Chain And The GangBest Of Crime Rock
In The Red

- Washington DC revolving rock group Chain And The Gang are an odd one. Their brand of tongue-in-cheek, throwback rock'n'roll goes so against the grain it's hard to tell if veteran musical savant and frontman Ian Svenonius is taking the piss or whether he's operating on some higher and greater plane than the rest of us. Fifth proper full-length Best of Crime Rock is just that: a bizarre and eclectic "greatest hits" collection combined with new songs, from a band obscure enough to only have an entry in the German version of Wikipedia, yet which toured Australia just three months ago, seemingly on a whim.

Featuring re-worked and re-recorded versions of classic Chain And The Gang songs you've most likely not heard before, Best of Crime Rock is without a doubt a goddamn rockin' good time and a suitably fitting departure from your stock standard, run-of-the-mill turd rock that scatters the global musicl landscape. For frontman Svenonius "crime rock" is not just a title, it's a musical "anti-rock" revolution that paints its participants as much more Westside Story than say, The Warriors or Boyz In The Hood. It's a rock movement where devotees solve their differences with dance and debate rather than fists or knives. This is music that speaks absolute volumes with its overtly jaunty, matter-of-fact, call-and-response anthems, for all the disenfranchised youth that want to cause some havoc, on the most sensible scale.

Considering that Best of Crime Rock is a bizarre pseudo-best-of record taken from a variety of Chain And The Gang releases spanning their eight years of existence, some of which featured members no longer a part of "The Gang" so to speak, the record has a surprising coherence and flow to it and for the uninitiated, could very much pass for a completely new record. There's a timeless, Twilight Zone-esque quality about Chain And The Gang that makes Best of Crime Rock such an interesting prospect in the scheme of things. It's likely to be the most offbeat, out-there and life affirming rock record I'll hear all year. It's nothing less than the perfect soundtrack to my personal vendetta against my home town's slow-burn gentrification and my misguided and insular brand of vigilante justice that so far has yielded very few major breakthroughs. In a world often lacking a clear voice of reason, Ian Svenonius appears to be the twisted and perfect ringleader for those of us marching to our own off-kilter beat.

- Jay Edwards.

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