Title: Fabrikate
Band: The Chop Tops
Released: Jan 2025
Label: Swillbilly Music
Reviewed: 3rd of March 2025
Genre: Rockabilly, Surf, Psychobilly, & Punk!
Produced by: The Chop Tops
Engineered by: Mark Stien
Mixed by: David Irish
Artwork: Jimbo Phillips & Sinner
Band members: Drums: Shelby, Guitar/vocals: Sinner, Upright Bass: Josh
Track by track…
The instrumental RASTRO DE MUERTOS serves as the album’s theme tune with this sweet bit o’ Spaghetti surf, complete with shootouts, a lonesome whistler motif, and some nice tempo disruptions to keep things on target.
Title track, FABRIKATE, is retrofitted with an engine-growl intro, Setzer-esque vocals, and twangy minor chords that haunt themselves into the moonlight at the outro. Apparently inspired by Stephen King’s Christine, our ‘Kate’ takes possession of an obsessed gearhead in ways only fellow gearheads will appreciate. Auto-eroticism, anyone?
Originally written for 2004’s Triple Aces album, DOG HOUSE BLUES channels Eddie Cochran’s ‘My Way’ but riffs on the 21st-century consequences of its swaggering 50s machismo. Eddie might have been ‘born a tiger,’ but here he winds up in the… you guessed it, doghouse.
The unexpected, but wholly welcome, FOOL’S GOLD offers a complete change of scenery with something of a mandolin-loaded sea shanty, reminiscent of Elvis Costello’s King of America album. Nice excursion. It might have the ‘purists’ whining in their shandies, but who cares about them, right?
And partially staying with the theme of ill-gotten treasures, the Lead Belly classic, GALLOWS POLE (aka HANGMAN), swings into view, with another unexpected folk/blues reverb-fest that picks up into a full-throttled, twang-tastic workout.
HEARTBREAK is basically the Blue Moon Baby riff, amphetamized to nosebleed levels with short, sharp stabs for the verses. I suggest a vest. The second instrumental to make this album’s cut is PLEASURE POINT. Like the Shadow’s with the rough edges left on. (Relax, this is a good thing). YES, NO, MAYBE BABY is an even more indecisive Buddy Holly swing-a-long that rolls along in a jaunty fashion.
Remember the disintegrator/reintegrator machine in the old horror movie The Fly? Well, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is what you’ll end up with if you jammed Mungo Jerry’s jug band opus, ‘In the Summertime,’ in with Alvis Wayne’s ‘Sleep, Rock-A-Roll’ (so ably rendered by the Jets back in ’79). Once again, that mandolin is utilised to memorable effect.
The penultimate track, BUCKET OF BLOOD, shares its title with The Urban Voodoo Machine’s classic from their Hellbound Hymns album and is probably about the same subject: a nightmare nightclub where they search you for weapons on entry. If you don’t have one, they’ll give you one. The Chop Tops’ take is back to one of many versions recorded since the 1880s: a ‘murder ballad’ written in the ‘Stagolee’ tradition. This bucket spills with a jungle side-drum, slap-bass, and vox growl for the verses before breaking loose with a Cliff Gallup guitar gallop. Shares its general spirit and attitude with Samuel L. Jackson’s blistering rendition from Black Snake Moan. Probably my favourite on the album, and speaking of snakes…
SNAKE BITE SADIE sends us home with this twang-a-long, complete with Bo-Diddly drop-downs, leaving us with the unexpected that we’ve come to expect from this album.
In summary…
Straight outta Santa Cruz, baby! It appears The Chop Tops have quite the pedigree, having established themselves back in those hazy, crazy days of ’95 and on to serving twenty years of hard rockin’ time, taking them from out of California and as far afield as OZ. And now, after 10 years of cryogenic suspension, they emerge once more for one last hurrah with this, their 7th and final album, FABRIKATE.
Many so-called ‘rockin’ albums set out their stall early, and you know just what to expect from the first track to the point where it could almost be one long song with twelve gaps. But not FABRIKATE. Its range of styles and excursions into the unexpected demand you listen to the end for fear of missing something. Their flirtations with ancient folk songs sustain your interest, and I’m hearing something of a theme here with a few ‘rockin’ acts currently exploring this vein. (See my Flatline Rockers’ review.).
I was hitherto unfamiliar with The Chop Tops' previous works but shall certainly check out their particular brand of ‘Revved-up Rockabilly now. Clocking in at 31 minutes, FABRIKATE is at once a comeback and a swan song, as after the forthcoming Viva appearance, followed by a short West Coast tour, the Chop Tops threaten to come to the end of their road. I think this is a mistake. If FABRIKATE is any indication, this band has a lot of rockin’ miles left on their clock yet.
Time for a refill, baby!
Never say never.
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Reviewed by: A D Stranik
Track List:
1.Rastro De Muertos 02.15
2.Fabrikate 02:39
3.Dog House Blues 02:58
4.Fool's Gold 02:51
5.Gallows Pole 04:12
6.Heartbreak 02:24
7.Pleasure Point 02:58
8.Yes, No, Maybe Baby 02:05
9.The Devil You Know 02:05
10.Bucket of Blood 03:50
11.Snake Bite Sadie 03:24
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