Drunk'n'roll dignitary and Humpers frontman, "Chairman Wow", returns to form with another top-notch rockin' masterpiece. Every little thing this cat does is magic. Mark my word-in the decades to come, seedy hipsters will rediscover, and venerate his work, like we do the cool shit from the 60's and 70's.

Backed by various Oregon cronies, including original Humper, Jeff Fieldhouse, Drake delivers another album brimming over with garage rock instrumentals and catchy, smartass pearls of his observant, articulate, funny, and inimitable bad wisdom.
In spite of his reputation as a hard livin', streetwise sauce king, Drake's actually a highbrow intellectual, whose clever wordplay, rhymes, and story telling ability are as deft as any rappers'. He's like a punk rock vaudevillian.
When his brother, Jeff, explains that the Vice Principals exploded due to a surplus of genius, it actually makes sense. I'm still hopin' the Vices make another one, someday. 'Til then, we diehards got the Joneses reissues on Full breach, the Humpers (and Rose Tattoo) at this year's Vegas Shakedown, and this essential, sure to please, silver disc on Rank Outsider to soundtrack our summer relapses. More witty drunk tank bubble gum, and sing-along anthems to shitfaced glory, from the real rock'n'roll underground's premiere toastmaster.
Outstanding!
-Dmitri

Scott "Deluxe" Drake - Grand Mal
Rankoutsider Records
Il suffit souvent de pas grand-chose pour savoir que vous tenez entre les mains une des meilleures sorties de l'année... Par exemple, les 10 premières secondes de "Grand Mal", le titre qui ouvre cet album; un larsen, 4 petits coups sur la cymbale et voilà la machine Scott "Deluxe" Drake lancée, ronflante et teigneuse... en des termes on ne peut plus prémonitoires: "Behold! The Curtain Rises Revealing Fabulous Prizes."... Pas d'erreur possible, c'est un disque d'ancien ici, d'un type qui a roulé sa bosse dans le petit microcosme du rock'n'roll depuis une grosse vingtaine d'années maintenant... Six albums avec les Humpers, deux autres avec les Suicide Kings et enfin un avec les Vice Principals... Une discographie à faire pâlir d'envie n'importe quel excité de la six cordes dont l'âme ne s'est jamais remise de la découverte des Heartbreakers, Pistols ou Ramones... Le dénominateur commun de tous ces disques? Une rage, un savoir-faire, une hargne, une classe peu communes... Garage évidemment, quoi, mais rien à voir avec ces énervés de la minute trente qui ont poussé comme des champignons après le débarquement Hives et toujours à la limite de l'overdose de gel l'Oréal Studioline Indestructible... Non, il y a trop de bouteille derrière ce disque, Scott "Deluxe" Drake est un mec qui se pose là, si salement mâture et si sûr de sa force qu'il n'a pas besoin d'en faire des tonnes pour écrire des putains de bonnes chansons, pour que s'en dégage une puissance aussi forte que tranquille avec ces titres aussi nonchalants que mélodiques, avec ce chant et cette voix faussement fausse, à la fois indolente et acérée, languissante et incisive, râpeuse et féline... Du miel pour l'âme mes enfants... Du punk-rock à l'ancienne, du rock'n'roll classieux, et aussi éculée que puisse paraître la recette, "Grand Mal" est un disque éminemment frais, précis et tranchant, avec ce sourire en coin des gens qui regardent le monde sûr leur position, de leurs opinions, quelque part plus haut que la masse ambiante- ceci dit, sans plus de fierté que ça- mais avec la ferme intention et conviction de s'en arracher pour ne pas sombrer dans une médiocrité aussi fade que létale... Et le résultat est magnifique quand il rejoint la hauteur de l'ambition de départ... Un paquet de tubes incroyables dans ce deuxième album solo, après "The World's Strongest Man", de "Grand mal" qui donne le ton de la meilleure des manières, aux merveilles mid-tempos "You can't win", "Egerton Grey", "I suppose", "Blood like Wine" en passant par la mécanique rugissante de "Shanghai Cabaret" et "Seasick", et surtout l'énorme single de ce disque "Cadiz Arms", rien n'est à jeter...
Mais c'est là quelque chose qui devient une constante avec les disques du label Rankoutsider Rds. Au départ monté pour sortir le premier album solo de Pat Todd (ancien frontman des Lazy Cowgirls)- ce "Grand Mal" est la troisième sortie du label, "Wait for It" des Condors est la dernière- Rankoutsider Rds dont la couleur supersonique est précisément celle que je viens de décrire pour cet album de Scott "Deluxe" Drake comblera vos manques libidineux en matière de rock'n'roll orgiaque et classieux... Gardez un oeil dessus.
*****
Christophe / Tous En Tong

www.myspace.com/scottdeluxedrake
www.myspace.com/rankoutsiderrecords

Full-length LPs

w/ The Suicide Kings:
High and Mighty
Teenage Disaster

w/ The Humpers:
My Machine
Positively Sick on 4th Street
Journey to the Centre of Your Wallet
Live Forever or Die Trying
Plastique Valentine
Euphoria, Confusion, Anger and Remorse

w/ The Vice Principals:
After School with The Vice Principals

Solo: Classical Strategies for Percussion, Guitar, Bass and Voice (with 8 Foot Tender)
The World's Strongest Man
Grand Mal

