Two Decade Daddy-O's

Dave Gonzalez chooses to belt his boppy tunes from an eight-track player in a 1961 Desoto, but The Paladins' frontman will tell you upfront that they are more than just slicked back, blue suede rockabilly. "We have a lot of places we go where we're considered a lot more than just a rockabilly band. We were a rockabilly-based band and started out doing mostly that, but we've always had a little bluesy edge to it and a little of a pop edge where we can cross over to people who just like, you know, Creedence [Clear Water Revival] or Los Lobos or The Beatles, and they love the Paladins too. You know, I love rockabilly music but we aren't limited to just that."
The San Diego-based trio has been bumping and jiving their roots-based rock 'n' roll since disco died and punk was born. Just days off a United States tour, Gonzalez offered to chat about how The Paladins managed to survive three waves and 22 years of rockabilly.
"We just love getting up there, mixing it up and seeing everyone have a good time, and it's great to play with these great new bands. A lot of the bands that we were playing with 15 years ago gave up in the early '90s when the scene was getting tough. Luckily for us we went overseas and made a lot of money over there, and survived, and now we are still alive when the scene came back," explained an enthusiastic Gonzalez. The Paladins are still a hit in Europe, in fact it's now the home of their record label, and manage to fly back a few times a year.
Bobby socks and stockings, hotrods and ponytails have wiggled themselves out of your parents' photo album and into the clubs and seedy bars of America. Gonzalez says the 1950s' rockabilly trend is back stronger than ever, and once again, his band has gone from being the outcasts to the coolest cats in town. "It's coming back again in a different way. About 10 years ago it got kind of loud, and it started coming out with what they call 'psychobilly,' which a lot of people like, and it's geared a lot more towards the punk rockers and the hard rockers, and it's cool. We play a lot of those shows too, but our stuff is a little more retro, a little more authentic than that. After the psychobilly thing hit, then the swing thing hit, which kind of crossed over to rockabilly too, which was cool because people started getting back into getting dressed up and doing a lot of dancing. When we started out 20 years ago, it was cool 'cause people would dress up real '50s or real Western and all that is coming back."
Authenticity to Gonzalez is like boobs to a boy-virgin; it excites the shit out of him. "Now we are seeing a lot of real good young rockabilly bands come out, and they dress to the 'T,' they play exactly like the old records, and they are really, really into it. They are trying to make it super authentic. Now it's coming back around to where we can play these totally authentic sounds, and it's accepted again."
The rockabilly culture has an almost cult-like following, and in some cases its followers live life as if the year were actually 1954. Short-banged girls scour thrift shops for authentic skirts and modest swimwear while their boyfriends, dawning cuffed Levi's, work on old Chevys in the front yard. Many can be found munching on TV dinners around 6 PM, mirroring a lifestyle that no longer is, and shunning the conveniences of 2002. "My house is 1953. I've always been into the old stuff. That's just my bag and most of the people I've known for years, and that I hang with, I've either converted them or they are into it too," he laughs. "But, I'll tell you, the computer is one of the hippest things that ever happened to roots music. Because now we don't have to rely on these record companies pushing us under the carpet or not giving us promotion. The people who are in the underground rockabilly scene, swing, blues, psychobilly, we can all hook up now 'cause of the Internet."
As enthused record collectors, Gonzalez and the band spend their days scouring record shops and garage sales for old, forgotten discs, which Gonzales says are now easily found on CD. It's just tough to find an ancient song to cover that's still under the dust. "That's the thing the Paladins are known for: songwriting. When we started out, a lot of those bands didn't do much. All they did was play all covers. We pick our covers very carefully, and we write songs that fit right in there side by side with the classic tunes. We try anyway. We don't always succeed. We try to make it sound like it's coming from the same time period. We try to pay a lot of attention to keeping it real authentic and really rootsy. I write about the typical, you know, hotrods and lovesick and rock 'n' roll and having a good time, and once in a while, I'll put a sad song in there," says the primary songwriter, Gonzalez.
What have our honky-tonk, blues-busting, bass-plucking boys got for us now? A seventh record, fun times and jukebox of variety and vitality. "I never wanted the rockabilly sound, or the Paladins to only be limited to be 'let's bop '50s Elvis.' If you really listen to Elvis, he is country, blues, R&B and gospel all in one. After all these years, you know, we don't have a gold record and we aren't rich, but we have wonderful friends and people that we know all over the world. That's the best part of it all for me, and I think that's more important than being rich."
"We like old guitars and old records, and we are record collectors and always dug the old music for some reason. The scene is more rockin' than I've ever seen it. It's really rocking."

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