Download: The Aggrolites “The Sufferer”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Since its 2002 birth by amalgamation, the Aggrolites have evolved from one more clutch of L.A. punks making rattletrap ska-noises to a slick and durable roadshow-reggae act, opening for cult-heroic likes of Madness and Michael Franti & Spearhead. This 21-track sprawl feels like an attempt at a kind of Exile on Main Street—a welter of hooks and ferocity whirling inside a restricted sonic space as emotionally expressive as the blues-rock the Stones pioneered. Results are closer to Sandinista’s Romper Room marathon, as these distant spawn of the Clash wear the complete fuck out of another genre in a series of virtuosic fits. “Firecracker” starts things off in a burst of 1970s soundtrack funk and “Gotta Find Someone Better” wouldn’t be out of place on either Reprise-era Meters album, but the rest of the bill sticks to what passes the dutchie out on the festival circuit. If their Combat Crunk is next, this could get interesting.
—Ron Garmon
1 Chuck // Jun 18, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Perfect album for chillin in the hammock on a lazy summer afternoon, cold beer in one hand, a nicely rolled herbal remedy in the other.
Check out “Reggae Summertime” streaming at
http://www.purevolume.com/theaggrolites
to see what I mean.
Leave a Comment