Kim Nekroman

Kim Nekroman of the Nekromantix with his trademark "coffin bass" of which he constructs himself. His DIY attitude and "elvis meets wolfman" looks are iconic of the Psychobilly subculture which he had such a large influence on.

Psychobilly brought back to life from the dead Rockabilly ghost

Charlton, Katherine. Rock Music Styles: a history. Boston: MacGraw Hill, 2008. Print.

Library Call Number (Music Library): ML3534.C45

Although this book was fairly basic and written in encyclopedic fashion, it provides an interesting viewpoint on psychobilly's formation. It talks about a "natural progression" into psychobilly because early punk guitar chords and beats were distorted, altered versions of old rockabilly classic. However, it assumes that psychobilly was formed in the UK and Germany however the focus of my assignment is that it truly began it's foundation in California.

The phrase "psychobilly Cadillac" was coined by Johnny Cash in a song of his and it unwillingly nfluenced a young Lux Interior to contact his future wife Poison Ivy and start a band called "The Cramps". I attribute this band as starting the psychobilly subculture and style however Charlton claims it was started by band "The Meteors", "Demented are Go" and "Mad Sin". Charlton also lists the "Nekromantix" as being founding fathers of pyschobilly in Denmark. This is an accurate statement in my mind except she does not explain their move to California and the profound influence they had there on future bands such as their spawned "Horrorpops" and northern California band  "Tiger Army". I feel that all of these bands listed in this annotation have a profound influence on the California psychobilly subculture but also on the rest of the worlds however Charlton has not shown this effectively. However, with this in mind, this is still a fundamental start to finding out more about psychobilly's creation and it is not as honed and specified as other sources consulted.

Tattoos: An Anthropology

Kuwahara, Makiko.Tattoo: an anthropology. Oxford; New York.2005. Print.

Library call number  (SS&H) : GN670 .K88 2005

This book provided an in depth journey into tattooing across the entire world. It covered ancient tattooing in Polynesia, which has been around since the dawn of time but also tattooing in Japan. This is important because Japanese imagery and tattooing had a profound influence on American Naval sailors of the 1940's stationed in Hawaii. This is where the infamous Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins had his "Wild Heart" tattoo shop set up. Kuwahara goes onto explain that due to racism against Japanese people from Americans during the era, it has been analyzed that these tattoos were a "primitive rebellion against mainstream American ideology". Thus, It fit's directly into Roy Shuker's "bricolage" theory. Also, this ideal is quite similar to that explained in "Habanera beats in Rockabilly Music" regarding young, white men using African beats in a predominately racist 1940's American south.

However, it goes on to further explain that these tattoos that "Sailor Jerry" created were the fundamental image basis of Rockabilly tattoos. The thin lined stylings and font used can can be seen in tattoos in not only the Rockabilly culture but also the Psychobily culture. With this in mind,  there is a directly visual, evolution of tattooing from different eras which ends directly in the Californian psychobilly scene.

Tattoos as "bricolage"

Tattoos have become synonomous with many different walks of life. However, in the Rockabilly and Psychobilly subcultures they are almost a uniform. The styles of tatooing are derived from old naval sailor tatoos from the early 20th century. It's almost as if this style crossed over into rockabilly culture as a form of bricolage.