I’m not sure how I stumbled on these guys, but I’m pretty sure it was when my social media feed randomly showed me a post from their record company, Earache Records (what a great name for a record company that is). Anyway, I guess the tattooed girl on the record cover was enough to get me to check it out, and man am I glad I did. It probably also had to do, subconsciously, with the fact that one of my favorite bands is the now defunct Biters. And in fact, The Bites are a band that most any Biters fan might also like. The Bites are from Los Angeles and they play a 70’s/80’s brand of rock that to me is influenced by bands like Aerosmith and Cheap Trick, but with some Sunset Strip ‘80’s era metal thrown in. In their own words, “It’s sex, drugs and rock n roll. Those are our languages.” This is not a record loaded with deep, meaningful lyrics. It is a record loaded with riffs & hooks and a ton of fun. The record is great from start to finish. It’s ten tracks, with an average track length of three and a half minutes. That’s exactly what I want. I have consistently said that any track over about four and a half minutes is a track that is too long. There are exceptions of course, but not many.

After streaming the record and being fairly well blown away by how much I like it, I visited the Earache web store and ordered a clear vinyl LP, and I went ahead and sprung for the autographed version (limited to 100 copies). The record comes with a large, lengthy, full-color booklet that is just great. I wish all bands would put this much effort into the packaging and presentation. It’s a beautiful record. The icing on the cake was that when it arrived in the mail, the package contained a sealed copy of the clear viny album, including the cover sleeve and booklet, and then it contained a second album cover which was signed. That is so much appreciated by me because I frame the autographed covers, but I still want to be able to access the record to play. Nice touch, Earache!

No need for me to go through the tracks one-by-one. They’re all just good ‘ol, straight ahead rock n roll. There’s no new ground being broken here, but that’s not to say this isn’t impressive. It can’t be easy to bring the level of energy and freshness that this record brings. I want to see this band play live really badly. Let’s hope they visit the East coast soon.

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JCE, or John to his friends, was born in 1963 in the Nation’s Capital. He grew up in the VA suburbs of D.C. His earliest musical memories are tied to a transistor radio with a single earphone that he carried everywhere listening to AM radio. At this point he still listens to a steady diet of punk, power pop, metal (Faster Pussycat=Yes, Megadeath=No), alt country and almost anything that has plenty of good guitar and drums.

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