The Chop Tops
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The Chop Tops
The Chop Tops were a rockabilly trio from Santa Cruz, California consisting of Sinner (vocals/standing drums), Shelby (guitar), and Josh (upright bass). The band was formed by Sinner in 1995, Shelby joined in 1999, and Josh took over bass duties in 2014. The band coined the phrase "Revved-Up Rockabilly" to describe their wild, upbeat blend of rockabilly, psychobilly, old punk, teddy boy, and surf music genres. The Chop Tops headlined their own national tours, toured with bands like Mad Sin and the Nekromantix, and opened for many bands including the Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies, Dick Dale, John Lee Hooker, and Chuck Berry. Other accomplishments included having three of their songs featured in the video game ''WET'', performing at several Warped Tours, and many years of playing the annual rockabilly festival Viva Las Vegas. In April 2012, the band made their first international tour appearing at dates across Australia (they were asked back and returned for another Austral ...
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Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a popular tourist destination, owing to its beaches, surf culture, and historic landmarks. Santa Cruz was founded by the Spanish in 1791, when Fermín de Lasuén established Mission Santa Cruz. Soon after, a settlement grew up near the mission called Branciforte, which came to be known across Alta California for its lawlessness. With the Mexican secularization of the Californian missions in 1833, the former mission was divided and granted as rancho grants. Following the American Conquest of California, Santa Cruz eventually incorporated as a city in 1866. The creation of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in 1907 solidified the city's status as a seaside resort community, while the establishment of the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1 ...
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Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk rock, punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing political figures and authority in general, as well as popular culture and even the punk movement itself. During their initial incarnation between 1978 and 1986, they attracted considerable controversy for their provocative lyrics and artwork. Several stores refused to stock their recordings, provoking debate about censorship in rock music; in the mid-1980s, vocalist and primary lyricist Jello Biafra became an active campaigner against the Parents Music Resource Center. This culminated in an obscenity trial between 1985 and 1986, which resulted in a hung jury. The group released a total of four studio albums and one EP before disbanding in 1986. Following the band's dissolution, Biafra continued to collaborate and record with othe ...
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Deke Dickerson
Deke Dickerson (born 3 June 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and film composer. Dickerson was born in St. Louis, Missouri. After playing in several local rockabilly bands, Deke formed The Untamed Youth at age 17 in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. In 1991 he moved to Los Angeles and joined Dave Stuckey to form the Dave & Deke Combo, a partnership that yielded two albums and a 2005 reunion at major rockabilly festivals. Joining the Ecco-Fonics in 1998, Deke toured, signed to HighTone Records and released three albums for the label. His style incorporates country, alternative country, rockabilly, hillbilly, blues, western swing and rock 'n' roll. Dickerson writes a regular column in ''Guitar Player'' magazine and feature articles in ''Vintage Guitar'' magazine and ''The Fretboard Journal''. He also organizes an annual "Guitar Geek Festival" held in Anaheim, California, every January, during the NAMM Show. He owns a Ray Butts EchoSonic, serial number 24, a ...
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Ritchie Valens
Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens was killed in a plane crash eight months into his music career. Valens had several hits, most notably " La Bamba", which he had adapted from a Mexican folk song. Valens transformed the song into one with a rock rhythm and beat, and it became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement. He also had an American number-two hit with "Donna". On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as "The Day the Music Died", Valens died in a plane crash in Iowa, an accident that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as pilot Roger Peterson. Valens was 17 at the time of his death. In 2001, Valens was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...
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Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971), known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rockabilly and rock and roll. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, " Be-Bop-a-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly. His chart career was brief, especially in his home country of the US, where he notched three top 40 hits in 1956 and '57, and never charted in the top 100 again. In the UK, he was a somewhat bigger star, racking up eight top 40 hits from 1956 to 1961. Vincent was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He is sometimes referred to by his somewhat unusual nickname/moniker the "Screaming End". Biography Early life Craddock was born February 11, 1935, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Mary Louise and Ezekiah Jackson Craddock. His musical influences included country, rhythm and blues, and gospel. His favorite composition was Beethoven's Egmont overtur ...
