Los Straitjackets’ masked man talks guitar, rock ‘n’ roll and wrestling masks
By Gary Graff
December 2, 2016
If you’ve ever seen Los Straitjackets, you likely haven’t forgotten — After all, how many bands are out there performing in wrestling masks and suits, with choreography (such as it is) to boot. On top of that consider a hugely entertaining repertoire, mostly instrumental — steeped in surf, garage and rockabilly — and dotted with covers, that shows off the guitar skills of co-founders Eddie Angel and Danny Amis and, since 2010, Greg Townson.
Since coming out of Nashville in 1994, Los Straitjackets has released 13 of its own studio albums and has collaborated on releases with Eddy Clearwater, the World Famous Pontani Sisters, Southern Culture on the Skids and the Fleshtones and Deke Dickerson. Since 2014, the group has also spent part of December touring with Nick Lowe as the Quality Holiday Revue. It’s been the proverbial long, strange and continuing trip, and Angel took a few minutes to brief us on some key points about these masked marauders…
FGPO: How did music become it for you?
Angel: I remember always loving music as a little kid. I had older sisters’ records around the house; they’re like 10 years older than me, so they had rock ‘n’ roll records. And even before the guitar I tried to play the clarinet; when I was in fifth grade — that’s when you can join the school band — they gave you a musical aptitude test to weed out people who were nitwits. I failed it! I failed the musical aptitude test, but I was so determined to be in the band I had my mother buy me a clarinet and I took private lessons and got in the band, anyway. I always assumed I had more determination than actual musical talent.
FGPO: What led you to the guitar?
Angel: After I heard the Beatles, that’s when I got my first guitar. I was 11 or 12, and that was it for me, man. Once I got into the Beatles, I just wanted to play guitar and never stopped. That’s all I wanted to do was be in a band.
FGPO: Who were your heroes and influences early on?
Angel: Link Wray is a big guitar hero of mine, and Chuck Berry. Scotty Moore, who just passed away, ’cause I was a big Elvis [Presley] fan. For me, Elvis and the Beatles are in their own pantheon. Everyone comes after that. But ‘50s rock ‘n roll — Little Richard and Chuck Berry — is what I really love, and ‘60s garage like the Trashmen and the Sonics. I think you can hear all that in what [Los Straitjackets] do.
FGPO: Los Straitjackets toured with NRBQ this year. Where do they fit for you?
Angel: Y’know, I grew up in upstate New York, and NRBQ was based around there and used to play a lot. I’d see them all the time, and they always blew my mind. I would walk out of a venue after seeing them and be like: “Wow, I don’t think music can get better than that!” Those guys are pretty great. And here’s a little bit of trivia — Somebody gave me a tape of a live NRBQ show from the ‘70s and they were doing “il Re del Mambo” by Perez Prado, which shows you how hip they were right from the beginning, ’cause nobody was doing Perez Prado songs in the ‘70s. It wasn’t considered cool, but they made it cool.
FGPO: Have your tastes changed or broadened over the years?
Angel: Y’know, nowadays I’m more apt to listen to bossa nova or something, mambo music, or standards by Frank Sinatra than rock ‘n’ roll. I hated that stuff growing up [laughs]. I used to hate Frank Sinatra; I would say: “That’s not singing, man; that’s, like, talking.” Now, I love stuff like that, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. I mean, all the pre rock ‘n’ roll stuff I blew off when I was a kid, all the music from the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, I really like that stuff now.
FGPO: Any of it rubbing off on you? Los Straitjackets already wear the suits, so you guys are halfway to being crooners…
Angel: [laughs] Yeah, I think so. I think it does. I hope it does. To me, that’s great songwriting; as big a fan I am of the Beatles, I think the songwriting in the stuff that came before them was better, songwriting-wise, the whole “Great American Songbook” thing. So when I play the guitar around the house I tend to get a fake book out and try to learn one of those standards, a Cole Porter song or something, and hope that it influences me. But it’s still easy for me to write a garage song.
FGPO: One thing you’ve always had is that sense of fun and maybe even the absurd that was so much a part of early rock. You’ve never lost that.
Angel: I realized at some point that whenever I heard real rock ‘n’ roll, it made me smile. When I see Little Richard on TV or hear a Little Richard song, it would make me smile and laugh. I think that’s something that’s sort of been lost. Original rock ‘n’ roll had a lot in common with B-movies and monster movies and wrestling, all that stuff. It wasn’t like it was something that was supposed to be funny, but it was just entertaining. There were enough serious bands around, just standing up there and looking serious. That’s probably why we wear the wrestling masks — we wanted it to be fun.
FGPO: How did the masks come to be part of the act?
Angel: We get asked that a lot and always have different stories [laughs]. But I think we’ve come to the conclusion that Danny [Amis], our other guitar player, gets the credit for it. He had been going to Mexico City a couple times a year and would go to the wrestling matches, and they had the whole big culture of the masks and everything. He brought some back and we were rehearsing at his house one day and I recall everybody thinking: “These look pretty cool. What if we wore these?” I don’t know who said it, but we put ’em on for our next show and people loved it. As it turns out, [Amis] now lives in Mexico City; that’s how much he loves Mexico, he wound up moving there. He’s had health things so he’s not touring with the band anymore. But he’s doing pretty good, and he still comes up and records with us when we do that.
FGPO: You get such a distinctive sound. How?
Angel: What’s surprising is we don’t use anything. We just plug straight into Fender Deluxe Reverbs; Even Nick [Lowe] was shocked when we first started touring with him; “You guys get those sounds off THAT little amp?!” But that’s all we do. The only thing we use is a tuner, and the reverb and vibrato comes off the amp. No effects. It’s pretty simple.
FGPO: You released the Sings All The Great Instrumental Hits!!!!! album in 2014 and the Quality Holiday Revue Livewith Nick Lowe last year. What’s next, recording-wise?
Angel: We’re doing an album of instrumental versions of Nick Lowe songs. We have the same manager and same record label as Nick, so that’s how the whole [Quality Holiday Revue] thing came about, and now it’s become every year doing this Christmas tour. We’ve become cosmically connected, and somebody had an idea of doing a whole album of his stuff, instrumentally. It’s a lot of fun, man. You realize he writes great melodies; sometimes that’s not obvious because his lyrics are good and he’s a real lyric guy, but man, he writes really great melodies — “Peace, Love and Understanding,” “Cruel To Be Kind,” “Raging Eyes,” all that stuff. It’s been fun to hear them back and really educational. We’ve learned a lot working with him, and now with working up these versions of his songs.
