According to Recess Records, Bent Outta Shape is the "2005 equivalent of the Clash." There is only one conclusion I can draw from this statement: Todd from Recess has been kidnapped and we're supposed to decipher his odd band comparisons to reveal clues to his whereabouts and the kidnappers' identities. Which would make more sense and be more realistic than the statement at its face value.

You know I love the `76-`77 London neighborhood but if we have to do a band comparison thing I'm going to have to steer us away from there over to Minneapolis circa `82-`84 before arriving at our final destination of the tail end of 2005. Bent Outta Shape take the best elements of the unrepentant early `80s-era Replacements and get it good and liquored up with the modern hard-working, heartfelt, damn near poetic, memorable, currently basement-bound scene flourishing today. No boilersuits or Pearl Harbor backdrops behind a bunch of English cats jumping around giving you the business about the Sandinistas and the dole queue. Just a bunch of unassuming dudes swimming in booze singing songs that you could have written about your own life, heartbreak, that time you dated a girl from Kissimmee and your dissatisfaction with lethargic hipsters walking around like they built your town when all they did was buy a black members only jacket a size or two too small.

I have this whole diatribe worked out on my premonition or "real good feeling" about bands like Bent Outta Shape and a host of others including Drunken Boat, Snuggle, United States and Ringers signaling the start of the next wave of amazing honest music I can actually identify with....but Todd from Recess is out there somewhere and we don't have much time before the kidnappers start sending fingers to us to prove how serious they are. If you ever want to see Toys That Kill again, we have to crack his code. Paul Simonon is behind this...I just know it.

Recommended tracks:

• I Don't Know
• Rudes and Cheaps
• Kissimmee
• Stray Dog Town