Home News Classic Rock News Check out Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer’s new surf-rock-flavored solo single, “Smash...

Check out Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer’s new surf-rock-flavored solo single, “Smash Up On Highway One”

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Credit: Russ Harrington

The Stray Cats' Brian Setzer has released a second advance track from his forthcoming solo studio album Gotta Have the Rumble, a revved-up surf-rock-influenced tune called "Smash Up On Highway One."

The song is available now as a digital download and via streaming services, while a music video for the tune has premiered at Setzer's official YouTube channel.

The clip offers up a montage of black-and-white video segments featuring such evocative images as a belly dancer, a burning cigarette, a burning $100 bill, a slithering snake, an animal's skeleton, a hissing cat, a snarling dog, a solar eclipse, piano keys lit aflame, an iguana, a spider in its web, a tornado, a graveyard and a burning car out in a desert.

Setzer says he got the idea for "Smash Up On Highway One" after he and The Stray Cats played surf-rock legend Dick Dale's classic instrumental "Misirlou" with Dale himself.

"I thought, 'Wow, I'd love to write something as cool as that riff.' So I came up with something out of left field," he explains. "I don't know what you would call it — Middle Eastern or Eastern-European…I had that riff laying around. I guess you could say I'm always collecting cool guitar parts. [Frequent collaborator] Mike Himelstein sent me those lyrics and they just fit right in. I think it's really cool."

As previously reported, Gotta Have the Rumble will be released on August 27 on CD and digitally, while a vinyl version will arrive in the fall.

The new collection, which you can pre-order now, features 11 original tunes written or co-written by Setzer. Brian previously released the album's first song, "Checkered Flag," as an advance track.

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