blanket of straight honky tonkin' rockabilly. 

          DiDi Deluxe and The Dirty Devils consists of Jesse Austin on lead guitar, Paul Keaveney on rhythm guitar and lap steel, Eric Hamilton on the drums, Chris "Socko" Elliott on upright bass, and of course the lovely DiDi Shilling on the mic.

          I saw DiDi Deluxe and The Dirty Devils open for The Chop Tops in Martinsburg, West Virginia. This was, hands down, one of the best shows I've ever seen. Let's be honest, opening bands can tend to seem a little lackluster to the audience. I know through personal experience that it's a lot rougher being on stage as an opening band than as any other band in the line-up, but DiDi and her Devils tore up the stage like lightning! Don't get me wrong, I've been a fan of The Chop Tops for years, but DiDi Deluxe and The Dirty Devils should have headlined that show. The second the first riff of their song, "Racing Johnny Law", came through the speakers, I couldn't keep myself from dancing. After their set I made a beeline for their merch table to pick up their demo, which became a staple in my stereo's diet.

          No matter who you are, I guarantee there is something for everyone to relate to in their music. There are songs for the working class, such as "Working Woman", songs for the "Rude Screwed and Tattooed", you know who you are, and of course the duet, "Rockabilly Baby" for all the rockabilly couples out there. I could sit here for eternity and write about all their songs and how incredibly badass they are, but I'm gonna wrap it up with my personal favorite, "Midnight Creep". It starts off with a haunting bassline that's slowly picks up all the other instruments as it goes. Then DiDi comes in with these powerful, "I am woman, hear me roar" type lyrics. The Chorus makes me feel like I can put any bad man in his grave with just a mean stare. Ladies, I'm tellin' ya, if you're ever feeling put down, listen to this song. You'll feel like a lioness by the end of it.

         If you want to check out DiDi Deluxe and The Dirty Devils live, which I guarantee you'll want to do, you can catch them in Pennsylvania on May, 4th, June, 2nd, and June, 16th in York, May, 18th and 19th in York Springs, and in Marietta on June, 29th. Catch them in Martinsburg, West Virginia on June, 9th and Dundalk, Maryland on May 5th. Don't forget to pick up a demo at their show and  check out their facebook page for more future show dates. They're heading back to the studio in late May to record an album that could possibly become a double album because they've got too much music for one, so keep your ears peeled for the release of this rockabilly explosion.

         DiDi Deluxe and The Dirty Devils are like a machine, cranking out rockin', spinnin', hoppin' tunes that you just can't keep from dancing to. Don't fight it! Let your feet skip to the beat and hips swing to the riffs. Open your world to these cats and their classic rockabilly sound. I promise it'll do your ears some good.


- Tunage 


Written by Laura Sullivan

          The super villains are getting away; it’s the last stand as your going after them to conquer all evil and to win the heart of the love of your life. To save the world you’d need a proper band to listen to, so as you pull out your iPod, I’ll tell you what a proper band would be: MuteMath. 

          MuteMath consists the incredible sounds of the vocals and keys by Paul Meany, the bass and the guitar of Roy Mitchell, and the drums of Darren King. They have what I’d like to think is a modern twist on the integrated sounds and elements of psychedelia, electronica, and even some gospel (Paul Meany’s vocals). They’ve recently taken the music world by storm with their album release of Odd Soul.

           You can hear a large spectrum of influences in their music, which helps shape it to this spectacularly shaped form, which is what makes MuteMath. It’s as if you took some Led Zeppelin from the Hard Rock genre with some Jimi Hendrix in the Psychedelic era, and threw them into the Tardis to time travel in the future to blend them with modern ambiance of electronica. What makes them even more unique; they’re based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. They’ve developed their sound the same way any master of music would: through experimentation. MuteMath seriously boldly goes to this territory, proving that random can be brilliant. If there’s ever an angry old man sitting on a porch saying “These whipper snappers these days wouldn’t know good music if it hit them in the face!” Hit him with some MuteMath (figuratively, not literally).  They’ve got some great sounds from the older days of rock and roll, and their style satisfies the thirst for that sound.

          The Dear Hunter is a progressive rock band that consists of two people: Casey Crescenzo, singer/songwriter/ producer/multi-instrumentalist and drummer Nick Crescenzo. They’ve released one EP, two full length albums that tell a story in three acts (Act I: The Lake South, the River North, Act II: The Meaning of, and All Things Regarding Ms. Leading, and Act III: Life and Death) where you go through an emotional journey with The Dear Hunter where the songs pull you into fascination, heart break, and angst. If there was any advice I could give you in life, it’s this. Go listen to all of the acts in order; it becomes a story, and a story you can to relate to at that. Everyone has ’Ms. Leading’ in his or her lives. And one of the most memorable moments I got from this album if being able to hear this song live, being in a crowd of people that chanted “Oh my God, what have I done?!” with Casey as he sang Red Hands, gradually yelling “I was pulling out my heart so I could pin it to my sleeve, on display for you to see, I’m on display”. The moment became so raw simply because everyone knew the emotion Casey was putting out there, cause we’ve felt that feeling. It’s a treat, and speaking of treats, he even went on a cross-country trip doing “living room performances” for fan club members along the way.

          They’ve also released a collection of 9 EPs called The Color Spectrum which consists of 36 brilliant songs in the colors black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and white, in which Casey Crescenzo creates a unique mood and sound for each color, this turns out perfectly because those moods and sounds match the color you'd likely think of in that emotion. So if you want a wall to punch, listen to the Red songs, if it's one of those days that you feel like you're on top of the world, listen to the Yellow songs. That’s the most interesting part of this collection; The Dear Hunter paints those colors with the sounds they make, the sense of ambience makes you see the color Blue, the scratching and digital sounds in the Black songs gives an edge. Because let's face it, when an artist makes a painting, he uses the colors to express the emotions of the painting, the blues in Van Gogh's Starry Night are what makes the scene calm, compelling, and dreamy. That's the same feeling you'd get get from the Blue songs. This is the type of band that has a song for everything, which essentially means you can run into their arms in any moment of your life that you’ll need them. They also treat the music they produce as artwork, there’s not one song that they’ve written that will sound too much like another. If there’s one thing that Casey had proven to his listeners, is that he’s not afraid to experiment with the sounds to develop the complex concepts he has in mind.

          Most recently, they covered a song originally by Anthony Green titled "Get Yours" for the Beautiful Things Tour in early 2012, and Casey is currently working on producing K Será’s first full-length album; expect that collaborative work to be face melting. And if you’re really itching to see them live (which I’d highly recommend) they’ll be at the Coachella Festival this year for you lucky beasts that managed to get tickets. Otherwise, they’ve got tour dates on their Facebook page right here.

Enjoy, and keep strumming those heartstrings.
-Tunage

Written by Deanna Trombley