B-Movie Rats

Timing clearly is not on the B-Movie Rats' side. Six years, two albums, and innumerable gigs into its career, the band recorded its third album, Radio Suicide, in 2002, but when the band split up mid-tour following the sessions, the completed album was never released. Unfortunately, their brand of proto-punk, heavily influenced by the usual suspects (the Dictators, the MC5, Rock N Roll Animal-era Lou Reed, New York Dolls, etc.), was the coin of the realm starting almost immediately after they split, thanks to the White Stripes and the whole garage rock and new punk revival. Ironically, now that they've re-formed and released their 2002 album, this style of music isn't particularly hot or au courant anymore. Eh, whadaya gonna do? Matters of fashion aside, Radio Suicide happens to be an absolutely stomping monster of an old-fashioned '70s rock album, branching out from the primal stomp of the above-mentioned bands to include more of an FM radio sound: the eight lengthy songs (only one under five minutes) mix up greasy boogie-rawk guitar riffs, occasional leaps into the classic metal falsetto from frontman Derek Christensen in on-the-road rockers like "Flat on My Face," and even a good old-fashioned power ballad in "Cold After Dark." Echoes of bands ranging from AC/DC, Blue Öyster Cult, and Kiss to Led Zeppelin and the Who flit through these songs, which rock convincingly and, crucially, non-ironically. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide