Radical Dads: Mega Rama

Brooklyn-based Radical Dads is a three-piece consisting of guitarists Chris Diken and Lindsay Bakes, who also sings, and drummer/singer Robbie Guertin of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. You’d expect a fuzz-heavy, distortion-laden outing from this crew, and you’d be right, yet the band’s sound is oddly flat. For all that the guitars are fuzzed-out, they are also oddly tame, with no real crunch or sonic heft. “Little Tomb” kicks off the proceedings with a tinny jingle that more or less defines the trio’s sound, and few if any of the subsequent songs ever achieve much more force. Lo-fi vocals are the order of the day, whether on first single “Recklessness” or slower outings like “No New Faces”. The band does rev it up a bit for a few songs, notably “Alondra Rainbow Under Attack” and the mini-epic “Hurricane”, but for the most part this is a strangely tepid outing of forgettable two- or three-minute songs.