THE 69 CATS, the gothabilly supergroup put together by Jyrki 69 of The 69 Eyes and Danny B Harvey of The Rockats, The Head Cat, etc, have announced a new single from their forthcoming album.
'(Let's Go) Psycho' is taken from the band's long-awaited second album, which follows on from 2014's Transylvanian Tapes, hence the title Seven Year Itch!
“‘(Let’s Go) Psycho’ was a song I wrote with Australian Psychobilly / Rockabilly artist Brigitte Handley in 2000 when she came over to the States to play some shows and enlisted me as her guitarist & band leader," says Harvey. "Although she had started out as a Rockabilly artist she had musically moved more toward Psychobilly and people started complaining that she was too loud, too fast. In response I said “f*ck them” and told her we should write a song about her transition from nice rockabilly filly to Crazy Psycho Siren. So she and I sat up late at Tim Polecat’s apartment, where she was staying, and wrote the song. Before she left to return to Sydney we went into the studio and cut it along with 5 other tracks. On the 69 Cats version I managed to leave her background vocals from the original recording so that’s her singing with Jyrki. I told her she makes a guest appearance on our song on the 69 Cats album and she was very happy and loved the final track when she heard it.”
The band's previous album featured a rhythm section of The Cramps' Chopper Franklin and Blondie's Clem Burke. This time around Jyrki and Danny are joined by Damned legend Rat Scabies and Kim Nekroman of Danish psyhcobillies Nekromantix.
Curiously, the new album also features a couple of guest spots from beyond the grave in the form of Sky Saxon, from The Seeds, who died in 2009, and Pink Fairies and Motorhead legend Larry Wallis, who passed away in 2019.
Stream/download '(Let's Go) Psycho' here.
Pre-order Seven Year Itch! here.