Smogtown

It still amazes me how back in the ’60s and early ’70s all those white British boys were trying to sing like grizzled, black Americans, and now we have a bunch of Americans trying their damnedest to sing like working class British punks. This California quartet, all in their mid-20s, have got the punk thing down cold: plenty of relentless riffing, a boogie-heavy rhythm section and vocals packed with phlegm and vitriol that keep them out of the hardcore camp and firmly in late ’70s punk. In a nice twist, their songs tackle middle-class angst, which can be as stultifying as any. If they had only been able to come up with a little more variation and originality in their riffage the LP wouldn’t have devolved into one long, angry blur before reaching the end. Good try, though.