Posted on: March 13, 2020 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

While the world is inches away from plunging into Armageddon, Rum Bar Records and a brilliant Italian four-piece punk band are offering a glorious soundtrack to our end days.

Boston-based Rum Bar continues their re-release series of albums by the Peawees with Walking The Walk, initially released 13 years ago (Wild Honey is putting it out on vinyl). The band’s fourth album, it also happens to be one of their best (only edged out slightly by the near flawless Dead End City). The record kicks off with “Wild About You,” the perfect marriage of Punk, Garage and Power Pop and never lets up for the next half hour. The album is what The Clash likely would have sounded like if they discovered Soul instead of Reggae.

The Peawees stick to the basic themes here: love, loss and heartbreak, all pretty standard rock and roll fare, but they manage to make it sound important again, thanks to the immediacy of the guitars, the rapid fire drumming and Herve Peroncini’s rumbling, deep vocals (like Tom Waits with a little more rest).

The only confounding thing about this record is why this band wasn’t massive in the U.S.

Peawees – Walking The Walk [Reissue]/11 tracks/Rum Bar Records/2020

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