A Dead End Street – The $tranger$ (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

A modern band that captures all of the sonic hallmarks of rock and roll’s remarkable past. An online band that sounds like they would put on the best live show you have seen in a long time. A classic rock band but with room for a raw and rootsy groove. There are a lot of strange anomalies that make up The $tranger$, but the bottom line is that they aim to do just one thing – deliver kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll that tips its hat to the past, makes anthemic music for the here-and-now, and in turn, helps steer the genre into a bright new future.

And they do that through songs like A Dead End Street. Taken from the album Songs From Nowhere (Nowhere, Oklahoma being the band’s actual base. Yes, it really is) it takes all the traditions that made rock music such a potent force in the first pace – killer riffs, solid beats, powerful lyrics – and throw in enough modern poise and polish, but not too much, to keep things rolling. After all, in the story of music, rock music especially, where you’ve been can be as important as where you are going.

Grit with groove, melody with muscle, poignancy with power. It’s got it all.