Evan Johns was always thirsty for red-hot rockabilly and ready to tear you to pieces with his raw twang and surf blues. Alternative Tentacles is tickled to announce the addition of Evan Johns albums Panoramic Life and Somewhere Over The Skyline to its excellent digital catalogue.

Johns grew up in Virginia but was born to be a road-dog traveling musician. He started hitch-hiking cross-country with an acoustic guitar and cans of beer when he was a kid, going to shows and listening to vintage bluesmen moan on-stage and shoot the shit off-stage. He got his first electric guitar when he was 17 and moved to DC to jam with local rockabilly heroes like Danny Gatton. Johns wrote three songs on Gattons album Redneck Jazz before forming his own band called the H-Bombs.

Alternative Tentacles founder Jello Biafra caught a Evan Johns and the H-Bombs gig back in the 80s and described it as a little Tex-Mex here, garage punk power there, all whipped into a witch’s brew of spitfire guitar and Evan’s trademark vocal growl. This is the real stuff. Johns had fire in his eyes, passion wailing out off his guitar strings, and a 12-six-packs-a-day bar tab. He was just as wild off-stage as he was on-stage.

By 1984 Johns was causing chaos and making music with various groups in Austin, Texas. He joined the LeRoi Brothers for the release of their LP Lucky Lucky Me, and in 1985 he performed on a guitar orgy compilation album called Trash, Twang, and Thunder, which earned a Grammy. By 1986 Johns was ready to be in charge again and got the H-Bombs back together in Texas.

Johns years of touring and drinking gained him a notorious party boy reputation. It was not uncommon for Johns to be passed out drunk during opening acts, only to stumble on-stage at midnight to spit at the audience, growl in the mic, and blow the opening bands off the stage!

Evan Johns and the H-Bombs continued throughout the mid-80s and 90s until Johns health began to decline. Even after doctors gave him two days to live in 1998, he could still smoke any guitarist alive! Since then he has been releasing records & destroying stages with his rockabilly growl and blistering guitar work and proving those doctors wrong every day. The evidence is on 2013s Panoramic Life (Virus 481) and 2014s Somewhere Over The Skyline (Virus 482).

These most recent releases are 2 of the most unforgettable rockabilly-tinged roots-rock and twang from this indestructible spitfire!

Do not forget to check out his first batch of classic Alternative Tentacles releases:

Evan Johns and the H-Bombs (Digital Only) Rolling Through The Night (Virus 47)
Eugene Chadbourne and Evan Johns (CD, Digital) Terror Has Some Strange Kinfolk (Virus 119)
Virus 100 compilation (CD, Digital) (Virus 100)
Terminal City Ricochet soundtrack (CD, DVD/CD, digital) (Virus 75 and Virus 407)