It's a shade over 40 years since The Hangmen first erected their gallows above the LA skyline, and 16 years since The Big Takeover remarked of their resilience, "Bruised and scuffed through years of debauchery, Bryan Small's Hangmen continue to cheat death in a rock n' roll world full of bands all too willing to pull the trigger on themselves and fade away."

 

Not that The Hangmen themselves haven't occasionally disappeared into the shadows.  On a high after releasing their self-titled major label debut in 1989, The Hangmen returned to the studio with producer Rob Younger (Radio Birdman), only for their label at the time, Geffen, to can it.  The album remains unreleased to this day.

 

The Hangmen returned to action in 2000 and, since then, seven stunning new albums have swung into view, among them the cheekily-titled Metallic IOU (2000), the glorious We've Got Blood On The Toes Of Our Boots (2002), and In The City, exquisitely produced by Mike Ness (Social Distortion).  Their last full-lengther, Stories To Tell, was released in 2023.

 

Still lining up as Smalls (vocals, guitar), long-time co-conspirators Jimmy James (guitar)​ and Angelique Congleton (bass) and relative newcomer Jorge E. Disguster (drums), The Hangmen's glorious swagger and edge-of-your-pants sense of drama remains one of the indisputable seven wonders of the modern world, and "Real Blues" captures both their classic sound and their relentless drive for the future.