Calling All Monsters

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Sweaty, noisy, punk rock music has returned in the form of Calling All Monsters. These four lads from San Fransisco have stripped away a lot of the pomposity from guitar music and present it in a pure, molten form. This is how rock and roll should be played, with real (I’m searching for the right word here) “oomph”. The Traps That Work Best is by no means the most perfectly formed record that you will ever hear but it really blows away the cobwebs that have been formed by what seems like eons of listening to James Blunt. The opening line to album opener “We Are: Special Forces” say it all, “What we sez is what we sez/ What we needs is what we needs” no pretense, no messing about, just loud guitars with simple but catchy riffs and great tunes. Think 1970s British punk with splashes of the Wedding Present thrown in for good measure. It is difficult to pick a favorite from this bunch of tunes as they are pretty much all great but in addition to the above tune “Western Style Town” is a superb head bopping monster of a song that demands to be moshed to. Really, though there is not a dud on here. This is music to get all tired and sweaty to… an absolute breath of fresh air.

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