Robert Moss is best known to readers of this site as the bassist for Dischord legends Artificial Peace, and member of peak-era Government Issue. He's also a novelist. The fine 2015 noir thriller Descending Memphis was a real pleasure to read, and Rob talked about it a bit in in this interview with me. Now, being a man of many talents, Moss has surprised us yet again by making a rock 'n' roll, not punk album. We've Come Back To Rock 'n' Roll is out now and it features a ton of familiar names and whole lotta riffs.
More pub rock than punk rock, the album's a lot of fun. Numbers like "Babble Tower" and "Ugly Chair" coast by on a lot of enthusiastic energy, while "There's My Ride" cranks things up even further thanks to guest guitarist Don Fleming (Velvet Monkeys, Gumball, etc.). "No 48 Crash" playfully references the similarly-titled Suzi Quatro classic, while "Oxygenate" goes to a rougher patch of territory. The lead guitar here from Franz Stahl of Scream is a thing of scuzzy beauty, a nod in the direction of British acid rock before 1977. Elsewhere, "Push Back" is a hoot, with Marshall Keith of Slickee Boys lending his musicianship to this one. This track suggests that someone has been listening to those early Eighties Iggy albums.
For all the fire of We've Come Back to Rock 'n' Roll, my favorite number on it was the largely straightforward "Life at 33 1/3 RPM", an ode to listening to records featuring guitar wizard Nels Cline. This one is a bid more modulated in mood and tempo than the other cuts on the album. Fans of The Cramps, Slickee Boys, Black Market Baby, and "Silly Thing"-era Sex Pistols should find a lot to love on this record, especially towards the tail end of the release. Rob Moss has produced the sort of album that deserves to be cranked up and enjoyed by fans of any of the dozen guests on the record, or anyone who misses the glory days of pre-punk pub rock.
We've Come Back to Rock 'n' Roll is out now via the links below.
[Photo: Trevor Moss]