Dexter Romweber

Chased by Martians (Manifesto)
by Craig Regala

He doesn’t mix “the hip-hop with the Southern rock” but mines a woozy out-of-time, out-of-space reality style from the Eisenhower era with a similar black/white mix. Taking the hillbilly rock and roll mythos that had little to do with Elvis/Sun upward and outward mobility and plenty with UFOs, a buncha 45s The Cramps used for fuel, and the ability to play the stuff for music rather than camp, Dexter Romweber and a few buddies stir this lost folk muse into an a-ok disc. He hit recording at 19 in ’85 with another guy, starting the modern era of two guy bands in the Flat Duo Jets and managed to appeal to the REM crowd without sucking.

Actually the REM fanbase only tolerated ’em, what they really wanted was middle class/middle brow horseshit like 10,000 Maniacs who launched the career of Natelie Merchant who made many “adult contempory” LPs for the Prozac set, all of which are too horrible to contemplate in a family publication such as this. So, all the Flat Duo Jet recs and the Dex solo stuff I’ve heard is worthy within these parameters – a modest, energetic, and realistic take on what weirded out a couple generations of parents by warping Ma and Pa’s roots music into something worthy of blasting while crusin’ in Herman Munster’s rod.
(740 N. La Brea Ave. 2nd Fl. Los Angeles, CA 90038)