Bloodgrass, Murder Ballads, and Killville Tales: A Journey into Angry Johnny and the Killbillies’ ‘What’s So Funny?’

Angry Johnny and the Killbillies What’s So Funny? album artwork

Music Review:

Every once in a while, the discovery of a musical artist appears in your life that genuinely blows your mind. Recently I found the incredible world of Angry Johnny.

My younger sister works at a huge charity store upstairs on their eBay department. One day she noticed two bags filled with CDs and asked about them. They were to be disposed of because of the covers and titles on many. Death metal, goregrind, and punk. Some seriously brutal artworks. So, she put down a donation and took everything knowing I’d be very interested.

Amongst the 80-plus CDs of old school and new school stuff, there were three titles by someone called Angry Johnny. I played one track for a couple of seconds and was reminded of Antiseen and the Murder Junkies. Cool. About a week later I had a chance to sit with these titles, starting with this very one I’m reviewing.

Oh boy. This is a new genre I hadn’t known of, ‘bloodgrass’. Also known as ‘murder ballads’ (not the Nick Cave album). True southern sounding hillbilly (punkabilly) music with a dark theme running through most of the songs — many people die nastily. Angry Johnny is one of the greatest storytellers that hardly anyone has heard of. I’ll be reviewing a few more albums soon, including a few of his solo ones as I went straight to the source and bought loads more off him.

To understand this one, What’s so Funny?, it’s important to know that this is part of a whole world set in a strange little town called Killville, found somewhere in New England. As per the website, it has a creepy history of murders and freaks that roamed the lands. A bit like Wisconsin, I suppose.

Guitars, harmonica, banjo, drums, voodoo, you’ll hear it all on your journey — and those boing things you hear that are played via the mouth. Track one, “All American Girl” is probably the most commercial and up-tempo of the whole album. It featured on the soundtrack to a movie called 11:14 (the long forgotten 2002 flick, Jigsaw also features a few of their songs) and it’s the tale of a teen girl who has had a bad history, molested by her uncle, watched her brother decapitate her cat, etcetera, and from the age of fourteen discovers sex, beer and drugs. It ends badly for her, as it does for most in these songs.

Especially Frank, the central character of “High Noon in Killville.” He and two brothers, Bruce and Ed, decide to hold up the local grocery store, but are pinned inside by cops. This detailed story has tension, gore and action, ending the way you’d imagine. Musically this is tight, the guitars and hillbilly town sounds construct a visual film in your mind. It builds to a sonic eruption that accompanies the desperate regretful conclusion to Frank’s story.

Songs like “The Joneses” and “Henry” are again both visual in their descriptions. The former is from the point of view of a young man who’s riding with his pops to finally shoot up their rival family, the Jones clan. “We’re gonna end this feud today! Me and my daddy gonna blow them Joneses away!” They are responsible for either his younger brother’s death or imprisonment, we don’t really find out. Henry is a guy who shoots his cheating lover and her partner in a diner then meets his match when up against the guns of laughing cops.

There’s many, many more blood-soaked violent short stories to be found on this album, but I won’t spoil any of them. What’s so Funny? isn’t their best (The Hanging of Hattie Ledoux and I Hear the Devil Laughing both share that crown) but it’s rich with addictive music and lyrics that will likely have you listening again and again.

Angry Johnny as a solo artist plus with his band, The Killbillies, has to be the most criminally underrated name in music of modern times. Once you’re in the town of Killville, it’s very hard to get out. Grab a beer, load that shotgun, watch some Briscoe Brothers rasslin’ promos and matches, then wait for the murders to happen

Here’s a sample of what awaits you down that dirt track: youtube.com/watch?v=Pk-d6RjirJ4

The Joneses live: youtube.com/watch?v=8eFpdYyApR8

This one isn’t on this album, but it has some of his best lyrics: youtube.com/watch?v=TMVLerkJjFs

Here’s a link to their page. Check out the shop, the CDs, plus the amazing Museum of the Strange: getangry.com

Album Info:

Band: Angry Johnny and the Killbillies
Album: What’s so Funny?
Members: Angry Jonny (Guitar and Vocals), Jim Joe Greedy (Bass, Voodoo Stick, Harmonica, Vocals), Dwight Trash (Drums, Rattles, Vocals)
Engineered by: Mark Miller
Recorded: The Slaughterhouse
Artwork: Angry Johnny
Year: 1998
Country: USA
Runtime: 66min

Label: Bandcamp
Facebook: Angry Johnny and the Killbillies

Track Listing:

01. All American Girl (2:54)
02. High Noon in Killville (6:45)
03. Disposable Boy (4:35)
04. The Joneses (3:05)
05. Henry (3:02)
06. Shitty Day (02:41)
07. 49 (2:16)
08. Sent Him Home (6:34)
09. My Ghoul Maggie (3:37)
10. Devil’s Run (3:30)
11. Won’t Get Me Out of Your Mind (4:34)
12. Jezebel (2:11)
13. Walking Alone (4:50)
14. Kill Again (2:55)
15. Daisies (3:04)
16. Davie And Jeannie (2:13)
17. Old Boyfriend (3:19)
18. A Love More True (4:23)