Burnouts

Straight out of Denmark come hot rod punks the Burnouts with their second full-length record, Close to Break Evil. It's a mix of hard rock and classic '70s punk that comes off like a garage-ier Nashville Pussy. The guitars are gutty, the tunes are fairly catchy and the bass player is a hot Nordic blonde babe, so there's not much to dislike about this band. Tracks like "Return of the Action Man," "You Lose" and "I Can't Afford It" feature some nice "call and response" vocals, making these the standouts of the album. If there is any problem with the record it's that the songs are almost too straight-ahead and not distinguishable enough from those of any number of hard-hitting bands out there. All in all this is a solid little album, but there just aren't enough surprises here to warrant any kind of rave.