Davila 666: Pocos Años, Muchos Daños

This Puerto Rican rock band released its first album in 2008, an adroitly rough garage-urchin sound, and by now it’s clear — it was clear then but it’s clearer now — that the original brattishness was not irrevocably innate. It’s always been a freely chosen posture, a thing that the musicians can butt against sweet ’60s pastiche melodies, crushing the two styles together until they infect one another. The tinklier, the better, for the melodic parts, and the snarlier, the better, for the guitars.

The innocent piano from the Rolling Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow” is ideal, so they cover it. That playfulness has its downside though — they can’t surrender to the cathartic dumbness of some of their source material. Listening to the percussive lump-lump of “La Killer Bitch” you’re aware that they could defect into another sound at any moment. Pocos Años, Muchos Daños is a compilation of previously uncollected singles and whatnots from the past few years and it’s a good introduction to the band’s range, if you need such a thing.