Salt Lick Kids

Mixing ’60s British blues influences with surf rock, Guelph’s Salt Lick Kids have created a catchy record of raw, live-off-the-floor pop madness. Geronimo Geordie Gordon invokes the impassioned, bluesy phrasing of Mick Jagger circa England’s Newest Hitmakers with a bit of the Animals’ Eric Burdon thrown in for good measure. Gordon’s guitar-playing is a wonder, an interesting amalgamation of Charlie Christian jazz licks, the shimmering swagger of Brian Connelly (Atomic 7), and Dave Davies’ playful power chords. Together with Kid Clayton Dyon on bass and Johnny Merritt on drums, Gordon pays an unbridled tribute to streetwise, art-infused punk. Songs like "Armies in the Sky” and "Move Out” sound like they were captured to tape on a hot New York City day in the ’70s. "Sea Salt Woman” could be a Modern Lovers workout while "Bandit Blood” starts out as a jovial big band jump number before Gordon’s manic phrasing and edgy fingering fill it up with tossed off menace. This is a gutsy, spirited debut that promises great things from the Salt Lick Kids.