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Strange Boys CD strips down rock

Debut album from Texan group attempts to return to roots despite poor production

Calling The Strange Boys barebones would be a blatant understatement. On their debut album, The Strange Boys and Girls Club, the Texas blues-grunge-garage-rock band reaches sonic levels well above the typical treble. Although their version of rock music mimics contemporary blues-infused duos like early White Stripes and The Black Keys, The Strange Boys have found their own niche within the blues rock world. The band consists of guitarist/lead singer Ryan Sambol, bassist Philip Sambol, drummer Matt Hammer and guitarist/pianist Greg Enlow. Signed to independent record label In the Red Records, The Strange Boys have joined the company of John Spencer Blues Explosion and similarly sounding Black Lips.

Sambol and Enlow’s screechy guitar work via Fender Telecasters not only mirrors Keith Richards’ styling but resurrects the licks of Chuck Berry — most impressively heard on “This Girl Taught Me a Dance.” The screech, however, does not stop at the guitars. Ryan Sambol’s voice simulates a whiny, nasal teenager channeling his inner Bob Dylan. Sambol’s voice might sound like broken glass sifted through a microphone, but his screams and nasal inflections of words manage to unveil an original expression of raw emotion — simply put — the voice works.

Drummer Matt Hammer sets the pace of the album immediately on the first track, “Woe is You and Me,” through rockabilly-charged rhythmic cymbal crashing. Hammer’s loud start-stop style creates a sense of control behind the seeming messiness of this band. While letting the guitars speak or scream when he stops, he creates a cohesive connection between the rhythmic and melodic members of the band.

Although the band’s treble sounds emerge as the most prominent aspect of The Strange Boys, bassist Philip Sambol simplistically contrasts the tin-sounding guitars and biting cymbals — most notably with his groovy bass lines within “She Shot Paul.” Furthermore, the atmospheric harmonies layered within “She Shot Paul” and “No Way for a Slave to Behave” set these two tracks aside and suggest that The Strange Boys have the capability to grow and possibly thicken their sound on future tracks.

While the music holds potential, the production does not. The recording quality is thin and offhandedly produced. The album cover looks like a drunken and candid Facebook picture, and the title seems to have no correlation to the content of the album — a nonsensical play on words referring to the YMCA-like after-school centers. Any proper aesthetics found within the album seems like a crapshoot; the band got lucky.

Regardless, none of these aesthetic-less aspects hurt The Strange Boys. The hooks and melodies are simple and easy to groove to, representing simplistic songwriting. With all the simplicity easily seen within their ’50s throwback sound, the band name comes off childishly ironic. The Strange Boys create fun and loud music — music to dance to, music to groove to and even music to bang your head to if necessary.

3 1/2 stars out of 5.