ROUND-UP: SLEAZE
Devil Dog Road Keep Rock ’n’ Roll Alive SELF-RELEASED
Here’s some good news: Scandinavian action-rock still lives and seethes. The fourth album from these pleasantly grizzled Finnish lifers finds ’em stoking the flames of sweaty 70s arena-boogie à la AC/DC sprinkled liberally with the melodic scream-along magic of the Hellacopters. So, you know, it’s familiar, but in that perfect rock’n’roll way, like sex, or pizza, or falling down a flight of concrete steps after chugging a bottle of stolen whisey.
Opener Downtown Train sets the pace with a sound that is somehow both melancholy and gritty, garage-y but stadium-bound, as the band lay out one tight rocker after another, culminating in an entirely and beautifully over-the-top take on Velvets/Lou Reed’s Rock N’ Roll in the bonus section of the album. Biggest winners are the most obvious headbangers in the bunch, the total footstomping, hell-raising crunchers like Swing The Bat, Man and Leave This Town, but, honestly, the record’s all business. All you need is a good Saturday night to light it up. ■■■■■■■■■■
Hot Breath Rubbery Lips THE SIGN
A couple of years back, Swedish riff-rockers Hot Breath released a fairly magnificent EP that reproduced all the action and excitement of mid-70s proto-metal with their own unique occult rock vibes. Well, now they’ve gone and doubled down on a whole album’s worth of the stuff. And it’s a monster. Just imagine if the coolest mustache ever was a Swedish rock’n’roll band. ■■■■■■■■■■
The Dry Look Take Me to the Dive SELF-RELEASED
Dry Look don’t just sound like a bar band, they sound like they were all conceived in bars, like they’ve lived on a diet of pickled eggs and cigarette butts their entire lives. This is their first album in a couple years and it’s a rocker, part Replacements, part Big Star, all hooky, low-budget, late night kicks. ■■■■■■■■■■
The Bad News Take It Out SELF-RELEASED
French budget-rockers return with a pretty incredible collection of hooky punk rock of the ‘66-meets-’77 variety, full of snot, spit and attitude. The band’s genre ping-ponging is probably best summed up by the destructo-rock of I Wanna Get High and the new-wave keyboard thrasher Take Drugs With You. Same message, two different delivery systems. Both rock like fuck. ■■■■■■■■■■
Das Ghoul Trip The Light Phantasmic SELF-RELEASED
Das Ghoul is a mysterious masked man from Oxford who’s obsessed with gory video nasties and Bat Cavey death-rock. Entirely satisfying five-songer Trip The Light Phantasmic is all cobwebs and ripped fishnets, like Specimen with a dash of late-60s psych. If you wanna liven up your next funeral, this will do the trick. ■■■■■■■■■■