Tag Archives: detroit

Album Review: SROS Lords, Rule

 

SROS Lords, Rule (Earyummy Records, 05/12/2015)

Debut long player from SROS Lords, a “reborn” (as of 2013, Alleluia!) garage/wave/punk trio from Motown.  We here at thegrindinghalt.com HQ received our copy directly from drummer, Jamie Cherry.  Thanks, man!

The band (named, according to this 2014 interview, in honor of the studio in Detroit, from whence they record) play loud, fast, twitchy music drawing as much to older punk, new wave and hardcore bands like Electric Eeels, The Ramones, The Misfits, Die Kreuzen and Devo, as well garage vets like The Gories, as it is to the more recent work of Jay Reatard (RIP), and thegrindinghalt.com faves Nots and Ausmuteants.

Churning, buzzsaw guitars trade shots with whipcrack drumbeats, accompanied by droney synth and the fuzzed out vocals of singer Morgan, the album whizzing by at break neck speed (“epic” tune “Erica”, the longest, boasts a 2:24 run time).  The energy on display across the album’s 13 tracks is both palpable and infectious; like going to an amusement park with a kid with ADD who wants to go on all the rides, simultaneously.

The group’s description of itself as “slimernetik” punk makes no sense and perfect sense – it feels like a kind of “back to the future” evocation of a time when punk kids and early punk/new wavers saw themselves as “alien” and made music designed for people who felt the same way, eff everyone else.  There’s a whiff of late nights in basements, gaming and gorging on B-movie horror, scifi and reruns – (“Dragonflex” sounds like a bizarro reworking of the theme from “Gilligan’s Island”).

“Music to make soylent green to” could work, too.  Equally, a great soundtrack to an afternoon doing lines of Cheetos dust and spazzing out on peach Faygo.  It’s your life, man; we don’t judge.

Rule is out, like, NOW on Earyummy and is available on iTunes. Check out SROS Lords on Facebook, tumblr and enjoy the seizure-inducing graphics on their website.

Highlights include: “Erica”, “Sniper”, “Dragonflex”, “Baby Centipede”.