Rebel Night is New York City’s most rockin’est dance party. The hosts are a bunch of crazy Japanese fellows who like to swing-dance with pretty girls in hoop skirts to rare rockabilly records played really loudly. This attitude is very infections. Everyone who drops by Rebel Night can’t help but join in on the fun. One simply cannot walk away from a Rebel Night event without an enthusiasm for up-beat records from the Fifties and early Sixties. On Friday, January 19, Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus was asked to join in on the excitement as guest DJ, so he packed some heat in an 8-inch-cubed record tote and made the scene at Diviera Drive in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Seiji swings with a hot rockabilly number at Rebel Night!

The Boogaloo Bag writers showed up a little early for the gig, but not early enough to partake in the gratis dinner allotted the DJs. By day, Diviera Drive is a four star Italian restaurant. At night, the tables are moved to an empty room and rock’n’roll takes place. The Rebel Night hosts, Seiji, Hiromu and Junichi were all in attendance, as was the other guest, DJ Trash Only. Also on hand was Akinora, who is a long-time friend of the regular Rebel Night hosts; indeed he has been present at every Rebel Night that the Boogaloo Bag writers have ever attended. However, on this night he actually spent some time behind the wheels of steel, playing some great records and keeping the dance floor packed. Aki seems to have taken up the slack after Kikuchi, one of the founders of Rebel Night, moved on to other things a few years ago. This is the first time we heard him play records, and he played some fine ones.

Akinora swings at Rebel Night!

DJ Trash Only gets ready to go to work, as Hiromu places another 45 on the turntable at Rebel Night.

On this night, Junichi didn’t bring records, but Seiji and Hiromu did. These two guys have excellent, raucous recordings and they like to play them at a high volume and jump around.

Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus congratulates Hiromu on another fine set of rockin’ sides at Rebel Night!

DJ Trash Only is one of our favorite people. He makes his coin as a clothier in a storied midtown department store. In his free time he hangs out with his ballerina girlfriend and sits around diggin’ the groovy trash he has accumulated through his life in Brooklyn, with a soundtrack of reet, rockin’ 45s. He is lead singer of one of our favorite psychobilly bands, The Memphis Morticians. Until fairly recently, he was a co-host of the Midnight Monster Hop and Chills and Fever. He’s got boss records and he knows how to play them. He sure did at Rebel Night. Dig his set that featured The Sonics and The Wailers; demolished the dance floor!

DJ Trash Only displays his fabulous Poor Boys 45 at Rebel Night!

To honor his friends who hail from the Land of the Rising Sun, Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus commenced his first set with an appropriately titled instrumental. He followed that with two “Hole in the Wall” records for no particular reason. Most records that were played ran from around 130 to 210 BPM. They like to bop at the Rebel Night, that’s for sure. Whenever the beat slows a bit, many of the gals will take over the dance floor with what they like to call The Stroll but is really the Electric Slide, or some variation thereof. It’s a sight to behold and such was the case when “The Road Runner” was played.

Aki prepares to spin the last record of the evening as Junichi announces it at Rebel Night!

Here’s a list of all the records spun by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at Rebel Night:

• Chuck Fayne and his Hollywood Favorites–Tokyo Stomp (Crest)
• Jimmy Daley and the Ding-A-Lings; vocal by Kip Tyler–Hole in the Wall (Decca)
• Ronnie Gallant–The Hole in the Wall (Warner Bros.)
• Bill Haley y Sus Cometas–Mish-Mash Monkey (Orfeon; Mexico)
• Carroll Brothers–(My Gal Is) Red Hot (Cameo)
• Sugar and Pee Wee–One Two Let’s Rock (Aladdin)
• Eddie Bo–Shake, Rock and Soul (Cinderella)
• Bo Diddley–Road Runner (Checker)
• Jimmy McCracklin–What’s That (Pt. 1) (Mercury)
• Casey Jones and the Governors–Tallahassee Lassie (Golden 12; Germany)
• The Madisons–Bad Baboon (Limelight)
• Ray Sharpe–Monkey’s Uncle (LHI)
• Ba Ba Thomas–Miss Shake It (King)
• The Satelites–We Like Birdland (Palace)
• Ray Vernon & the Raymen–Hold It (Mala)
• The Rattles–Mashed Potatoes (Philips; Germany)
• The Who–Shout and Shimmy (Brunswick; UK)
• Glenn Reeves–Tarzan (Decca)
• Rufus Thomas–Boom Boom [from EP Jump Back With Rufus Thomas] (Atlantic; UK)
• Jesse Lee Turner–Shotgun Boogie (GNP Cresendo)
• The Empires–Punch Your Nose (Epic)
• The Lords–Shakin’ All Over (Columbia; Germany)
• Ronny Kae–Swinging Drums (LEO)
• Louis (Blues Boy) Jones–Come on Home (OKeh)
• Howlin’ Wolf–Do the Do (Chess)
• The Rivingtons–The Bird’s the Word (Liberty)
• J.J. Jackson and the Jackaels–Oo-Ma-Liddi (Prelude)

