The 1990’s in the suburbs were not kind to the fan of eclectic music. Unless you had a ride out to the city, or at least a closer college town, you were stuck either mail ordering your stuff or buying tapes from chain record stores like The Wherehouse or Musicland. There were some decent staples that could usually be found in these mainstream stores: Misfits, Samhain, Minor Threat, GBH, & The Exploited were all readily available for purchase most of the time. Another band, easily found, was Elvis Hitler.
Formed in Detroit in 1986, they would popularize twanging, southern-fried, roots-based punk rock years before the term “psychobilly” would become widely used in the US. Their choice of the shocking band name, not helped by their inclusion on the soundtrack of the lovably awful film, Skinheads: The Second Coming of Hate, would forever relegate them to the digital dustbin and none of their music has ever been available for streaming.
It’s too bad, because be their shit rocks. Catchy and toe-tapping, their music stands the test of time. I have also— for years—been convinced that famous goth nerd, Brian “Marilyn Manson” Warner, appropriated their naming convention for his much more lame nom de guerre. Their albums “Disgrageland” (1988), “Hellbilly” (1989) and “ Supersadomasochisticexpialidocious” (1992) are must-haves for any aficionado of shit-kicking rock n’ roll.