**********
*************Another great review for World's Strongest Man, this time from Italy***********Anyone who followed the early 90's punk rock renaissance, surely loved one of the best bands of that decade: the HUMPERS. Now Scott "Deluxe" Drake, singer and leader of the Long Beach based band, starts again with his first solo effort "WORLD'S STRONGEST MAN".
It starts out great. The first song's called "THE BOLIVIAN MIND BLENDER" and it seems like the HUMPERS are still on fire. But in "WORLD'S STRONGEST MAN" Scott Drake wants to show us that he is a 360 degrees rocker, showing a wider range of musical solution and better songwriting than in the past.
SO, if the style that as always marked our hero, an exploding guitar-based punk-rock, comes out strongly in some songs ("The Girl with the Titanium Heart", "I Made a Mistake"), there are also a lot of songs that hit with a wholly different style.
The nightly and jazzed "A boat named mischief", with saxophone that draws smoking atmosphere, firstly.
Or the wonderful "Love trouble" a hypnotic mid-tempo song that is the expressive peak of the record.
But also "the Curse of the panthomime horse". And if some routine can be found in the second half of the record, Mr Deluxe, closes in his best way with two convincing songs: the crazy rock'n'roll of "buzziin' at the bughouse" and the most direct and punchy "a really good time"...Review by Robert Calabro' at Freak-Out******************************************************************************************


................................................................................................................................ REVIEWS..........
SCOTT "DELUXE" DRAKE
The World's Strongest Man CD
Scott fronted one of the snottiest and cleverest of punk rock and roll bands to ever storm an L.A. stage. The Humpers were hard driving New York Dolls-influenced dynamos that could whip their fans into drunken frenzies week after week. Scott always had a rare gift for insightful lyrics that were amusing on some level while conveying ugly truths you could bang your head to. This might as well be a Humpers album. The music is just as powerful and the songs are just as witty, memorable and bleak as ever. Scott's vocals, a mix of deadpan nonchalance and impassioned outrage were always the biggest draw and the Duke of Deluxe Dour Delivery (feel free to appropriate this alliterative sobriquet, Scott) is always mixed loud enough that every subtle nuance is evident. Highlights include a Gary Glitteresque instrumental, in which Scott bellows "Rhinoceros" at key points, and a dreamy, jazzy ditty called "A Boat Named Mischief." (Dionysus Records www.dionysusrecords.com)




SCOTT "DELUXE" DRAKE
THE WORLD'S STRONGEST MAN
DIONYSUS RECORDS
When buried under a sea of shitty punk albums, it's always a pleasure for a reviewer to stumble upon something different. But calling the solo debut from former The Humpers frontman different wouldn't began to explain how out of the ordinary this record is. Each song has its own distinctive sound, moving from punk to country to rockabilly to "I don't know what the hell to call this." While the lyrics are as off the wall as the music, this is a record for anyone who is open-minded and looking for something to challenge them. Scott "Deluxe" Drake may not sell a million albums or even 1,000, but he is obviously enjoying his musical freedom. For that, I salute him. -Jeff Srack............................................................................................................................................................... Not quite sure what to make of this solo effort from Senor Drake on one hand, you get the same kinda gritty sweathog rock on which he cut his teeth with the Humpers, and thats a good thing. But on the other, hes also working this weird-oh swampadelic carnival rock vibe, which leaves a exotic taste in your earhole, sorta like if Tom Waits and the Cramps were boiled down into a stew, then liberally sprinkled with goofer dust and zombie powder, and served up steaming hot in a leather-lined skullbowl. Theres nothing wrong with either style Drake pulls em off with equal skill, like all good carny magicians should, and on tracks like The Curse of the Pantomime Horse and Buzzin at the Bughouse, he stitches both sounds together in a pretty skin suit and makes em gallop and dance. On a track-by-track basis, however, the gearshifts from punk to spooky country and artnoise to evibilly twang tends to jolt you out of a comfortable listen but hey, maybe thats Deluxes plan. If that doesnt rank your groove, you oughta drop by the main tent and check out The Worlds Strongest Man. And if youre lucky, hell letcha see the geek pit still only two bits.

SCOTT "DELUXE" DRAKE is an individual whom I've proudly been acquainted with for well over sixteen years now; back in my young twenties, his nascent band THE HUMPERS would crash on my floor and back up my toilet every time they came through San Francisco. Given their (undeserved) lack of profile at the time (1991 and 1992), a layperson like me was even given the opportunity to help book them shows at out-of-the-way dives across town, which they of course blew the doors off of. Of course, a limited subset of residents of Southern California had already been thrilling to the rock hijinks and shenanigans of Scott Drake and his older brother Jeff for almost a decade, with Scott in the glamtastic, HEARTBREAKERS-esque punk group the SUICIDE KINGS and of course vis-à-vis Jeff's fantastic glory stompers THE JONESES. When The Humpers roared in with leather jackets blazing in the hot SoCal sun at the dawn of the 90s, the rest of the planet began to take some notice as well, and The Humpers cranked out several great loud-ass, Cleveland-punk-revering albums and 45s through the rest of the decade. Three of them came out on Epitaph Records not long after that particular label had generated a boatload of cash from several crossover punk rock hits, which enabled the smaller, more true-to-form bands on the label (like The Humpers) to tour to infinity & the great beyond, and to also generate a rabid, if small, following outside of the LA basin.

Eight years later, and after a brief one-album pit stop in a rawkin combo called THE VICE PRINCIPALS, the now-Portland, Oregon-resident Drake is still putting out hotshit new records under his own moniker, with longtime collaborator JEFF FIELDHOUSE (ex-Suicide Kings and Humpers, currently of 8-FOOT TENDER, who put out a 2003 CD with Drake as well). The brand new one is called "GRAND MAL", and I was so impressed by the keep-the-faith roar of the thing, I reckoned it was time for a Deluxe Drake retrospective. Keep your eye peeled for the "Grand Mal" CD; it comes out officially on June 12th.
-Jay Hinman