None of these records are for sale. Some of them have links to the youtubes; click on the links to dig ‘em.

Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus presents DJ Hiromu at the WHAM-O WATUSI!

On Saturday, January 13, the 30th WHAM-O WATUSI was held at the Bootleg Bar and hosted by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus. On hand for guest DJ duties was Hiromu Yanagiya–one of the resident DJs for Rebel Night, the rockin’ party hosted by three Japanese DJs whose taste in rockabilly records is most excellent.

Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus and DJ Hiromu swing at the WHAM-O WATUSI.

Mr. Yanagiya was born in Hawaii and has lived in Brooklyn for over 10 years. He is also the bass player for a punk rock band called Vandalizer. At the WHAM-O he played some great stuff: the rockabilly records one would expect to hear at Rebel Night, for sure, but also jumpin’ R&B, soul and even some modern recordings; and it was all very boss.

For his part, Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus hoped to make DJ Hiromu and his date, the lovely Aya Ishihara, comfortable by playing several Japanese records, and by introducing him to the Bootleg audience by preceding his first set with “Hawaiian War Rock.” During the course of the evening, The Phastman even presented Hiromu with a copy of “Blue Comets ’66” by The Blue Comets–a very hip surf instrumental by a Japanese Group Sound band.

Aya and Phast discuss the time he visited her home town of Kyoto, Japan.

The person who really made the night swing, though, was Miss Nancy “Jeannie” Gardner, who provided freshly baked caramel thumbprint cookies. (She doesn’t really stick her thumb into each cookie. What happens is, once the cookie dough is set in the pan, she presses the back of a spoon into each one, creating a little dip. Once the cookies are cooked, she pours some yummy caramel into the dip, then drizzles some melted dark chocolate on top of that.) Folks, the cookies were out of sight and were the hit of the evening!

Miss Nancy’s cookies!

The evening went along swimmingly, except for one thing: a record was broken! In his haste to close his record box in order to make way for one of DJ Hiromu’s sets, The Boogaloo Omnibus snapped a piece out of his copy of “Campus Rock” by The Tyrones. It’s a jumpin’ little record by a white rhythm & blues combo from about 1956. The record is not very common, yet it doesn’t go for much money. However, it is very difficult to find records like this in the near mint condition this copy was in. Once this blog has been posted, Phast Phreddie is going to go to his room and cry.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Here’s a list of all the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the 30th WHAM-O WATUSI:

