It figures, amidst the 1980s’ buttoned-down conservatism, that the ’50s would become talismanic — and that the Stray Cats would be such big hitmakers. Yet, a new Eagle Rock concert DVD makes it clear there’s still something to be learned from those rockabilly-loving post punks.

As I look back over 2011′s releases, I realize that maybe it wasn’t quite as good a year in the metal world as I thought.

by Fred Phillips You won’t find a much stranger mix than HeadCat. On vocals and bass, you have metal legend Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead. On drums, you’ve got Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats.

by Nick DeRiso Brian Setzer, an unjustly unheralded guitar player, has this knack for connecting with the redux zeitgeist. In the 1980s, it was rockabilly. In the last decade, big-band jump blues. More recently, Setzer has used that template for a series of popular holiday-themed albums. For me, though, these studio efforts have been more admirable than entirely convincing. Not [...]