So-Cal Rocket Dynamics

The Sunday of the festival and final day under the name Ink-N-Iron in Long Beach initially featured bands SoCal Rocket Dynamics and Rocketship Rocketship. The band SoCal Rocket Dynamics is based out of North Hollywood and came through with clear and from-the-heart vocals and a very inviting stage presence. The band released the album Too Bad She Won’t Live on February 27th, 2014. The following is what they had to say…

“The first half of 2015 has been great for us, and we’re looking forward to more of the same in the latter half of the year. It’s great to be past the health challenges which Bobby faced last year. Bobby’s been really prolific lately and has already written so many songs for our next record that Matt’s struggling to keep up! These are the sort of problems you WANT your band to have.

When we went into the studio for Too Bad She Won’t Live, we had all twelve songs written and rehearsed already. This time, we’re thinking we might record in three stretches of four songs each. With that in mind, we’ll likely be back in the studio with Producer Matt Thorne in July or August.

Ink-N-Iron is always a fun show. It’s the sort of event we’d attend even if we weren’t performing, so it’s great for us to spend the day together at the Queen Mary looking at hot rods, watching bands, drinking beer, eating bacon-wrapped hot dogs and playing a set as well. What more could we ask for? We’re sad to see Ink-N-Iron leave Long Beach, but we’re toying with the idea of playing the Nashville show sometime if we can line up some other road gigs around it.

The Ink-N-Iron show was also a cool opportunity for us to say hello to some fans we’d never met before. It’s SO gratifying to have somebody come up to you, shake your hand and tell you they came out just to see our little rockabilly band. Seeing people in the audience singing along with our tunes is also incredibly rewarding for us as songwriters and performers. It’s why we put in so much work into our music.” - New Millenium Music

Kicking out “retro-influenced rock and roll,” So-Cal Rocket Dynamics out of North Hollywood, California delivers an awesome gut-punch rock and roll flight with their latest CD, Too Bad She Won’t Live. This is high-energy rock and roll with plenty of grit but also a lot of polish.

The core band is Rich Contadino on lead vocals and drums, Matt J. Britton on guitar and backup vocals, and Robert Coddington on stand-up bass and backup vocals. These guys take the traditional rockabilly trio lineup, douse it with rocket fuel, and set it off in a blaze of hard-driving rockers that go from the title cut at the beginning straight through to the second-to-last tune, “Science Fiction Double Feature.” Only on the last tune, “The Way You Break My Heart” do the guys slow things down to bring you back to earth with a quiet(er) ballad.

I’ve really been enjoying listening to this record. The disc is crammed full with 12 original cuts, and these guys are really good song writers. Contadino’s lead vocals are stellar as they oscillate back and forth between smooth tones and screaming. But even when he’s screaming, it’s melodic and not at all unpleasant–this isn’t punk, it’s rock and roll. The background vocals really make these guys’ sound. I can’t really tell if it’s the other guys singing those creative harmonies or if it’s Contadino harmonizing with himself (which I suspect it often is). But either way, I love the harmonies they polish these tunes with.

As I said, these guys are really good song writers. They are particularly strong in the choruses. Virtually every tune has a great and memorable chorus that you can quickly pick up on and before you know it, you’re singing along with the tunes as if you’ve been listening to them for 10 years.

The themes that they write into their lyrics range from monsters and ghosts to broken relationships, super heroes, and alien invasions. Sounds weirdly disjointed, doesn’t it, but it all makes perfect sense when you listen. I’m particularly intrigued by the story behind the song “I Killed Johnny.” I wonder if the tune’s based on a true story of some kind of accident that resulted in the death of a friend. That would make sense, but the song cleverly never gives away the secret. It could just as easily be about one gang member having to…do away with…another member for some infraction. Or, maybe it’s a metaphor for a lost friendship. Or, it’s complete fiction. But whatever the story behind it, the song itself doesn’t give you the answer. Just a lot of questions.

