EP Review: Local Drags – The Boys Are Still In Town

Did you ever wonder what might have happened if Steve Jones had joined Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers? Well, now you don’t have to. Springfield, Illinois’ Local Drags have managed to make a four-track EP that is simultaneously comfortingly familiar and enjoyably contemporary. Even though the band’s influences are self-deprecatingly nostalgic (“The Replacements, Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, and various dead technology formats“), there’s a welcome freshness to this EP, even if the recordings are a couple of years old now. It predates this year’s debut full-length album Shit’s Lookin’ Up! and was originally a very limited cassette-only release.

Unashamedly looking over your shoulder is not a bad or negative thing. There is a reason why the songs you love and that inform your own writing made such an impact, and sprinkling a bit of that fairy dust brings its own rewards. This is fine guitar pop with just enough edge and attitude to steer it away from derivative jingle-jangle oblivion. There’s a strong sense of self-indulgence here coupled with an over-generous helping of toe-tapping, singalong goodness. The press release mentions a ‘melancholy tone’ but I don’t get that at all. There’s an overall brightness, generated by a bold and upfront mix in which the guitars chug and sparkle. The chirpiness of Fast Rewind is an excellent case in point. All in all, four excellent guitar pop songs designed to bring a smile to your face. Hell, you might even dance a little bit. An antidote to all that American lite radio rock that you could never quite admit to enjoying. A punk rock Gin Blossoms it’s OK to like. And bonus points for the Thin Lizzy references.

The Boys Are Still In Town is available now as a 7″ vinyl EP on Stardumb Records.