The new album Medusa comes from Oakland’s surf-soul rock and roll six-piece, The Helltones, who skip, hop, mix, and arrange wiry textures into a hearth, similar to the beloved Detroit Cobras. That’s why it hits familiar. Medusa takes you through a wide range of influences: rockabilly, mellow sunset blues, and jazzy tones matched up with a pluck of country twang, with spectral punk AF moments scattered in between. Boy howdy! The Helltones don’t just tackle it, they conquer the quagmire of psychedelic surf, soulful Americana, and retro rhythm and blues—or as I like to say, they time-trip because they actually have the acuity to execute it.