The Neighborhood Bullys “Callin’ All Rockers” Reviewed

You could be a jazz musician in 1995 if you wanted and you would have some success within a certain cult but you wouldn’t really be a mainstream artist, that ended before end of the 1970s. It was an aesthetic choice, you chose jazz because you loved the music. Somewhere along the way, the same became true of rock and roll. Oh, some people are making some money off rock, sometimes it charts,however rock and roll as the currency of popular music is long long long gone. If you want money move to EDM-MOR: it is where the bread is at.

Within the last year the Pagans have released a superb punk rock inspired rock album, Rockford are turning into first rate art rockers and the sublime the Neighborhood Bullies are the essential rock group releasing an album in segments. For no reason other than the fickle trending of pop, they don’t seem to reach the mass audience they deserve.

rock nyc have written about LA’s the Neighborhood Bullys any number of times, most notably Alyson Camus’s  live rave (here) from 2013. Formed in 2006 by bassist-lead singer Davey Meshell, the Neighborhood Bullies debut album What? opened with a statement of intent, “Let Me Be Me”, and was relentlessly powerful and fast and tough, and  met with expected raves as they mined proto-70s rock and roll take on sex and vices on Sunset Stripper.

Following in the footsteps of Marshall Crenshaw, instead of releasing a follow up album, they have been releasing an album in segments, four EPS. The eponymous first EP included the quintessential Bully song with a dastardly hook: “I’m not your daddy, I’m not your brother, oooh baby I’m a fighter not a lover”. A nice twist on a Ramonesy track. Even more telling, is the bands resurrecting “I’m Bored, Let’s Fight” from the debut, aggro as an in-joke, fight as dance as fight. The band even have the look of aggressive bully boys with a smirk.

It’s a goodie, but here comes EP2 and Callin’ All Rockers is better, with three of the best tracks they’ve ever recorded and a fourth nearly as good. If you know how to pony like Bony Maronie, you will love “The Bully Stomp”, a really real dance song, I mean it is a song about the Bullys dance including steps and a blistering little solo by guitarist Greg West. “Cigarette Lips” is the hit single that is begging to be licensed by some teen exploitation movie. In any world that matters it would be a hit.  Best of all is “Trouble” co-written with Davey’s daughter Hanna, it has the smartest lyric on the album and  with Davey’s falsetto chorus seeming to tear his vocal chords to pieces like he is McCartney singing “Oh! Darling”, it is sold very well.

The Neighborhood Bullys include  drummer Reijo Kauppila and  Zach Jones on rhythm guitar, which means they are in the business of selling you on a groove on song after song. It is like being pushed in a crowded club, it gets your attention and you know it is the price you pay for great rock and roll. “Downtown in a different world…”  Davey sings of another girl on the latest of a long list, but it is also where you will find this excellent rock band.

Grade: A-