Like
the Cinch,
the Epoxies, the
Yeah Yeah Yeahs and pretty much every band on the Dirtnap label, the
Detonations are attempting to re-create a type of American post-punk blend of garage rock and new wave that really wasn't all that prevalent back in the circa-1981 day they seem to be envisioning based on their promo pictures. A New Orleans-based trio with the requisite fondness for black leather and sunglasses, the
Detonations wisely dial back on the new wave affectations (other than the really ugly-'80s pastiche of the album cover) in favor of a sound closer to the
New York Dolls: sneered vocals, clunky rhythms and buzzsaw guitar riffs, all stripped of any non-essentials like harmony vocals and solos that consist of more than the song's main riff played louder. Singer Julian Fried has the post-
Mick Jagger pout and whine down to a science, and John Henry (who plays a homemade guitar/bass hybrid that gives the otherwise bottomless group a bit more solidity than most of their bass-lacking cohorts) plays a tight enough rhythm guitar that drummer Keith Herrera (formerly of the Drags, a fine mid-'90s punk-pop band that never quite managed to break beyond their Albuquerque home base) has room to get a little sloppy in the tradition of
the Replacements'
Chris Mars. There's nothing world-beating on
Static Vision, but the
Detonations show the potential to do something even better in the future. ~ Stewart Mason