The Regressives – The Regressives

If you pine for the sounds of straight up, no frills, fist-pumping street punk that was so ubiquitous in the 90s, look no further than The Regressives. The NYC band plays a hard-hitting ode to ’77 style punk on their self-titled LP.

The fourteen-track album keeps your attention as it swaggers from the gutters to the streets, navigating through the grit and filth of the current political American landscape. This album is ripe with political overtones with opening tracks titled “Revolution Ballad” and “Culture Wars.” The Regressives aren’t afraid to slog through mud as they call it like they see it.

The gruff vocals mesh well with the overall rawness of the album. Now don’t get me wrong, these guys aren’t all rough around the edges. Their everyman anthems have lead guitar riffs that sail up out of the muck into the air, nailing the ’77 sound in the spirit of The U.S. Bombs or Cock Sparrer. Just check out “Revolution Ballad,” “Red Bood” or “The City in Strategic Retreat” to see what I mean.

While the album powers straight through the grime, it is laden with hooks that are catchy as hell. It also incorporates some elements of gypsy rock, minor chord acoustic upstrokes and toe-tapping rocksteady beats with a wink and a nod to the late, great Joe Strummer.

One of the things I think The Regressives nail the best are the unpredictable bridges that await most songs, which is a huge bonus to the already solid song structure. This album brings me back to the mid-nineties style punk shows I used to frequent at Berkeley’s 924 Gilman.

So, grab a tall boy and pump your fist to the raw power of good ol’ sing-along gutter punk as you plow straight through this album.

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