Tuesday, February 2, 2016

The Palomars
"Jail House Bop" / "Brassy Dame" / "Space Age Chevy" (self)


The joint was jumpin'. Limber, grinning dance athletes in hipster glad rags bopped and swung atop weathered hardwood, as a dependable barkeep toweled a mug and surveyed the wall-to-wall fun.

Onstage, a three-man combo gave out with as winning, cleanly defined, and easygoing a sound backdrop as might be desired. Crack-pop snare, knowingly negotiated doghouse, steel-string swerves, impeccable guitar articulations, affably drawled narrations -- everything in its place, and a place for everything.







The Rocketz
"California Hell" (Splatterhouse Wreckords)


It's not easily done, relentlessly firing potent punk torpedoes with twanged, sway-backed 'billy charge inlaid. But Tony Slash et al make it sound deceptively simple. They're that adept at their stormful, beat-down, dirty business. Way too good to pass by, much too on-point to contest. Drop the needle, brothers and sisters, and dip hips in the taboo fracture dimension.

Recommended "Before the Night," "Stand Tall and Proud," "Bob's a Zombie," "Transylvania Express," "Curtain of Lies, "I'm Coming Home," "Pretty Fucked Up"