It seems only fitting that the man in what could be considered the most frightening of Los Straitjackets' four Mexican wrestling masks is also the man with the meanest tone. Adding a layer of gutsy, high energy guitar to an otherwise clean instrumental tune is Eddie Angel's bread and butter, though he's capable of subtle accompaniment as well. The weave of Danny Amis' clear, richly textured tones and Eddie's garage-informed chops creates the balance that makes the music of Los Straitjackets stand out.

Born Edward Heeran in Albany, New York in 1953, Eddie grew up in a quiet neighborhood, or at least it was quiet until he became enamoured of the guitar. Sure, many rookie players who are serious about guitar spend plenty of time hunkered over a turntable, learning to play their favorite songs, but here's where Eddie began to depart from the throng. He couldn't let "well enough" alone. He had to get things just right, and on top of that, if he cared enough about a song to learn it, he figured he might just as well take it farther. He'd put his stereo speakers on the window sill, crank the volume high enough for all the neighbors to hear, and shoot baskets in the driveway while committing every nuance to memory. When the song was over, he'd start it again and shoot some more hoop. Today, he's fairly sure the neighbors weren't particularly fond of him.

[Pictured: Los Straitjackets with Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater.]

The direction Eddie went with the guitar took him into genres far from the mainstream. Over the years he's become an influential player in rockabilly, garage, roots-rock and surf. He's played in The Bad Boys with Tex Rubinowitz and The Planet Rockers with Sonny George, led Eddie Angel's Dinosaurs and The Neanerthals, and as a solo artist he recorded a hot little album called Eddie Angel's Guitar Party (Rel. 1993, re-released 1997, MuSick Recordings) that is still a favorite topic of discussion among garage fans ten years after its release. More recently Eddie and his Los Straitjacket band mates backed up blues legend Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater on the Bullseye Blues album, Rock 'N' Roll City. Eddie enjoyed that experience a great deal, noting that "Eddy Clearwater is dripping with soul. It's there in everything he does, whether he's playing guitar, singing or just talking. You can't play with him and not be moved by that."

In 1994 he co-founded Spinout Records (www.spinoutrecords.com) with his wife, Melanie, the plan being to release one single. The label is still going strong and now sports a catalog of over 75 albums, including releases by Los Straitjackets, The Neanderthals, and under-the-radar outfits such as The Sons-in Law of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. Turns out Eddie's support of indie scene goes much deeper than lip service.

As his own band gains more and more critical recognition and new fans, Eddie continues to grow as a musician. The man known for the wicked tone and the hot licks spends much of his down time learning classical guitar, reading from fake books, sitting near the stereo and absorbing the recordings of Andres Segovia and Julian Bream, among others. And when he needs a break from all of that, he simply switches to jazz. He's currently learning at the recorded feet of one of his favorite players, Laurindo Almeida, and this really should come as no surprise. Clearly, Eddie Angel's never lost the joy of discovery he had when, as a kid in Albany, he'd play those records over and over. One wonders if his current neighbors are waking every morning to the sounds of a basketball and Almeida.

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Cosmik: I think your fans would be surprised to know that just before you started playing guitar, back in elementary school, you were discouraged from getting into music at all.

Eddie: Yeah, they gave a musical aptitude test when I was in the fifth grade to try to weed out the nitwits, and I failed it. (Laughs.) I'd been trying to get into school band. I persevered, though. I got a clarinet and took lessons so I could get into the band, and then I progressed from that to guitar.

Cosmik: What prompted the switch?

Eddie: That was 1965, I was 12, and I was just at that age when the guitar is suddenly a lot cooler than the clarinet. Plus, The Beatles had a big impact on me. They really hit me like a ton of bricks. The clarinet went under the bed.

Cosmik: Did you take lessons on guitar, too?

Eddie: I was pretty much self taught, except I had one guy who gave me a couple lessons. He taught me to play "Walk, Don't Run." I had the Play Guitar with The Ventures record, and that was it. I learned by listening to records constantly. That's all I ever did, and it drove the neighbors crazy.

