The New Frustrations: brand-new EP!

So if I had to list my current favorite bands, The New Frustrations would be way up there. The group formed a decade ago when ex johnnies Tim, Scag (RIP), and Brian joined forces with Rick and Tom and rechristened themselves The New Frustrations. I was a huge of The johnnies, and I quickly found that I loved The New Frustrations just as much. In 2006, the band recorded one of the best demos I've ever heard. A debut EP called Power Pop Rocks arrived a year later - although I had fallen off the face of the Earth at that point and was not around to review it. So now, for the first time in ten years, I have the pleasure of reviewing new material from The New Frustrations. Christmas has come early!

The new EP Dee Bacle, released just last week, sounds like it could have come out nine days after Power Pop Rocks as opposed to nine years. The New Frustrations haven't lost the plot at all! They still bring that classic mix of power pop, '70s punk, and straight-up rock n' roll. And while Scag is gone, his presence is still felt through the inclusion of his song "Too Scared To Kiss You". The band hooked me off the bat with "Radio Generation" - a song that celebrates a time when they still played great music on the radio (and laments what a shit show commercial radio has become). Having come of age listening to the radio and buying records in the late '70s and early '80s, I'm always a total sucker for songs like this. It's a perfect mission statement to open the record, and that hook is fittingly radio-worthy. "Right As Rain" follows, and it sounds like a classic Replacements song. You'd think that that sort of tune would be easy to write, but I've not heard it done this well in a long time. Is this the band's best song yet? Maybe! "Not Anymore" is something we haven't heard previously from The New Frustrations but suits these guys so well: kick-in-the-ass rock n' roll with hooks. Reminds me of The johnnies (Duh!). And to close the EP, the band honors Scag beautifully by absolutely crushing "Too Scared To Kiss You". This track is everything that a great pop/punk love song ought to be, and the lyrics are so spot-on that they leave me misty-eyed every time. It's always nice to come across a song that makes me wanna jump out of my chair and pump my fist while I sing along loudly.

I really feel that within the power pop by way of classic punk realm of music, The New Frustrations are one of the very best bands out there. If you're a regular follower of this blog and haven't taken advantage of free downloads of the band's first demo and 7" over at Bandcamp, you are seriously missing out! And Dee Bacle, available on CD or digital EP for just four bucks, is worth every penny and then some. Given the crap year that 2016 has been, 2017 can make amends by granting world domination to The New Frustrations.



-L.R.

https://thenewfrustrations.bandcamp.com/album/dee-bacle
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Frustrations/211400712204920 

Song premiere: The Cheap Cassettes - "Disappear With You"!

These song premieres always remind me of staying up late on New Year's 1983-84 to watch MTV debut the video for Van Halen's "Jump". That was a top ten moment of my childhood. Today I've got something on a similar level of cool: the first new song from The Cheap Cassettes in two years! The (now) Seattle-based outfit featuring ex Dimestore Haloes Charles and Kevin has just joined the Rum Bar Records family. Talk about a perfect fit! The label will be reissuing the band's 2014 full-length debut All Anxious, All The Time on CD in early 2017. The new release will include all of the tracks from the original album plus a previously unreleased gem called "Disappear With You". The song is pretty much the definition of great power pop - marrying rootsy rock n' roll to a whole lot of guitar jangle and a divinely Beatlesque melody. And what a strong vocal! Sometimes "bonus" material like this can be suspect, but this is one of The Cheap Cassettes' best songs yet! And there's no need to take my word for it! Give it a listen below, and be sure to look for the CD out on Rum Bar in February. Pre-orders are open over at the label's Bandcamp with two tracks already streaming. Ten bucks? That's a deal and a steal!



-L.R.

https://www.facebook.com/cheapcassettes/
https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/all-anxious-all-the-time
https://www.facebook.com/RumBarRecords/ 

Merry Christmas from Tommy and the Rockets!

