Album Reviews
LA’s The Last Gang is one of the latest additions to the Fat Wreck roster. They already made quite an entrance with last year’s Sing For Your Supper 7” and are back now with more of the same. Literally, because ‘Keep Them Counting’ comes with nine more songs than their 7”.
This trio, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Brenna Red, bassist Sean Viele and drummer Robert Wantland, is pretty apt at banging out Rancid-inspired rockers one second and punked up pop songs the next. Check ‘Blood Drunk’ for some of the former and ‘Affairs To Remember’ and ‘Salvation For Wolves’ (which features a solo by none other than Motörhead’s Phil Wizzö Campbell) for the latter. And then there are songs like ‘Nobody’s Prostitute,’ which have the Distillers written all over them. Not only does Brenna sound a helluva lot like Brody Dalle with the same kind of hoarse and raspy vocals, The Distillers’ DNA somehow wound up all over that song as well. That’s not all though. They keep shifting directions with some Interrupters vibes, semi-rapped vocals in ‘Believe In The Poet’ and the acoustic ‘Secret Sounds’. Yet somehow it all ties together nicely in one cohesive album.
So The Last Gang won’t be winning any prizes for originality anytime soon. Big deal. They know how to write catchy and energetic punk rock songs that should turn every show into one big party.
Track listing:
- Sing For Your Supper
- Blood Drunk
- Salvation For Wolves ( Feat. Phil “Wizzö” Campbell)
- Strange Fruit
- Nobody’s Prostitute
- Affairs To Remember
- Believe In The Poet
- Karla
- Identity
- Secret Sounds
Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.
