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Music : Rock : Lossless<br />
Artist: Stray cats<br />
Album: The masters<br />
Source: CD<br />
Encoder: FLAC<br />
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LEAD: The Stray Cats, a rockabilly trio from Long Island that came to international attention in the early 1980's, are one of the odder phenomena in recent pop history. Playing both covers of classic rockabilly and their own original material in the mold of the early masters, they managed to find a huge audience that this music's original practitioners couldn't find. <br />
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The Stray Cats, a rockabilly trio from Long Island that came to international attention in the early 1980's, are one of the odder phenomena in recent pop history. Playing both covers of classic rockabilly and their own original material in the mold of the early masters, they managed to find a huge audience that this music's original practitioners couldn't find. <br />
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Part of this, as their sold-out concert at the Ritz on Friday night showed, is because of their enthusiasm, and the fact they filter early rock through an 80's sensibility. Although early in the set they looked as if going through the motions was as painful as walking barefoot over broken glass, they turned their performance into a decently intense, communal rock experience. The group's playing borders on incompetence, but the band - which recently re-formed after a few years apart -has the visual sense to win the audience, with stylized posturing that looked as if it were taken either from publicity stills or film shorts of early rock and rockabilly stars. <br />
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Their bassist, Lee Rocker, playing an acoustic bass (which, at the volume the group performed, sounded no different than an electric bass), spun it around, or played it parallel to the floor or above his head. The group's leader and guitarist, Brian Setzer, a mild talent with not much feel for the grace and swing and logic of the early rock guitarists, played full bore for the entire show. And the drummer, Slim Jim Phantom, standing up, improvised with the tempo, perhaps unintentionally<br />
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