The title of this post is completely literal. Here's a song called "Merry Christmas" from everyone's favorite bubblegum/rock n' roll international supergroup Tommy and the Rockets! Co-written by Michael Chaney and Thomas Stubgaard, it's a terrific tune in the vein of one of those classic Beach Boys Christmas songs. And in the spirit of the season, it's a free download over at Tommy and the Rockets' Bandcamp! Tommy's on lead vocals, guitar, bass, drums, handclaps, and tambourine. Kris Rodgers - the best in the business - guest stars on keyboards and sleigh bells. Enjoy this free song, and be sure to check out the band's debut album Beer And Fun And Rock 'n' Roll - one of 2016's best LP's!



-L.R.

https://tommyandtherockets.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/tommyandtherockets

New album from The Hot LZ's!

Ahhh! Nothing puts me in finer spirits than some good old hate-spewing, snotty-as-hell degenerate punk rock n' roll! Aggravate My Mind is the new LP from Portland, Oregon's Hot LZ's. And simply put, it's fucking great! The Hot LZ's take me straight back to the glory days of '90s punk rock n' roll, and that's no accident. Singer/guitarist Mark Death was a major player in that scene as a member of The Halfways. And like his contemporaries Scott Drake and Larry May, he's still killing it in 2016! The fact that Aggravate My Mind is out on a label called Hate Street Records pretty much tells you everything you need to know about The Hot LZ's. You know how some bands write almost nothing but love songs? Well this band writes almost nothing but hate songs, and I don't think I could ever tire of hearing Mr. Death rail against everything and everyone that pisses him off! Best-known as a bad-ass guitarist, he's also a terrifically snotty vocalist in the mold of a Stiv Bators or Metal Mike Saunders. Capt. Johnny Sensitive, the band's other lead singer, is a ferocious howler as well. Musically, The Hot LZ's hit that perfect mix of Stooges & New York Dolls worship and the Cleveland/New York strain of '77 punk. I don't hear this type of music as often as I'd like these days, and I'm especially pleased to hear it done so well. Death and Matt Waters hold up the fine tradition of punk rock n' roll guitar tandems - heating it up a la Chrome/Williamson/Thunders. The lyrics are totally on the mark - and so scathingly delivered. These songs are everything that punk rock ought to be: filthy and furious and completely unfit for polite society. What's not to love about a band that tears into a song called "Murder In My Heart" and leaves no doubt that it really means it?! Highest recommendation for fans of Dead Boys, Pagans, Humpers, etc.! 



-L.R.

https://thehotlzs.bandcamp.com/album/aggravate-my-mind
https://www.facebook.com/hotlzs/

The return of Hakan!

Hakan was by far my most pleasant surprise of last year - coming seemingly out of nowhere to unleash an incredible debut album that hearkened back to the mid-2000s heyday of tuneful garage punk. The Italian trio's obsessions with Turkish pop culture certainly made for great shtick, and more importantly the group hit that sweet spot overlapping garage punk and power pop like no one since The Kidnappers and Marked Men. The album made my top ten list for 2016, and I'd probably place it even higher if I re-ordered the rankings today. I had no idea that a follow-up was already in the works, but much to my delight Hakan II has just turned up on One Chord Wonder Records out of Italy and Drunken Sailor Records out of the U.K. And while it's rare in life that the sequel is as good as the original, Hakan II proves to be one of those exceptions!

The headline for Hakan II is that the band brought in Jeff Burke (Radioactivity, Marked Men) to produce the album. It must have been a huge thrill for the group to work with a producer who so completely "gets" its music, and the results are predictably first-rate. Burke did a wonderful job of contributing his expertise while still letting Hakan be Hakan. Like any good sequel, Hakan II doesn't stray too far from what worked so well the first time. 11 of 13 tracks come in under two minutes, and again the band excels at writing hard-driving, catchy-as-hell pop/punk/garage tunes. What impresses me is that this batch of songs is just as strong as the last one - and decidedly more diverse. "Hakan Baby" will have you bobbing your head from the very first note, and ripping tracks like "Dental Love" and "I Drank Way Too Much Krupnik" are highly reminiscent of the best songs from the first album. But rather than just make the same record all over again, Hakan has elected to mix in a few songs with a slightly different feel. "Dog" is darker and fiercer-sounding than anything Hakan has done before, and it's one of the album's highlights. "You Can Cry" is a genuinely successful attempt at a pure pop song. "Six Feet Underground" is essentially a punked-up folk song. And the atmospheric, mid-paced "Spiders" is almost certainly a tip of the cap to Mark Ryan's Mind Spiders.

