Popbreak has a new interview, “The Arkhams on ‘The Art of Psychobilly, H.P. Lovecraft & The New York City Scene'”. Psychobilly? I guess… kind of like toe-tapping washboard-rasping Rockabilly gone really wild in the backwoods and apparently with “over-the-top horror lyrics”. The slant of the interview and link to the latest wordy single makes them appear a bit dour, but on some random listening to their back-catalogue I like it. It’s more pulp fun than dour lecture, and they certainly evoke that late 1950s feel very effectively. The Arkhams evidently have lyrics that are more more rooted in individualism, pulp humour (“Hell’s Where All the Good Records Are”) and everyday spookiness, than straight “horror lyrics”. The feel of the music also sometimes veers nicely toward Chuck Berry or the famous instrumental hit “Telstar”, also from that period.

The two albums

25% of their output is said to be instrumental. There’s talk of a forthcoming “third album called Thunder Over Arkham“.

In related news, sea-shanties are said to be the hot thing among hipsters during our futile and never-ending lockdown, here in the UK. I guess it’s the ‘castaway’ feeling and the beards. If that’s you, you may enjoy The Curious Sea Shanties of Innsmouth, Mass. album.

In the same vein, new this month on Kickstarter and already funded is Dunsany Dreaming: An Eldritch Folk Album…

“Dark, dreamy interpretations of author Lord Dunsany’s poetry, featuring original music and Nordic folk tunes.”

Rather more earthy sounds might be heard if one could rest a flint stylus on the pre-vinyl grooves of Phil Bell’s ‘Disc of Cad Goddeu’, an artefact fashioned from Rowan wood during the famous Battle of the Trees (allegedly) — and restored and displayed in January 2021 by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.