Let It Ride [PA] (CD - 2005)

Personnel: Alex B., Joey LaRocca (vocals).

Additional personnel: Joey LaRocca.

Recording information: Succulent Sounds (10/2003-02/2004).

It would be truly awesome if the Angel City Outcasts were comprised of people who had gotten kicked out of the largely forgotten '80s Australian metal dudes Angel City, but in fact, they're a bunch of smart alecks from Los Angeles (naturally) playing a sardonic brand of old-school punk with an attitude somewhere around the Dickies or early Redd Kross, but without the edge that kept those bands from being merely silly. An occasional rockabilly/Western swing flirtation, as on the opening "I'm an A.C.O.," gives the songs a bit of character, although it also makes the record sound oddly dated, as if it came out in 1998 instead of 2005. The songs are pleasant enough but not particularly memorable, given energetic but oddly characterless performances. When the most memorable song on your album is a jokey rewrite of Kiss' "Detroit Rock City," things are definitely not what they could be. ~ Stewart Mason minimize