Hakan really pulled out all of the stops in averting the sophomore jinx - enlisting the highly-sought services of Burke and mastering wizard Daniel Husayn. But ultimately what makes Hakan II such a triumph is the strength of the material. One great album could have been a fluke. Two great albums proves once and for all that Hakan is one of the best bands out there. I can't think of many bands that better represent everything I love in music. Very soon you'll be seeing this album in my year-end top ten!



-L.R.

https://ocwrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ii-lp-ocw-025
https://drunkensailorrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ii-lp
https://www.facebook.com/wearethehakan/

Song premiere: The Connection - "Other Guys Girls"!

It is with great pleasure that I now premiere a brand new track from the best rock n' roll band going: the almighty Connection! Next week the band will be releasing an all-covers album titled Just For Fun on its Bandcamp page, with CD (on Rum Bar Records) and LP releases to follow in early 2017. As the title suggests, Brad and Geoff decided it would great fun to go into the studio and record covers of a bunch of songs that they love. The resulting album is an absolute blast! Among the tunes covered are the Bob Seger ripper "Get Out Of Denver", Sylvain Sylvain's "Teenage News", Cheap Trick's "Southern Girls", and the greatest rock n' roll song ever written - The Dictators' "Stay With Me" (which premiered yesterday over at New Noise Magazine). B-Face (The Queers, Groovie Ghoulies) guest stars on bass on several tracks, and legendary pop-punk producer Mass Giorgini mastered the album. Just For Fun was produced by Brad & Geoff and mixed by Mike Kennerty (The All-American Rejects). I'll post a full review after the album releases, but right now you can check out The Connection's smoking hot rendition of the Dave Edmunds favorite "Other Guys Girls". Turn it up and enjoy!



-L.R.

https://the-connection.bandcamp.com/
https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/just-for-fun
https://www.facebook.com/theconnectionRnR/
https://twitter.com/theconnection_

Drakulas: the debut album!

So the immensely-anticipated debut album from Drakulas has arrived, and it leaves no doubt as to why all of that anticipation was so immense! Drakulas are a garage/punk super group featuring the likes of Mike Wiebe and Rob Marchant from Riverboat Gamblers and Zach Blair from Rise Against. The band's debut album Raw Wave is out on Dirtnap Records, and it's another stellar addition the "Texas branch" of this venerable label.

While there's no doubt that fans of Marked Men, High Tension Wires, etc. will go completely nuts for Raw Wave, this is truly a release unlike anything else Dirtnap has ever issued. The sound is new wave meets garage punk meets power pop meets post-punk, and lyrically the songs come together to create what is essentially a work of high concept fiction. The story is set in an imaginary metropolis of the recent past that brings to mind the seedy 1970s Times Square - a domain of pimps, prostitutes, pornographers, gangs, street preachers, and addicts. Each song advances the narrative from the point of view of a different character. The title of the album refers to a period of time when the arrival of new analog technology loomed large in this world. Yet even with all of this literary ambition, the music never gets bogged down in pretense or grandeur. This is some seriously catchy stuff! Even if you weren't paying attention enough to realize that Raw Wave is a concept album, you could still delight in the record's pulse-raising mix of late '70s punk/new wave and more modern variations of garage and punk. The feel of the songs varies from the punchy, almost Dickies-ish rush of "Getting Out" to the futuristic menace of "BetaMax" to the dizzying frenzy of "Headphones/Slit Throats" to the angular oddness of "VHS" to the pure poppy punk of "Stepping On Glass". Drakulas really succeed at drawing from a number of stylistic influences and putting it all together to create someone that feels genuinely fresh. This is a rare case where a punk band manages to do something "different" without straying from the most satisfying elements of the genre. You can sit down with Raw Wave and absorb yourself in the story, or you could enjoy any of these tracks in complete isolation from the larger work. Either way, this is the best thing that Dirtnap has released in quite a while. One of the year's best!



-L.R.

https://dirtnaprecords.bandcamp.com/album/drakulas-raw-wave-lp
http://www.dirtnaprecs.com/website/
https://www.facebook.com/drakulastx/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dirtnap-Records-Official/167234489965225