Stop, Rock n Roll

Happy New Year! It’s a new edition of Stop, Rock n Roll featuring five great local tunes!

The Hopeless Romantics – “Why Won’t She Pick Up the Phone?” The Hopeless Romantics have released the first single from their upcoming debut album. A reworking of one of their fan-favorites (certainly a risky move, let alone as the first single), the song grooves along as a sultry tune made for the dancefloor, with lofty synths and a showstopping ending. After a long wait for new Romantics music, they responded in an unexpected and unique way.

The Berger Boys – “Gratitude” The newest offering from The Berger Boys starts out with a lone acoustic guitar before, suddenly, strings appear. These additions continue to steal the show throughout due to their rustic beauty, but the rest of the song stands up just fine on its own. Gentle vocal harmonies, minimal percussion, and sprinkles of piano give the song plenty of warmth, like sitting next to a fire on a cold evening. It’s a very beautiful four minutes.

Baby Muffler – “Ford Coupe” Egg punk, a genre largely known for the great bands peddling it in Australia, has been making inroads in Rhode Island and elsewhere in the US over the past couple years. The newest addition is Baby Muffler, who recently released their self-titled debut EP through local label Ink Spot Tapes. Each of the tracks on the EP is a lofi blast. “Ford Coupe” is no exception, an ode to a classic car caked in tape machine grime complete with a wall-of-sound chorus and a blistering solo.

Free Beer The Band – “Castle Stones” The most recent song from Free Beer adds a harder edge to their usual blend of funky bar rock, though the funk is hardly lost here, as the wah-heavy, verbose chorus plays like RHCP in their prime. The vocal breakdown in the bridge can only lead one further to the RHCP comparisons, but hey, since when was that a bad thing?

Foz – “run as administrator” Upon beginning Foz’s first new music in five years, the listener is greeted by a perplexing yet intriguing array of sounds, including syncopated drum patterns, a slinking, chorus-drenched bass line, and ominous guitars. However, just as the listener gets comfortable with where the song is going, it suddenly completely changes course, with distorted vocals and walls of fuzz crashing over themselves as the song barrels to a grinding halt.