Judging from the fans' notes posted at www.getangry.com, people seek the Web company of Angry Johnny & The Killbillies, the Easthampton-based band, for information. When will you tour California, one asks, adding, "Bring Killville to the 'innocent' folks out west." Another message on the site's Angry Board suitably gets a little testy: "How many times do I have to tell you to cover 'Death of a Clown' ... Now just do it." And a lonesome listener wants another show down south, with this entreaty: "p.s. Ryan can break into your van again if you need his services again."

Between tour dates, there's plenty of Angry Johnny & The Killbillies arcana at this site to mollify the angry. They can take a walk through the Killville section and soak up the dark, Appalachian, "white trash" murder and misfortune that this band's songs chronicle, in a mix that's been likened to punk-country. Angry Johnny is a master of a rustic black comedy that steeps in a growing medium of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Jack Daniels.

A Lyrics section offers all the unsteady words from "Hankenstein," the band's 1996 release. "Mr. Undertaker" begins

Hey Mr. Undertaker do me a big favor

Make me look good because I'm going for a ride

Hey Mr. Embalmer I did a number with my revolver

Can you put my head together, cause I'm going for a ride

Four years later, the band is making two free songs available by download at the site, "If You Buy Me a Jack Daniels" and "Ain't What It Used To Be."

Along with making music, Angry Johnny wields a paintbrush quite well and you can see (and offer to buy) many of his works on the site's Angry Art section, including pieces created for the band Dinosaur Jr. I especially like his "Pale Dude Laughing at the Sun," which he's offering for, and don't take this at face value, $1,800.

See if you can find one biological oddity - the carnivorous Berkshire Mountain Monkey, a skeletal photo of which is provided along with text and what's reputed to be a Nonotuck Indian saying: "If you meet the little devil of the hills, put aside your spear and your bow. You cannot defeat the beast with fire for eyes. Kneel and sing your death song." Yes, people have been dying in Angry Johnny's world for centuries. Like every great band site, this one's soaked in myth and never breaks character.

The Village Voice, January 1, 1999

The most rip-roarin,' butt-kickin,' combo yet to bust out of the so-called No Depression ranks. -- Holly George-Warren

Entertainment Weekly, June 12, 1998
"What's So Funny?"
(Grade B-)

Unremitting three-chord stab-and-slash fests (some quite tuneful), written and sung by the guitarist/artist who painted the cover for Dinosaur Jr's Where You Been. Angry Johnny delivers the '90s equivalent of Dock Boggs' old Appalachian murder ballads. In 50 years, academics will ponder this stuff, drawing conclusions about the dark side of the American soul. Will Johnny snicker at their gullibility, or nod in assent? Only he knows. -- Tony Scherman

Billboard, May 2, 1998

FLAG WAVING: "White trash music" is how Angry Johnny describes the sound he and his band, the Killbillies, make their sophomore Tar Hut Records album, "What's So Funny?," due May 5 through E-Squared/Alternative Distribution Alliance. The Easthampton, Mass. based trio, which also includes bassist Jim Joe Greedy and drummer Dwight Trash, plays a somewhat-befouled mash-up of punk rock and country music, with distinctive black-comedy lyrics sporting violent trailer- park scenarios. On several tracks, the band is augmented by guitarist Eric "Roscoe" Ambel and members of the local outfits The Lonesome Brothers and Steve Westfield & The Slow Band, who bring a drunken Dixieland feel to some tracks. Imagine Shane MacGowan or Tom Waits playing the Hank Williams songbook, and you get the idea. Angry Johnny (who is listed in the Easthampton phone book under that name) explains that his band's style was bred by a strange confluence of influences. "I was listening to Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and Edgar Winter, but I couldn't play that," he says. "Punk rock came along, and I could play that . . . I was raised on Tex Ritter and Marty Robbins by my dad before that." The movies also had an impact on Angry Johnny's weird worldview: He cites such bizarre B-pictures as "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry," "Vanishing Point" and "Race With the Devil" as favorites. You can hear echoes of these oddball road pictures in such seething Killbillies narratives as "High Noon in Killville" and "The Joneses." And let's not forget another prominent band icon: Massachusetts bank robber Michael O'Driscoll. "He's a Robin Hood [figure]," Angry Johnny says, 'He vowed he'd never be taken alive. Now he's doing 315 years in a federal pen." Aside from his cracked country music, Angry Johnny gets some kicks as an artist. He has designed both of the band's album covers: Its 1996 debut, "Hankenstein," featured Williams as Frankenstein's creature, while "What's So Funny?" features a chilling portrait of killer clown John Wayne Gacy wielding a bloody ax. He also contributed artwork to a Dinosaur Jr. Set. "I must have painted a thousand fucking paintings,' he says. "I've had a couple of shows. The art world never really welcomed me with open arms." The Killbillies have developed a loyal local following but not a young one, Angry Johnny explains. "Kids don't seem to get this shit, and that's cool . . . our audience is old. They drink whiskey, and they buy me a lot of whiskey." In May, the Killbillies will play live dates in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut; the band has tentative dates in the South and Mid-west this summer and hopes to tour Texas in September. -- Chris Morris

STEREO REVIEW, October 1998
"What's So Funny?"
****  (4 out of 5 stars -- Excellent)

They're on the loose again. Set to thrashing guitars, saxophone, tuba, and banjo, this sonata for serial killers is far too well done to dismiss as novelty. But it's Angry Johnny's punked-up vocals and obsessed songwriting that you'll really remember. Of course, after listening to this stuff, you'll want to drive a stake through the heart of anyone who ever looked at you cross-eyed. - Alanna Nash

Hankenstein Reviews
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