The Bad Somethings

The Bad Somethings

Imagine there’s some mammoth rock festival out in the desert in, say, 1978, and a couple hours before the show a devastating sand storm whips up and blows 98 per cent of your rock’n’roll heroes to Hell, and the only men standing afterwards are Paul Stanley and Cheap Trick drummer Bun E Carlos, with a wall of Marshall amps behind ‘em. And you’re there, with a few thousand rattled but still expectant rock fans. This record might be what they’d come up with.

For a duo – Kenny Richie (drums/vox), Leo Davidson (guitars/vox) – North Carolina’s Bad Somethings make a big, thunderous, full-fleshed kinda noise, with all the arena-rock swagger and sleaze of the golden-god era, but with an ear for Cheap Trick-y, Starz-y powerpop hooks. The absolute banger of the bunch is the cowbellheavy throbber Let It Roll, but it’s not like the rest of the album is full of ballads. The whole album is a recklessly optimistic ode to good times and cheap thrills, played by two dudes who clearly know a lot about both.

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