With rock music busy courting ivy league exotica, guyliner melodrama, and sports metal jockiness, it’s refreshing to hear a return to the simple stuff: howling, sweating, beer, the devil, highways and cowboy boots. Meet the Young Lords, a band of the purest variety—New York -based scuzzsters and Austin expats adding to the ever-expanding soundtrack of America’s rebellious youth.

After hooking up with guitarist Adam Gerard at the New School, and netting bassist Maxwell Kamins from nights trolling the streets of NYC, lead singer Blair Van Nort and guitarist/brother Reed... (+) expand

With rock music busy courting ivy league exotica, guyliner melodrama, and sports metal jockiness, it’s refreshing to hear a return to the simple stuff: howling, sweating, beer, the devil, highways and cowboy boots. Meet the Young Lords, a band of the purest variety—New York -based scuzzsters and Austin expats adding to the ever-expanding soundtrack of America’s rebellious youth.

After hooking up with guitarist Adam Gerard at the New School, and netting bassist Maxwell Kamins from nights trolling the streets of NYC, lead singer Blair Van Nort and guitarist/brother Reed would nickel and dime their way into practice spaces to bring their songs to life. Plugging in, the spirit of outlaw country would creep through here, the unchecked propulsion of punk there, all buoyed by the wily exuberance of vintage rock music, the sort of stuff you don’t bring home to mom.

Indeed, birds flipped, noses thumbed, sunglasses cocked, the Lords are a quartet of would-be-models shaking hands with the history of rock n roll. Trading in the rumbling guitars, sneering vocals, and insistent drums of 60’s blueprinters, the band has managed to make a deafening racket since forming only two short years ago. Sharing NY stages with the Fratellis, the Like, the Willowz and VietNam, they’ve already ensnared fans at Nylon, Elle, L’Uomo Vogue and Anthem.

So, let’s forget Cape Code Kwassa Kwassas, going down swinging, and the assembly line of Nickleback knockoffs. Let’s look to the future with truth and swagger. Rock music deserves it. And so do the Young Lords.

Debut album out October 2008. (-) collapse