CD REVIEW: Blacklist Royals "Semper Liberi"

The truest rock'n'roll bands have always been gangs, proudly living coolness out loud in the startled face of unsympathetic propriety. Early Stones, Dolls, Ramones, Clash, Social Distortion.

And Blacklist Royals. They merit addition to that shameful/shame-free record, flinging heedlessly as they raucously do technicolored, kicks-larded, and punchy rock'n'roll that defies dismissal, that by its raw power upends and obliterates beneath boot polished pretensions. Challenging guitars muscle at this music's fore, in LOUD and brash mien -- and, of course, formidable beats drive this funny-car pile-up -- but a satisfying abundance of variegation and lapel-seizing depth issue from swerving, spashing keys.

The primal spirit of genuine rock'n'roll breathes, still: Springsteenish everyman psalmizing, detonative punk, pixilated guitar-party bombast. The Blacklist Royals have a stake in The Music That Changed The World, and they're no less agressively in love with it than were any of their storied street-corner forebears.


RECOMMENDED "Howling At the Moon," "Rock'n'Roll"

http://www.blacklistroyals.com/
http://www.myspace.com/blacklistroyals
http://www.facebook.com/pages/blacklistroyals/96096115311


-- DC Larson