Reviews

Formed as a side project to a side project, Druglords of the Avenues is fronted by Johnny Peebucks of the Swingin’ Utters. Its debut release Sing Songs starts off with “Me Decided,” a middle of the road punk romp that feels like the band is trying to hard and aren’t able to pull it all the way through. The rest of the record drives along the same track; middle of the road punk that tries to mean something, but it just doesn’t have the same grab as Swingin’ Utters, but that’s probably impossible to do.

Songs like “What is Good?” just feel empty and devoid of life, which is a shame considering the pedigree of the band members. One of the only songs that shows any real life is “Where are You Going?” which swings with a beat that has been rarely heard in punk rock lately, which is a hell of a good thing.

The biggest complaint about the record is that Johnny’s vocals seem to have reached their limit and are not able to hold up to the strain of the driving music behind him. The one other song where he’s able to accurately keep up with everything is “There’s Nothing Really Going On,” which sounds like an old Utters song. The worst song is “So Called Druglords,” which contains some of the worst lyrics I’ve heard in a long time. It seems that the band was just having too much fun in order to come up with anything decent.

In the end, the band tried as hard as they could to come up with something unique and different but just couldn’t pull it off. It’s weird to say this but this is one of the most disappointing records of the year.