The Star Spangles: Bazooka!!!

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * *)

The debut album by the New York quartet who are sometime Datsuns tour mates, and who look more like the guys from Blondie than the guys from Blondie do these days. Predictably enough, they sound like something out of the Big Apple's rock history, the 1976-79 chapter.

Though for every Ramones-ish chorus - on the likes of Angela and Stay Away From Me - they also come on as the Only Ones on opener I Live for Speed or the Clash with frontman Ian Wilson offering his best Joe Strummer croak on standout track Which of the Two of Us Is Gonna Burn This House Down? Other stated influences? Australia's Hoodoo Gurus, whose I Want You Back they adapt as the more assertive but less tuneful I'll Get Her Back.

And they cover a Johnny Thunders and Wayne Kramer obscurity Crime of the Century, just to confirm their allegiance to the NY-punk legacy.

It's fun while it lasts in a raspy, slouchy, rock'n'roll time warp kind of way. But without forerunners the Strokes and the subsequent spotlight on the new generation of NY bands, you might suspect that Bazooka!!! wouldn't be going out into the wider world and the Star Spangles would be the sort of band you might trip over in downtown Manhattan on a Thursday night.

Label: Capitol