The 5.6.7.8’s are often more concerned with creating a goofy good-time atmosphere than creating truly substantial or innovative rock music — and that’s not a bad thing. For fans of their playful — and deliciously primitive — brand of garage/rockabilly, they are the top of the genre, along with acts such as the wilder, more over-the-top Guitar Wolf. The band excels at taking the hip-shakin’ elements of surf, rockabilly and garage rock and stripping it down to its bare bones. Even with minimal or sometimes hard-to-decipher lyrics the message is clear. The band’s wild, giddy sound shares some common traits with wigged-out brethren such as the Cramps and the Pandoras. Songs with colorful, self-explanatory titles such as “I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield” and “Teenage Cleopatra” add to the band’s charm.
