Many of these writers are still trying, which makes them more fun to read.
Their reviews taken together portray a grim and desperate tableau where the
landscape itself settles like slow fate on the lives that it hardens or 
corrupts, and where strength of character shades into madness...like in the
western movies.

Songs about cars, death and outlaws sound best with reverb; rockabilly
riffs and a lit cigarette danglin' out of yer mouth. It's a hard act to mess
up when done right, and this wiry outfit delivers on the pompadour and gasoline pose. 

 
White trash on parade, down the sinister roots-rock path to the voodoo room at
Graceland. Their foreboding demeanor sends out vibes six feet in all directions
as they escort the listener through backwoods and bayous where passions run hot
and the lines blur between love and lust, where abiding virtue gives way to
whiskey, dancing and two-timing.

 
Twangy western-gothic vocals and wet slurry guitars deliver creepy tales of 
ghost trains, murderous showdowns and truly evil doomed love. In other words,
all the good stuff.

 
Sounds great if you're getting raped by truckers.

 
It's not soul music, but lost soul music. The Oblivion Seekers could be the house
band at Charles Bukowski's favorite watering hole. They swim in murky water, 
singing about the decayed lives and failed dreams of crooks, con artists, junkies
and similar riff-raff.

 
Central casting's sneering, heavy-thinking rockabilly mortician.

Rich vocal arrangements and grimly fiendish roots-rock songs about high-heeled
dames and low-life dealers - women who are either wicked or pure, and men who 
have nothing to lose.

 
My favorite lyric was "I know it was wrong doin' your best friend/Baby I'm sorry,
it won't happen again". Sure it won't. You can trust him, baby, he's a musician.

 
If they ever film Jim Thompson's life story I'd nominate quite a few of their 
songs for the sound track.

 
The downest and dirtiest of Portland's neo-dance-hall contingent brings on the
be-bop grave-dancing music for those who don't see much daylight.

 
Good alcohol and idleness music, all heartbreak and lust and dreams and well-
cultivated bad attitude.

 
The organ sounds and guitar tones are genuine snakeskin. Speaking of which,
you know, I see this Sten guy around and I gotta tell you, he kinda gives 
me the creeps.

Hip, irreverent rockabilly from the darker side of the cosmos, with at least 
four of their six feet planted firmly in the rockabilly graveyard.

Post-punk rhythm and blues, beautiful, fun and haunting all at once.

Emotional, honest, heavy-handed rock and roll...danceable music with a brain
and soul, and a smattering of middle-American paranoia.

Schizophrenic music personality, split between two minds of thought - walkin'
with the Lord and runnin' with the Devil.

The yin/yang of traditional American music - sin and salvation in a fine cloak
of booming reverb, and vocals with just the right note of melancholy and
determination.

A mysterious urban brand of roots rock.

The Oblivion Seekers really are the Best Local Band That's Been Around Forever.

The laziest way to describe an obscure band is to compare it with a famous one.
Critics who take this shortcut tend to be cultural illiterates anyway - I
know about Horton Heat; I doubt they know much about Mickey and Sylvia.

True American rock and roll, in Gene Vincent/Eddie Cochran fashion.

A welcome change of pace, with music that's a cross between Creedence 
and 1950's rockabilly. 

Dave Edmunds and Rockpile have probably served some time on this band's
turntable.

Real American roots rock from guys who sound like they've been listening
to equal doses of Johnny Cash and X.

Like Los Lobos, the Blasters and X, they pull from a wide scope of rootsy
sources to craft their own unique All-American sound. Unlike their So. Cal
compatriots, the Oblivion Seekers are more likely to draw blood, with 
things Roy Orbison might have written if he'd grown up in the cynical 80's.

Like a quirky Chris Isaak gone angry and cynical in a David Lynch movie
somewhere.

Here's a good one, a less studious Social Distortion crossed with early
Motorhead's gift for gripping choruses.

A little bit reminiscent of the Cramps, the Oblivion Seekers fuse 
rockabilly with harder energy and theatrical vocals for a campy
ghoul movie effect.

I wouldn't classify the Oblivion Seekers as a rockabilly band.
They're more like the Tailgators or the Paladins, capable of 
straight rockabilly if the feeling strikes them.

They sound to me like a cross between Deadbolt and Nick Cave.
It's damned original, the sort of music I'd hope a lot of 
generic psychobilly bands would graduate to someday.

Most of the time they sound like the Wipers flirting with rockabilly.

The same graduating class as Dead Moon, conceived in the 70's
as a conclusion to the 60's, with much of its material
from the 50's.

                                   Wait a minute! That one's brilliant!!