GIVE THE GIFT OF WORMTOWN – THE OUT OF TOWNERS (ACACIA STRAIN, DAVE SMITH, LONESOME BROTHERS)

Sure they’re not from the Worm, but they rock, they’re fun and they always send me a CD with a note that says, hey Phil maybe this CD will help us get some press the next time that we play Worcester. By next time they play Worcester, I assume they mean 2010. Sure I always forget about them until sometime after the New Year, but that doesn’t mean that I love them any less. Anyway, Boston bands fell out of touch with me this year or moved out of Boston, like Dave Smith did this October when he moved to Nashville, Tennessee. (Maybe he’ll run into ex-Bees Knees drummer Joe Giotta there). I only got CDs from three out of towners this year, but they were all pretty good. So for my buddies in The Acacia Strain, Dave Smith’s Country Rebel, and The Lonesome Brothers, buy one of their CDs for a loved one as a late Christmas present. Tell them that it’s Phil McNamara’s fault that it’s late because he didn’t tell you to buy it until after the New Year.

THE ACACIA STRAIN – CONTINENT – PROSTHETIC RECORDS

The Pioneer Valley (the area just west of us that runs from Vermont to Connecticut) gave us three great albums this year. One was from an angry, thrashy, howling, Chicopee quartet that put them a step ahead in progress and is one of the heaviest and hardest discs to come out of Massachusetts this year. “Continent” will frightened the hell out of the most hardcore of metal heads with its opener, the mosh worthy “Skynet.” Lead singer Vincent Bennet howls up a storm as he describes the brutality of touring in “Dr. Doom,” disses groupies in “Forget Me Know,” and gleefully awaits annihilation of the planet on “Baby Buster.” Basically, Bennet hates people. Perhaps you have a young relative that can relate. Buy this for the kid in your family that likes to torture small animals.

More info: http://www.prostheticrecords.com

DAVE SMITH – COUNTRY REBEL – COUNTRY REBEL RECORDS

Brockton, Amherst, Northampton, San Francisco, Boston, Nashville…it’s really not where Dave Smith is from that matters, it’s where he’s at. Right now he’s at the crossroads between the snarling Clash/Rancid like punk of his previous bands and hell raisin’ rave up country. Based on the name of the album, the countryside is winning out, but it’s still pretty damn punk rock. From the twangy shred opening of “Lonesome Train” through the spiritual, pint raising, pub rocking sing along, “Luckiest Ones” and six more rabble rousing tunes, Dave questions authority, commits some crimes, suffers greatly and finds redemption in the end; like any classic rock and roll album or Clint Eastwood movie. Buy this CD for the hell raiser in your family along with a bail bond.

More info: http://www.myspace.com/davesmithrebelcountry

THE LONESOME BROTHERS – THE LAST C.D. – CAPTIVATING RECORDS

Twenty years and seven albums into this game called rock and roll and The Lonesome Brothers say that they’re calling it quits. They’re not breaking up the band; they’re just done putting out CDs. If so, they picked a great way to go out. It’s an album of wailing guitar jamming that’s impossible not to dance to along with catchy nostalgia inducing lyrics that’ll make you miss 50s era Cadillac’s, hard drinking barflys, cute store clerks, and bars that you never even new existed. Those Lonesome’s have a talent all right. Buy this CD for a friend while you still can. I’d suggest that you download their next set of songs online, but you’d have to have a credit card to do that and those things are the beginning of the end. Maybe you can write to the Lonesome Brothers and tell them to change their mind.

More info: http://www.lonesomebrothers.com

Coming in late January – Reviews of new CDs from Guns of Navarone, Hey Now Morris Fader, and Jon Short

(If you or your band has a new album, or EP or is about to release one, write to me at spaceguy3@charter.net and let me know how to get a hold of it. Rock On – Phil McNamara)