Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

BRIAN SETZER hits hard with his new single, the red-hot “The Devil Always Collects,” released today (August 25). Written by SETZER and frequent collaborator Mike Himelstein, it marks the title track of his new album of the same name out September 15 on Surfdog Records digitally, on CD and vinyl. The iconic guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, and three-time Grammy Award-winner burns up the frets of his instrument over an insistent, galloping rhythm and digs into his vocals with urgency and frankness while singing the lines: “You bargained for pleasure/Fame, fortune, and sex/Pay back! Knock, knock, knock/The devil always collects.”  Listen to “The Devil Always Collects” and pre-order the album HERE and watch BRIAN talk about the song HERE.

“I bought that ticket to heaven
That he had to sell
But I guess I missed the fine print
About the detour to hell
He ain’t in no hurry
He’s got a lifetime to burn
He’ll step in from the shadows
When you’ve nowhere left to turn”
–“The Devil Always Collects,” written by Brian Setzer, Mike Himelstein, 2023

“The Devil Always Collects” (“ain’t that the truth,” says BRIAN) comes on the heels of “Black Leather Jacket” and the album’s first single/video “Girl On The Billboard” which Guitar World praised as “pure roadside bar sleaze in the best way—with strutting Chuck Berry-by-way-of-the-gutter riffs, and even a Route 66 namecheck. You’ll want to put the pedal to the metal with this coming through your speakers (7/28/23).” 
 
SETZER’s guitar work is virtuosic on the new album’s 11 tracks, and his vocals deliver the clever storylines of catchy songs like “The Devil Always Collects,” “Girl On The Billboard,” and “Rock Boys Rock.” Add in non-stop freight train rhythms, and you have an album—produced by BRIAN SETZER and Julian Raymond and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge—that stands with SETZER’s best. It’s always been BRIAN’s special talent to inject the roots of rock with a contemporary freshness that unites fans of rock, Americana, rockabilly, and punk. 

Track list

1. Rock Boys Rock
2. The Devil Always Collects
3. Girl On The Billboard
4. The Living Dead
5. What’ll It Be Baby Doll?
6. Black Leather Jacket
7. She’s Got A Lotta…Soul!
8. Play That Fast Thing (One More Time)
9. A Dude’ll Do (What a Dude’ll Do)
10. Psycho Suzie
11. One Particular Chick

BRIAN will support the album, his first since 2021’s Gotta Have The Rumble, this fall on his U.S “ROCKABILLY RIOT” tour starting September 27 (the dates are below).
 
Marking his first live shows in over four years, the “ROCKABILLY RIOT” tour will kick off September 27 at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ and includes stops in Nashville, TN (at the historic Ryman Auditorium), Foxwoods Casino, Cincinnati, Chicago (Waukegan) and others before wrapping in Minneapolis (his adopted hometown).  For these dates, SETZER will be joined by, in his words, an “international rockabilly band, Chris D’Rozario from Melbourne, Australia and Juan Laurios from Mexico City, Mexico.”  Although BRIAN has a 40-year career as a solo artist, leader of The Brian Setzer Orchestra and as a Stray Cat, he continues to play with a jaw-dropping level of vigor. Tickets are on sale at: www.briansetzer.com
 
His set lists will include “some of the favorite covers I’m doing now.  I haven’t recorded it, but I really like playing my version of ‘Georgia On My Mind.’ And then with the band, I want to play a new song ‘Girl On The Billboard’ because it tells a fun story.”