Cosmik: What guitar were you learning on?

Eddie: My very first guitar was an Airline. Well, I had an acoustic guitar that was a piece of junk first, for six months, but I have no idea what it was. I learned to play on an Airline electric that had one or two pickups, volume and tone controls and a solid body. A real cheap model. I also had an Airline amp. It was a package.

Cosmik: How long did you stick with that setup?

Eddie: I think within a year I had a Hagstrom III, and I kept using the Airline Amp.

Cosmik: Who were the guitarists making the biggest impact on you back then?

Eddie: George Harrison, of course, and Zal (Yanovsky), from The Lovin' Spoonful, was someone I liked a lot. Also, I didn't know it at the time, but I liked Scotty Moore and Carl Perkins. I grew up with older sisters, so from them I was getting this 50s rock and roll. I grew up listening to Chuck Berry and Elvis and stuff like that, so I had an affinity for that style. I think I like Harrison and Zal because there was a real country influence in their playing. Through Scotty Moore, I loved rock-a-billy guitar playing even though I didn't know what it was. I liked anything with a twang. It would kill me when, in the middle of a pop song by The Beatles, "All My Loving," for instance, George Harrison would play a rock-a-billy solo. To me, it couldn't get any better than that. I honestly didn't know what it was I liked about it back when I was a kid, though.

Cosmik: When did the light go on, when all these influences suddenly made sense and had names?

[Pictured: Eddie Angel (far left) on stage with The Bad Boys. (Tex Rubinowitz is second from left.)]

Eddie: I'd say about 1980, when I was playing with a rock-a-billy guy named Tex Rubinowitz (The Bad Boys) in Washington, D.C., it all started coming together for me. That's when I first started thinking about what it was I did, because I was really playing Chuck Berry and Scotty Moore leads, and I thought everybody could do that, but playing with him really put in perspective that that music was okay. It was good to play, and it wasn't something to be embarrassed about. Up to that time I didn't know, because everybody else was playing like Jimmy Page. I couldn't play like that.

Cosmik: Once you'd made that distinction, what became the most important music for you, that made your tastes evolve beyond the mainstream?

Eddie: I became aware of Link Wray while I was playing with Tex, and I became a fan to the point where he's my number one guitar hero. When punk rock came out, I immediately related to it, but I was never in a punk band, not like the other guys were. Danny was. I related to it because it reminded me of 50s rock and roll, and to me, Link Wray was punk rock. Punk was around as soon as rock and roll was born. It was guys who couldn't really play putting a band together and doing it anyway. When I say "Punk," I mean bands like The Ramones. I didn't like the bands with political messages. Even early on, I knew that didn't have anything to do with rock and roll, for my money. Another thing that happened around that time was Tex really helped me zero in on rock-a-billy and what it was. He got me into Gene Vincent. Then later on, when I moved to Nashville, I met a guy from England who became a good friend, and he really had the serious rock-a-billy stuff that no one but collectors have. Through him I also met people at Toe-Rag Studio in England, who knew more about garage than I did, so I learned a lot from them, and things just started coming together for me. I started seeing the common thread between surf, garage and rock-a-billy. Around the mid-60s, that's when it changed, but prior to 1966, it's all stuff I can relate to.

Cosmik: Through the professional years, what equipment helped shape the various sounds you use today?

Eddie: Certainly Fender. Through the years I played either a Strat or a Tele. My first good guitar I had was a '66 Gibson ES-335, but that guitar doesn't have much to do with my sound today, even though I love it. It's been Strat or Tele through an early 70s Fender Vibrolux amp for twenty years or more. Even when we started Los Straitjackets, we were all playing Fenders. Then we switched over to the DiPintos, which, to me, are pretty cool because they're more garagey. It's more the whole rock and roll/garage aesthetic.

Cosmik: Do you use reverb tanks?

