It"s been many years since The Blasters made rockabilly cool and contemporary again. While the Blasters pounced on old-school rockabilly like a cat in heat, Chicago"s Riptones take more of a wine-and-dine approach with the genre, revealing its roots in honky-tonk and country-boogie, its progression toward Bakersfield"s country-rock hybrid, and its offshoots into surf. That"s not to say that the Riptones can"t match the reckless, punk-fueled (we call that insurgent today) energy of the Alvin boys--there"s certainly plenty of heavy twang and thumping slapback to appease the hardest rockers--but these guys can also show a more melodic, stylistically diverse side. Jeb Bonansinga"s original songs are wonderfully unaffected and subtly sarcastic, and he sings them in the same manner. --Marc Greilsamer