Black Leather Soul

When your band is called Angus Khan and you’ve got a singer whose voice bears more than a passing resemblance to that of the late great Bon Scott, it’s only natural the AC/DC comparisons are going to come fast and furious.

Of course they do. Everything I read about the Los Angeles five-piece mentions AC/DC. I suppose there are worse bands you can be compared to, however. And AK play the same type of bluesy hard rock that would sound at home on an AC/DC disk. And they have a song called “Big Balls.” Although in my opinion, singer Derek Christensen sounds more like Angry Anderson than Bon Scott. Hair-splitting aside, before I’d even heard Angus Kahn, I was impressed by their pedigree: guitarist Frank Meyer and bassist Dino Everett came from the Stooges-influenced Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs; Christensen was formerly with the B Movie Rats. A veritable who’s who of great L.A. bands no one’s heard of.

The members of Angus Kahn came together in the summer of 2006, with the intention of forming a band that hearkened back to the days when word of new music “traveled by human network, a tribe of delinquents relying on word of mouth and the local record swap,” according to lead guitarist Screamin' Lord Duff.

“Add the years past the prime of punk's first wave,” he continues, “when many of the practitioners started adding the elements of U.S. Camaro madness to their post-hardcore brew: Black Flag energy combined with Aerosmith savvy and a Cheap Trick wink.”

A lot to live up to, but I can tell you this: Angus Khan give it their all and this is a great disk to have blasting from the car stereo while you’re speeding around your local freeway system, a beer in one hand, the gear shift in the other, on your way to a party where you know the night won’t be over until someone ends up in jail.

Angus Khan’s debut, Black Leather Soul, was just released last month on Nickel and Dime Records. You can (and should) go get it from eMusic.

Exile on Mean Street.mp3

Labels: hard rock, metal, new stuff

posted by aikin @ 2:55 PM