As for the band’s sound, well, it’s simply great. Aggressive, yet melodic. And the coolest aspect in my opinion is the use of the stand-up bass by Coddington. These songs would have very easily lent themselves to an electric bass guitar and they would have sounded cool that way. That would have given the band a more typical roots rock/rock and roll sound and there would have been nothing wrong with that. But the hollow thump of the stand-up along with the string slaps that come along in the bargain are really fantastic in this setting.

The slaps don’t so much serve the purpose of timekeeping as they do in a traditional rockabilly tune–there’s Contadino’s full drum kit for that–but they instead add an unusual element to the sound and it’s really cool. And that hollow thump I mentioned is absolutely awesome in these tunes. I really love it.

And while all this is going on, remember that this is a three piece. Though there are different instruments in the mix here and there on various songs, often it’s just the three pieces, and that means that the guitar better be up to the task. Britton definitely meets the challenge. His guitar is heavy with distortion and has a full, rich tone to fill things out beautifully. When he switches from rhythms backing up the vocals to one of his blazing, creative leads, the bottom doesn’t fall out of the mix. Drums and bass hold the meat of the mix together as the solo screams along.

In trying to pick out a couple of highlight tunes on this disc, I find I’m having trouble choosing. In honesty, the songs all tend to sound pretty similar, so thankfully, they sound similarly good, or this could have been a pretty torturous listen! But as it is, the songs are great and their similarity becomes more of an asset than a problem. “Ghost” is a nice exception and takes on much more of an alt country sound. That’s definitely one of my favorites.

As I began to notice the similarity in each song, I began to listen for the differences as well as the things that made me like this so much. After all, normally if “they all sound the same” I get tired of the album pretty quickly. But I have not tired of listening to this disc in the least.

Part of it is the harmonies and creative melodies that I’ve already mentioned. Part is the interesting sound given by the use of the upright bass. Part of it is that these are just really, really good songs.

I’ve have a great time listening to this record. It’s easy to tell that this would be a fantastic band to see live. They will keep the dance floor packed and keep music geeks like me busy picking out cool riffs and harmonies. It’s just plain fun to listen to, and I hope we hear more from So-Cal Rocket Dynamics in the future!

My recommendation: Pick this one up for some hard-driving roots rock and roll. Then, those times when you’re looking for something more aggressive than rockabilly, slap this one into the player and have fun! - Buster Fayte's Rockabilly Romp

The term "revival" has become such an overused music buzzword that many people are getting sick of even its mere mention, but what's more annoying is how quickly the term is forced onto many of today's acts. What, just because Avenged Sevenfold channel Iron Maiden and Metallica in certain riffs and song structures, they're automatically considered an 80s metal revival act? Bullshit; to me, it's about having the aesthetic as well. The Darkness and Steel Panther are way easier to consider a revival band because their fashions and overall vibe are great representations of the excess and image of the music (hair metal) they're paying homage to, ALONG with the music they play. Same with Lana Del Rey; while her music incorporates more modern hip-hop elements, her overall style and image remain highly indebted to classic 60s pop stars such as Janis Joplin and Nancy Sinatra. And now we've got an L.A. rock band known as So-Cal Rocket Dynamics, who combine punk, rockabilly, surf rock, and occasionally metal and country, but primarily evoke the classic rockabilly vibe throughout their new album Too Bad She Won't Live.

For being semi-newcomers (they formed in 2007, but only made one album prior to this one), So-Cal have a distinctly vintage flavor as heard through the presumably 50s-inspired and live-sounding production quality. Not only this, but bassist Rob Coddington prefers to use an upright bass for this then-trio (they recruited a new drummer after recording this album) instead of a bass guitar. Make no mistake though, the punk elements are very prominent on this record; songs like "I Killed Johnny" and the powerful opening title track are particularly fast, with the former featuring a chorus of energetic gang shouts reminiscent of Dropkick Murphys. The coolest thing about this album is that, no matter what genre the band attempt, the 50s/60s "car-culture"/diner vibe is still present at almost all times. At the same time, its songwriting is good enough for it to avoid sounding dated, even with its surf rock-inspired guitar phrasing and Link Wray or Elvis Presley-inspired song structures. Despite the record's lean toward classic punk elements, much of the music remains more chord-based with its guitar work and many of the drum rhythms swing more than giving a straightforward 4/4 feel.

