For some inexplicable reason, the new one from The Whips is anything but new. You see, the album's been sitting around for a dozen years and was unreleased until now. What We Talk About When We Talk About Rock, out now via Settle For It Records, is high-energy rock-and-roll. It is a delicious throwback to the days when amps went to 11, and hair was flying as players furiously battered drum-kits and slapped basses. I mean, this thing owes more to Fu Manchu and Monster Magnet than it does to Trusty or Circus Lupus, the two Dischord bands that gave this band two of its players.
"Better Than Good" roars like Jane's Addiction before they got on MTV, while "California (Take A Chance)" is up to no darn good. The cut, like many here, just blasts out of the shoot at full speed, and that's something to seriously dig these days. Drummer Arika Casebolt pounds the skins here like she's trying to bust her way out of prison, and the energy there, along with that of vocalist Matthew Burger, is such that every bit of What We Talk About When We Talk About Rock feels like a band that's playing fast as the plane goes down. I mean, if those cons in Con Air (1997) had a band on that ride, it would have been one that sounded like what we hear here on "Kayti's Song", or the wonderfully-titled "Dave Mustaine Sally", you know? And even though "Three" and part of "Bellboys" introduce some nuance to things here, The Whips are at their best when they simply rock out with abandon. That's a refreshing thing to hear again in this city, and it places this group's sound close to that of the legendary King Face at times.
The Whips are playing a record release gig with Des Demonas (some of my faves) this Friday at Black Cat. Details here.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Rock is out now via Settle For It Records.
More details on The Whips via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: The Whips Facebook page]