If I asked you to imagine a band made up of a husband and wife, her father and her professor, I bet your mind would start conjuring images of a band that were, perhaps, technically great but lacking in, let’s call it pazzazz! Well, as soon as you hear said band, all such thoughts disappear immediately.
As soon as the opening riff of Vibe-inside, which kicks off the new album Trash and Glamour, comes into earshot, you realise that Bad Mary is the most rock and roll band in existence. Well, certainly in the top three. This is old school, gritty rock and roll at its finest, all attitude, swagger, infectious groove, and punch moves.
And so the album goes. It’s All Trash is a cool blend of staccato guitar slashes and a boogie-some beat, The Floor is Lava updates anthemic garage rock for a modern audience and Are You With The Band? is built around the spirit of ’76…1976 that is…Lower East Side, punk bravado…as if The Ramones were starting out today, brought up on a steady stream of Hanoi Rocks and Faster Pussycat albums.
As always, it’s a great album; it knows what it is about and delivers it to perfection. Guitar music is still alive; it just lost its way for a while before bands such as Bad Mary came along to remind us exactly how to deliver the goods. Job done.
