Naked Raygun is dead... long live Naked Raygun.

Though most of the musicians who were making hardcore records in the 80s are long since forgotten, there are a few still on the scene. Bob Mould is one, Ian MacKaye is another. It's debatable how relevant Henry Rollins is at this point, or in what areas said relevance exists, but he's a third to add to the list. With The Bomb's new album, "Indecision", Jeff Pezzati makes a strong bid for his own inclusion. Pezzati is the former frontman of Naked Raygun, who released six albums between 1985 and 1991. After Naked Raygun's breakup, guitarist John Haggerty continued making records throughout the 90s with Pegboy, but the other members disappeared for the most part. The Bomb is Pezzati's first musical effort since those days. When they started, Pezzati was both singing and playing bass (as he did in an early incarnation of Big Black), but with "Indecision" he has reclaimed his position as frontman, with backing music being provided by a bunch of guys who are a good bit younger than he is.

One would imagine that said younger guys are as excited about backing up Pezzati as he himself is about singing for a band again, and this excitement comes through in a big way on "Indecision". From the evidence presented here, The Bomb are Pezzati's Sugar to Naked Raygun's Husker Du--the production is slightly more polished and the songwriting a bit more rock-oriented, but in no way diluting the hard-hitting punk attack he made his name on. The Bomb's music is just as loaded down with scorching, uptempo punk riffs as prime-era Naked Raygun was, and those excited younger musicians bang them out with all the energy they can muster. This is obvious from the start--"Up From The Floor" kicks off "Indecision" with a bang, all the instruments coming it at once on a fast melody that the frantic drumming from Mike Soucy underscores with an undeniable passion. The guitars are distorted and cranking, and Pezzati is in top vocal form, especially as he harmonizes with himself on the chorus. The Bomb do uptempo punk rock better and more consistently than many of the bands doing so today, some of which are half Pezzati's age. Even when they step things down, as on the reggae-tinged opening minute of "Burn It All" or the entirety of "Won't Apologize", they never drift into ballad territory, always keeping things exciting and interesting. The "whoa-hey-ho" vocal choruses that were Pezzati's trademark in his Naked Raygun days are here as well, and are sometimes even more distinctive than they were then. "Nothing To Say" and "Further From The Truth" are great examples of this, but such choruses appear on almost every song on "Indecision"--not that anyone's complaining.

I'm not sure how serious these guys are taking this band--after all, "Indecision" is their first record since 2000--but hopefully it's serious enough that their record release schedule will be much more regular in the future than it has been in the past. A national tour would be even better, as these songs would no doubt be even more exciting live than they are on record, but the older one gets, the harder it is to make time for that sort of thing. Regardless, I'm happy enough just to know that Jeff Pezzati still has more great music left in him after a 20 year career, and that he has seen fit to present it to the public. Hopefully there's plenty more where this came from.