Foxboro Hot Tubs

The last time the most popular Bay Area pop punk band in the entire world (they hope you had the time of your life) made up a fake name and released a one-off full-length, it was a novelty offering that aped Devo huge and allowed the band to wear cool costumes/weird masks. This time around, things are pretty straight-up pre-punk rock’n’roll, sans masks. With some Stooges sounds here and some New York Dolls references there, Stop Drop and Roll!!! is, maybe unsurprisingly, a really good record. A huge, huge step back from the over-the-top bombast of American Idiot, this is the sound of three outrageously famous dudes raised on punk rock trying to reclaim something basic, and for that reason alone it’s worth listening to. It’s not likely you’ll return to it more than a few times but it’s a solid record that might make some mascara-wearing little punk urchins check out their parents’ vinyl collection for the first time. Not bad.