Where this album's quality lies is in just how much damn fun it is. Whether you get the fast-paced hard rocking rockabilly of "Girl Named Kerosene" or the bass-heavy lumbering of "The Monster Inside Me," the overall product is really enjoyable and gets you moving. That's not to say the record isn't with its more serious moments, like the more melancholic closing ballad "The Way You Break My Heart," but the main focus is really on the fun parts. The back of the CD case says "Long live rock n' roll," and this quote is really followed up 100% through their music. Unfortunately, this is where one of the flaws lies... the fact that there's an occasional lack of variation between songs. Particularly around the middle of the record, things just start to blend together after a while as the same guitar styles/chords are used and initially-awesome and charismatic vocal work by Rich Contadino gets a bit repetitive. Luckily, one thing that stays consistently impressive throughout the experience is the overall instrumental work; each musician maintains a high level of precision and energy, and the 60s Beach Boys-esque tone of the lead guitar work is admittedly really cool to listen to (despite, as I said, being somewhat repetitious after a while).

Your enjoyment of Too Bad She Won't Live might depend on how you much like vintage music, but unlike many other classic genre revival acts today, these guys seem really immersed in the old music scenes they're evoking here. That alone gives the record a certain charm, but adding such a nice variety of genres is like icing on the cake. Also, many of the tracks are pretty short so there's a high replay value to the experience. Any way you slice it, So-Cal Rocket Dynamics have created a really fun rockabilly-inspired record that really brings the energy and charisma of that genre to a modern audience. Grab a beer, give Too Bad She Won't Live a spin, and live it up! - Sputnik Music

So-Cal Rocket Dynamics is a group from North Hollywood who play straight up heavy neo-rockabilly. This is really the best description that the band labels themselves as. The band is a four-piece consisting of Rich Contadino (vocals), Robert Coddington (upright bass), Mark Powell (drums) and Matt J. Britton (guitar). They just released their second album entitled Too Bad She Won’t Live.

If you are looking for an album that has a lot of energy and feels like a shot of espresso straight to your brain Too Bad She Won’t Live might be your best shot. The surge of energy comes from the production, the singing, the heavy walking bass lines, the guitar solos and the metronome-like drumming. My point is that the band brings it for twelve songs rarely giving you any breathing room. After consuming this album a couple of times I was thinking about what their live shows must be like.

The album starts off with the title track “Too Bad She Won’t Live,” which has the band tearing things up right out of the gate. You are immediately greeted with a kick ass technically proficient bass riff that is coupled with a distorted electric guitar. Within the first 40 seconds the band has enough changes to make your head spin. Needless to say the lead vocal and vocal harmonies were also on point and fit the music to a tee.

The band continues to ride a wave of energy on “The Monster Inside Me.” The amped up rockabilly is up in your face with a bluesy lead guitar and a cascading bass line. I was reminded a bit of the Dropkick Murphys when I heard the band chant “This one’s for Johnny” on “I Killed Johnny” while “Like A Ghost” takes down the energy by half a notch.

“Girl Named Kerosene” is arguably the highlight of the album. Fun, fast and catchy as hell this song felt something like you would hear on the radio. The band closes with by far the slowest and most mellow track on the album called “The Way You Break My Heart.” It was actually kind of nice after the barrage of noise they pour on you for eleven songs.

Too Bad She Won’t Live is a blast and contains an original flavor that not many other bands are attempting at the moment. - The Equal Ground