Search - Forty-Fives :: High Life High Volume

The back-to-the-future success of the Hives, Jet, and the Strokes has proven that roots rock is a decidedly relative term. But while much of those bands' work is rooted in a '70s-vintage melange of hooks, crunch, and sass, Atlanta's Forty-Fives are driven by a fetish for another decade entirely: the raw, mid-'60s thrash of the British Invasion and American contenders like the Standells. On this, the quartet's third album, they've driven that fervent, back-to-the-garage sensibility into a virtual musical time warp, an ironic pop conundrum that will sound invitingly fresh to Generation Y-ers, while evoking a sense of strange nostalgia in boomers. The key here is the album's sole cover, an energetic workout of the obscure early Who album track "Daddy Rolling Stone" that succeeds, as did the original, on sheer, committed chutzpah. Backed by the band's driving retro-beat, vocalist Bryan Malone barrels through standouts like "Bad Reputation" and "Who Do You Think You Are" with impressive abandon before taking a twangy respite with the Stonesy country blues of "Bicycle Thief." The Flamin' Groovies may have pioneered this shtick back in those now-hallowed '70s, but their efforts sound self-consciously precious by comparison; the Forty-Fives are content to simply live and die by the rave-up. --Jerry McCulley