We Have Seen The Future of Rock and It is...'80s Metal?

"Johnny Thunders? Never heard of her."

Every so often, a band comes along that puts the "rock & roll" back into things and reminds everybody what it's all about at the end of the day. In a mouse-click cut-and-paste world of pop music, Starcrawler stand out for the very simple fact that they force you to respond.

Anybody who ever bitched about missing out on Patti Smith or Alice Cooper "before they were big" has been given a big ol' gift from the Gods.

The best part, you ask?

There is no Switzerland, here, folks. You either fall on your knees in complete awe or shrug it off like a Rick Rubin-produced Strokes album. Unlike NYC's enigmatic quintet, Starcrawler not only pull it off live, with EASE, but somehow manage to take you another two or three steps further with a visual element that is, in a word, electric.

Much of that electricity emanates from singer/frontwoman Arrow de Wilde, for whom the term "force of nature" was invented.

If they'd come along forty years ago, they'd have either been huge, or gigantic. Patti Smith may have had the songs, but she'd have made it onto more bedroom walls if she'd spit blood or wore a straitjacket. No two ways about it.

Guitarist Henri Cash is a tasty mix of Lenny Kaye and Ace Frehley, delivering a thunderously savage array of riffs steeped in early '70's punk tradition.

As it stands, Rough Trade has gotten in on the ground floor of what this writer suspects will be a cottage industry because singer Arrow de Wilde is a star, but, dagnabbit, she ain't goin' anywhere til she graduates high school first!

Whether Starcrawler are the next Pixies or Bauhaus, or simply a stepping stone for de Wilde remains to be seen, let us simply enjoy the first round of sonic taffy (their debut Rough Trade single "Ants") as we wait for the next one (a full-length album produced by Ryan Adams) to arrive (release date TBA).