Something Fierce, Come For The Bastards

Aww, man. It always makes me a little nervous when I see somebody’s thanked this little e-zine in their album’s liner notes; it’s sweet, and I appreciate the sentiment, but when it happens with a band I’ve only heard a little bit of ’til now, like Houston’s own Something Fierce, I get worried. I’ve talked to a couple of the folks in the band before now, but hadn’t actually heard much of their music beyond a minute or two of a MySpace clip, so… There’s nothing worse than having to deliver the music-crit smackdown on somebody who’s just finished thanking you for your help, y’know?

Luckily, Something Fierce don’t have that problem. Come For The Bastards is honestly one of the best local releases I’ve heard in a while, a full-on, snarling blast of sweat-soaked rawk that kicks its way into your head and stays. The band certainly lives up to their name; from the very start of the opening title track, guitarist/singer Steven “Baby Face” Garcia, bassist/singer Niki Sevven, and drummer Red Rocket are a ferocious, unstoppable force. And best of all, they manage to throw off all that energy and fury while at the same time keeping things catchy and entertaining.

I’ve had “Come For The Bastards” (the song, that is) stuck in my head for the better part of two days now, despite playing all kinds of other things between listenings; it’s fast and angry, with a definite punk edge to it and a cool, Hives-ish urgency (think “Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones,” off of Tyrannosaurus Hives). “Repent” runs along the same lines, with a dirty, rockabilly-ish main riff and vocals that nearly wear a Brit-punk-circa-’77 sneer, and “Find Darkness” charges in with a pounding rhythm and a yell-along chorus that’d make Rancid proud. There are more “American” punk elements here, too — “Cut Deep,” with its somewhat slower tempo and more brittle sound, reminds me in particular of old-school California bands like 7 Seconds, Agent Orange, or even Social Distortion.

The oddest thing, though, is that more than anything else, the crazy kids (well, relatively) in Something Fierce make me think of another band of kids (who also happen to be a power trio), UK wunderkinds/press darlings The Subways. And yes, that’s a compliment, because like Billy Lunn & co., Garcia, Sevven, and Rocket definitely know how to craft an actual song and not just a bunch of kids banging away on guitars. “Lost Perspective” makes me want to bang my head and pump my fist in the air in time with Rocket’s drums, while “10ft Demon” sounds like it was written for the sole purpose of getting a vicious mosh pit going. There’s also “Better Off Without You,” a sweet little Spector girl group-style fuck-you song that features Sevven on main vocals and which serves to cut the rawness of most of the rest of the album somewhat.

Okay, now I’ve got a confession to make: most stuff like this turns me off. Nine out of ten bands like Something Fierce don’t ever even make an impression on me — there’s just so much sound-alike garage-y junk floating around there these days that it’s almost as easy to tune out as the American Idol theme song. Live, sure, it’s all a blast; on record, though, stuff like this tends to fall flat, at least for me. It’s partly the samey-sounding thing, but it’s also the actual recording style, because frankly, most of it sounds like crap, like it was recorded in an airport trashcan while 747s pass overhead. Not that I always want things to sound shiny and clean, but seriously, there’re only a handful of bands out there that can be noisy and sloppy and lo-fi and make it work. Not everybody can be the Fatal Flying Guilloteens, folks (and heck, they’ve even left most of their early lo-fi craziness behind).

For their part, though, Something Fierce aren’t rallying under the lo-fi-is-better flag. Instead, they’ve managed quite a feat, by playing fast, loud, wild garage rock that still stays focused and tight as hell. Sound-wise, they’re furious and ragged, yes, but they’re nowhere near messy or half-assed. Which is good, because Come For The Bastards is an album that deserves to be heard, over and over again and at full volume. Rock the fuck out.