Eddie: I don't use any outboard gear. All I have is the vibrato pedal that came with the Vibrolux amp. I don't have anything against outboard gear, but my main reason for not using any is that I'm somewhat technically challenged. I can't even figure out the remote for my TV, so pedals always wind up being more of a problem for me than they're worth. But I also think if you plug directly into the amp you get the best sound. It's the best pure signal from the amp. In the studio we've used reverb tanks, but live, I just like to know nothing's going to be shorting out on me or doing anything screwy. Years ago I used a Boss Delay pedal for rock-a-billy, but for what we do in Los Straitjackets, I just don't need it.

Cosmik: A lot of the players in the insto-surf genre insist on a vintage-only policy. Even before the DiPintos, you weren't really into modeling vintage axes, were you?

Eddie: No, I never was. I never could afford to be. The Strat I have is a Japanese reissue, and the Tele was actually made by Tex Rubinowitz out of parts that he had. My 335, though, that's a valuable guitar. The only other things I have that are collectible are a Hofner violin bass that was made somewhere between '68 and '72 and a mid-60s Mosrite electric 12 string. I also have a Silvertone Danelectro guitar and a Jerry Jones Longhorn that looks like a Danelectro Longhorn. I used that with The Neanderthals. I've also got a real cheesey guitar called a Galanti. It's a pawn shop guitar with three pickups and six buttons, but it's great for certain cheesy sounds. Around the house, I play a Yamaha classical I bought from Chris DiPinto.

Cosmik: What can you tell us about the DiPinto guitars? I assume they can cut it if that's all you're playing on the tour.

Eddie: Yeah, they sure can. We went to Chris DiPinto's shop in Philadelphia and we loved the way they looked, first of all. All his guitars. They all have that kind of look that reminded me of when I was a kid and I'd look in the window of the pawn shop and stare at the guitar with the most bells and whistles on it. The one with the most pick ups and toggle switches, that was the one I wanted, and that's kind of what these guitars had. I mean that as a compliment, here; it was a total rock and roll look. They were unique looking, too. They didn't look like a Strat or a Tele or a Paul. It's hard to come up with something that's unique looking and isn't all wacky-pointy, and also sounds good and plays good. That was the real surprise. We were such Fender guys, it was hard to ever find another guitar that would work. Like a Gibson just wouldn't ever get the piercing sound I need to cut through. The DiPinto is perfect.

Cosmik: On your solo album, Guitar Party, some of the songs are surf, and you used the sweet tones and the gritty garage tones on the same tracks. It's different now, though. How can the listener pick out Eddie Angel on a Los Straitjackets record?

Eddie: Whenever you hear a Dick Dale or a Hank Marvin-type thing, that's Danny. Whenever you hear a Chuck Berry or Link Wray thing, that's probably me. Then sometimes there's grey area when it's hard to tell who's playing what, but the real difference is the Dale/Marvin and Berry/Wray mix. It really works for us. The band has a real chemistry. Every time we get together to make a new record, it's no problem. It just comes out. It hasn't always been that way in other bands I've been in. It's almost effortless.

Cosmik: This kind of music is almost timeless, too. Old roots, new sound. You have fans of all ages, and really, most people haven't got a clue how old you are. Do you think the masks you wear might make it a moot point and keep Los Straitjackets timeless, as well?

Eddie: Yeah, I think so. That and the music. A long time ago, (singer/songwriter) Steve Forbert told me that in music, you have to be able to sell a contradiction. He gave R.E.M. as an example. Everyone thought they were doing something new and great when they were really doing something that's been done before, like The Byrds. If you're playing retro music, you have to sell a contradiction, and I think that's what the masks help us do. Otherwise we'd just be another band up there playing guitar instrumentals and maybe people wouldn't be that interested. But having said that, I also think we back it up. We're more than a gimmick, but in this day and age, we're not exactly playing mainstream music, so the masks definitely help us sell it. As far as being timeless, I see Dick Dale and Link Wray up there and I think maybe we'll be up there when we're in our 70s, with our masks on, still doin' it. You never know.

© 2004 - DJ Johnson