• Big Sam Savage–Ohh – Gosh! (Date)
• Jackie & the Cedrics–Rip It Out! (Norton)
• Terry & the Bunnys– 勧進帳   (King; Japan)
• The Trends–Silly Grin (Scope)
• Little Robby and the Empirics–Calypso at Night (Accent)
• Ziggy Gonzales and His Orchestra–Cherokee (Pop-Side)
• Bo Diddley & Chuck Berry–Bo’s Beat (Checker)
• The Matadors–Come On Let Yourself Go, Part 1 (Colpix)
• Royale Monarchs featuring Roger Stafford–(Hey) Surfs Up (Dell Star)
• Sonny Knight–Short Walk (Starla)
• Jerry Thomas and the Rhythm Rockers–Baby Please (Khoury’s)
• The Gem Tones–Hawaiian War Rock (Scarlet)
• Garnell Cooper & the Kinfolks–Long Distance (Jubilee)
• Jack Gale & the Medicine Men–The Medicine (Columbia)
• Jimmy McCracklin–The Drag (Art-tone)
• Billy Bland–Chicken in the Basket (Old Town)
• The Jolly Jax–’Preciate It (Cookin’)
• Butch Davis and the Capris–The Party (A-Bet)
• The Ambassadors–Searchin’ – Part One (Sound Stage 7)
• Ruff Francis & the Illusions–Give Me Mercy (Essica)
• The Equals–Softly, Softly (President; Germany)
• The Viceroys–That Sound (Seafair Bolo)
• The Cords–Ain’t That Love (Atco)
• The Axcents–Hold It Mary (Square)
• Georgie Young’s Rockin’ Bocs–Hey! Let’s Rock (Jamin)
• Roscoe & His Little Green Men (the Green Haired Cyclones)–Money (RGM)
• Jerry Lee Lewis–Mean Woman Blues [from EP The Great Ball of Fire] (Sun)
• Tom Jones–Bama Lama Bama Loo (London; Japan)
• ‘Froggy’ Landers and the Cough Drops–River Rock (Part 1) (Ensign)
• Sammy Sevens–Here Comes the Bride (Swan)
• Barry Darvell–Adam and Eve (Atlantic)
• Jimmy Daley and the Ding-A-Lings; vocal by Kip Tyler–Bongo Rock (Decca)
• Bobby Norris–I Went Rockin’ (Capitol)
• John Lockett–The Circle Twist (Triangle)
• Johnny Winter–Voodoo Twist (Frolic)
• Blue Comets–Blue Comets ’66 (CBS; Japan)
• The Dynamites–トンネル天国 [Tunnel to Heaven] (Victor; Japan)
• Sharp Hawks–Let Me Go! (Seven Seas; Japan)
• The Jaguars– –ダンシング・ロンリー・ナイト  [Dance Lonely Night] (Philips; Japan)
• Takeshi Terauchi & Blue Jeans–黒田節 (Kuroda Bushi) [from EPレッツ・ゴー・民謡！] (King; Japan)
• The Dartells–The Scoobie Song (Dot)
• King James with the Basic Things–Party Time (Cotton)
• The Spats–There’s a Party in the Pad Down Below (ABC- Paramount)
• Roy Brown–Diddy-Y-Diddy-O (Imperial)
• The Tyrones–The Campus Rock (Wing) [R.I.P.]
• Tommy Blake; the Rhythm Rebels–Lordy Hoody (Sun)
• The Dippers–Goin Ape (Diplomacy)
• Rosco Gordon–Sally Jo (Sun)
• The Mashers–The Mash (Hamilton)
• The Emotions–Come Dance Baby (Kapp)
• The Gladiolas–Run Run Little Joe (Excello)
• Lord Kitchener–Dr. Kitch (Jump Up; UK)
• Los 3 Sudamericanos–Yeh Yeh (Belter; Spain)
• Junior & the Classics–Wise Up (Magic Touch)
• Vernon Harrell–Do It – To It (Calla)
• Frankie Seay–Baby Please (Tropical)
• Lowell Fulsom–Man of Motion (Jewel)
• Big Ella–It Takes a Lot of Loving (To Satisfy Me) (Lo Lo)
• The Nomads–Dizzy Miss Lizzy (Damon; Canada)
• The Nashville Teens–Upside Down (Decca)
• Janis Martin–Will You Willyum (RCA Victor)
• Wayne Handy; Jim Thornton and His Band–Say Yeah (Renown)
• The Enchanters–Cafe Bohemian (Orbit)
• The Swingin’ Apolloes–Slow Down (White Cliff)
• Mary Sue and the Trams–Dancing in the Street (Hit)
• The Classmen–Do You Want to Dance (Limelight)
• Sue Thompson–It’s Break-Up Time (Hickory)
• Roy Brown–Melinda (King)
• The Fabulous Mach Kung-Fu–Mish Mash (Telstar; Hoboken)
• Jackie Peterson & the Paramounts–Funny Man (Warwick Music Corporation)
• Cesar et ses Romains–Tu Dis Non (Citation; Canada)

None of these records are for sale. Click on the links to dig them.