Overload

One of the lost gems of the British psychobilly boom, Overload was originally released in 1989, in a staggeringly limited edition of 1,000 copies — just enough to keep its reputation percolating through the decades to come, but not to plug the hole in a several-thousand-more collectors' "wants lists," a statistic that might well confirm this as the most eagerly awaited album yet to enter Anagram's Psychobilly Collectors Series. This is volume 40, by the way — do you have the other 39 yet? The Termites hail from Kilmarnock, Scotland, part of that late-'80s generation who found themselves, in singer Kenny Mitchell's words, "too young for punk and too angry for pop." Psychobilly beckoned and, over the next year, the band pushed out an EP for the Raucous label, plus a clutch of cuts for sundry compilations. They regarded those recordings as little more than demos, though; Overload was the Termites' first truly serious studio session, and it tore them apart. They split the moment the recording was complete and, though various new incarnations did keep the name going through the early 1990s, the album remains the original group's only true legacy, a turbulent rough-and-tumble whose song titles sum up their demeanor — "Shagging All Night," "Train to Misery," "Big Evil Eyes" — who can resist? There's also a version of "Brand New Cadillac" that may not be the definitive rendering, but is certainly the most dangerous you'll hear for a long time. Much like the Termites themselves.