Morells ‎– Shake and Push – Used LP

VG+/VG+

Great set from Springfield, Missouri, 1982, or as someone else said about their other album, if it ain't great, it's certainly in that territory between really good and great, sort of recalling NRBQ's style (which of course goes back to the beginning of time, or at least back to the early 1950s).  These folks maybe get a bit more rockabilly and silly than NRBQ, opening the set with three originals, starting with “Gettin’ in Shape” (“Here comes Betty / She’s so sweaty / I wish we were goin’ steady”).  To make sure this ain’t some stale neo-rockabilly museum music, they go into the Village People at the end of the song, enough to send some roots-rock purists to their graves where they belong.  After that, the band launches into a song about food (the subject of some of the best songs ever recorded), this one about Red’s, the cafe that graces the sleeve.  (“The only thing that’s French on the menu is fried.”)  After that flavorful cliché, they go into some obscure covers, a song about the beautiful thing about “Ugly & Slouchy” women, and another about “Growin’ a Beard,” concluding with the instrumental “Bumble Boogie.”  If you don't like this album, they should lock you up in jail, in stupid jail.  -- winch (green noise records)