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This one had me fooled. At least until I put the CD in the player. Skimming the press kit, I came way with the impression that The Last<\/strong> would somehow fit into the L.A. hardcore punk scene, the milieu that gave us The Germs<\/strong><\/a> and likeminded acts.<\/p>\n But what I found instead was far more interesting. Harmonies, power chords and keyboards (of cheesy 60s organ variety) were in the mix along with plenty of power chording. The Last draw on all kinds of influences: \u201cUnreal Love\u201d subtly hints at \u201cWalk, Don\u2019t Run,\u201d \u00a0and in other places the group sounds like a giddy cross between Offspring<\/strong> and Redd Kross<\/strong><\/a>. They can sing sweetly when they want to (hint: not too often) but other times one of the brothers — not sure which — sounds a lot like The Plimsouls<\/strong>\u2019 Peter Case<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The punk elements are there, most notably in the rhythm section: Bill Stevenson<\/strong>\u2019s rat-a-tat-tat drumming style and Karl Alvarez<\/strong>\u2019 assured bass work are forceful and propulsive. But a pair of brothers (Joe Nolte<\/strong> on guitar and vocals, and Mike Nolte<\/strong> on keys and vocals) have that sibling harmony thing happening, even when they\u2019re sneering.<\/p>\n Danger<\/em> is the band\u2019s first release in some seventeen years, and while it\u2019s nominally a punk album, it\u2019s far too tuneful and upbeat to wear that label comfortably. Several of the songs even kick of with chiming, Rickenbacker-styled guitar work, though it generally gives way quickly to power riffage. \u201cI Don\u2019t Know What to Say\u201d sounds like what might happen if Gerry and the Pacemakers<\/strong> went punk. Or something. \u201cShe Knows Just What to Do\u201d feels a bit like The Smithereens<\/strong><\/a>. Other listeners may hear echoes of the Buzzcocks<\/strong>, Magazine<\/strong> or very early XTC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong>For some reason, the songs on my CD don\u2019t seem to sync up in any meaningful way to the track listing. So I may have misidentified song titles. But whatever they\u2019re called, they\u2019re great songs, played with gusto. Recommended, and short-listed for potential inclusion in my Best of 2014. And it\u2019s only May!<\/p>\n Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on <\/a> This one had me fooled. At least until I put the CD in the player. Skimming the press kit, I came way with the impression that The Last would somehow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,59,62,65],"tags":[2164],"class_list":["post-5728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-release","category-punk","category-rawk","category-review","tag-the-last","cat-49-id","cat-59-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/icon_twitter_small.jpg\"){kind=icon}
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