Des Demonas

2017 release. "The South will never rise again," Jacky Cougar Abok intones in a manner that suggests he is looking straight into your eyeballs while singing the opening track on Des Demonas' debut album on In The Red Records. His hand may be around your neck as well! Sounding like The Last Poets acid tripping to '60s Sunset Strip, the band drags you on a wild ride of fuzzy guitars and swirling Farfisa organ, while the bass and drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain. And that's just the first song! The band hails from Washington, DC, and have been denizens of the byways and highways of the city's musical underground for years. Jacky Cougar Abok is the six-foot-five-inch tall Kenyan punk singer who has drummed with Thee Lolitas and Foul Swoops. Guitarist Mark Cisneros has bent strings with Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, Deathfix, and Medications, and has pounded the traps for The Make-Up and Benjy Ferree, the latter alongside organist Paul Vivari. Joe Halladay (Citygoats) on bass and Ryan Hicks (Suns Of Guns) on drums round out this squared circle of sight and sound. The songs on this album range from Nuggets-style snottiness on "Tuff Turf," to the brash warnings of "Liez" ("Lies... only seem to matter if you never wise up"), to the stomper "Psychedelic Soldier" and cool psycho creeper "Say You Tried," to the hard boiled '70s punk of Swahili-sung "Golden Eggs." When Abok sings "There are no vampires in Africa," it may be a warning. It may be a fact. Or it may be a whole lot of unrelenting scuzzy fun. Dig the Des Demonas. Play it loud. Twist your wig.