Before bands like Rocket From the Tombs, the Dead Boys and the Cramps put Cleveland on the punk-rock map in the mid-'70s, teenage badasses like the Alarm Clocks, who formed in 1965, were wrecking high school dance parties and college mixers with a raging tonic of raw garage blues and sinful R&B covers that had parents frantically searching for their nubile daughters and screaming sexual sacrilege.
Corralled last spring back to a gadget-free basement (similar to where they were they were initially birthed), the group generated 14 stomping cuts--a dozen young, loud and snotty originals, inked by singer-bassist Mike Pierce, the mastermind behind the immortal '66 underground classic "No Reason to Complain," and two hard-hitting, albeit predictable, covers ("Like a Rolling Stone" and "I'm a Man"). Though now a bit paunchy and balding, the still youthful-sounding Pierce sneers lyrics like he never grew up.
Worthy highlights include fresh adolescent-in-heat anthems like "Marie" and "Nobody but You" and the infectiously toxic "Feelin' Fine," fueled by the gutter-rat rhythm guitar of Bruce Boehm and the fuzz-saturated leads of newcomer Tom Fallon. If you wanna actually hear a '60s band come back from the grave, then wake up to the rejuvenated Alarm Clocks.
