Last years debut album by the Rock*a*teens was a veritable blast of supernatural radio, AM-style. The Georgia band (featuring members of such acts as DQE, Dirt, Opal Foxx Quartet and the Jody Grind) managed to convincingly conjure up the spirit of the marvelous mono days of Phil Spectors do-wop Wall of Sound via the voodoo of its overamplified, fuzzed-out, reverbed, rebel-rousing drone-back. On their new record, the Teens return for more adventures in lo-fi with an album that doesnt as much turn the page on their debut as expand upon the concept.
From the Will Rogers gallop of Cherry Red Compilation to the Something Wicked This Way Comes merry-go-round spin of Rockabilly Ghetto, Cry resonates with the feel of a soundtrack for the best 50s beach party/sci-fi/gumshoe/skinflick never made. The triple treble guitar lineup of Chris Lopez, Kelly Hogan and Justin Hughes, combined with Lopezs overwrought wail, waxes even the more direct numbers of Stand Tall and Cry Crybaby with a subversive sheen. And the astrally wiped-out, waltz-time echo of Chris Verenes drums on Nightmare sounds as if it could have originated from the dark recesses of Brian Wilsons mind.
Not too many groups could pull off the ambient atmospherics of Cry without sounding painfully trite, but the Rock*a*teens deliver the goods by emulating rather than imitating. Cry is an absolute torch and twang trek through our musical past, present, and possible future smoky, spooky, groovy.