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Jim Dunlop
Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. is a manufacturer of musical accessories, especially effects units, based in Benicia, California, United States. Founded in 1965 by Jim Dunlop Sr., the company grew from a small home operation to a large manufacturer of music gear. Dunlop has acquired several well-known effects pedal brands, including Cry Baby, MXR and Way Huge. Background and history Scottish immigrant Jim Dunlop founded the Jim Dunlop Company in 1965 as a part-time business while working as a processing and chemical engineer at Barr and Stroud in Glasgow. He was an apprentice of creator of the first hip replacement, William "Bill" Wallace. His first product was the Vibra-Tuner, a small device that attached to a guitar with a suction cup and displayed whether the guitar was in tune with the vibration of a small reed. While visiting music stores to sell his new product, someone told him that musicians needed a good capo, remarking that anyone who made a good capo that could hand ...
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Gretsch
Gretsch is an American company that manufactures musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Friedrich Gretsch manufactured banjos, tambourines, and drums until his death in 1895. In 1916, his son, Fred Gretsch Sr. moved operations to a larger facility where Gretsch went on to become a prominent manufacturer of American musical instruments. Through the years, Gretsch has manufactured a wide range of instruments, though they currently focus on electric, acoustic and resonator guitars, basses, ukuleles, and drums. Gretsch instruments enjoyed market prominence by the 1950s. In 1954, Gretsch began a collaboration with guitarist Chet Atkins to manufacture a line of electric guitars with Atkins' endorsement, resulting in the Gretsch 6120 hollowbody guitar and other later models such as the Country Gentleman. Electric guitars before 1957 used single c ...
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Stray Cats
Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. including "Stray Cat Strut", " (She's) Sexy + 17", "Look at That Cadillac", "I Won't Stand in Your Way", "Bring It Back Again", and "Rock This Town", which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed as one of the songs that shaped rock and roll. History Formation and move to UK The group, whose style was based upon the sounds of Sun Records artists and other artists from the 1950s, were heavily influenced by Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, and Bill Haley & His Comets. The Stray Cats quickly developed a large following in the New York music scene playing at CBGB and Max's Kansas City as well as venues on Long Island. When the Cats heard a rumor that there was a revival of the 1950s Teddy Boy ...
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Murray's Pomade
Murray's Superior Products Co. is a hair pomade company founded in 1925, best known for creating Murray's Superior Hair Dressing Pomade. Since then, the original Murray's remains a popular pomade in drug stores and grocery stores. The original Murray's is an oil-based pomade with a very thick and waxy consistency. History Murray's was originally developed as a heavy-holding waxy pomade by C.D. Murray in 1925. The target consumer was initially black, however the pomade reached out to a wider audience beyond the projected group of consumers. Murray believed that it could be a quality, inexpensive, and successful product and thus began to sell it out of his Chicago barbershop. In 1959 a pharmacist named Harry Berlin began to sell it from his Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population ...
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Warped Tour
The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring music festival to date in North America. Following the first Warped Tour, the skateboard shoe manufacturer Vans became the tour’s main sponsor, when it then became known as the Vans Warped Tour. Vans toured Australia in 1998-2002 and again in 2013. Although Vans continued as main sponsor and lent its name to the festival, other sponsors also participated, with stages or other aspects of the festival being named after them on occasion. Warped Tour was conceived by Kevin Lyman as an electric alternative rock festival, but later began focusing on punk rock music. Although it was primarily a punk rock festival, it covered diverse genres over the years. Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman said that the 2018 Vans Warped Tour would be the final, ...
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Wet (video Game)
''Wet'' (stylized as ''WET'') is a 2009 third-person shooter action video game, developed by Artificial Mind & Movement and published by Bethesda Softworks for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles. A PlayStation Portable version was planned, but ultimately cancelled. The game's gameplay revolves around killing opponents with both firearms and swords while engaging in acrobatic moves. In its story and setting, ''Wet'' follows heroine Rubi Malone (voiced by actress Eliza Dushku), a "problem-solver". ''Wet''s title derives from the euphemism " wet work"a messy job or task that involves one's hands becoming wet with blood. Originally set to be published by Vivendi Games, Bethesda Softworks eventually announced that they would become the game's publisher. The game received mixed reviews from critics, garnering praise for its gameplay, music, and production values, but was criticized for its graphics, levels, and lack of innovation. A sequel to the game was announced i ...
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Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as " Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and " Johnny B. Goode" (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.Campbell, M. (ed.) (2008). ''Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes On''. 3rd ed. Cengage Learning. pp. 168–169. Born into a middle-class black family in St. Louis, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student, he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformator ...
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