Praise the Lord and pass the Bud – the Great Party-Band Famine of the Eighties is over. The Del-Lords, the Fleshtones, the Lyres and the Replacements (when they're not too loaded) are just a few of the top-notch six-pack minstrels thriving in the current U.S. street-rock renaissance. With this debut album, the Del Fuegos blast their way onto that honored list like gangsters crashing a church social.

No mere party animals, this Boston foursome writes tight originals – like the hot-rod opener, "Nervous and Shakey," (note the snappy hubcaplike percussion in the fade) and the Bo Diddley earthquaker "Out for a Ride" – in a clever kind of punkabilly shorthand, balling up elements of Fifties Sun Records yee-hah and Sixties garage rock with a little vintage soul. But the Del Fuegos rip through The Longest Day like they don't know where their next beer is coming from, the twin guitars of brothers Dan and Warren Zanes viciously tangled in a gridlock twang, while Dan, who's the singer, connects with his nasal growl. They cook up the same natural overdrive for "Anything You Want," a country-blues ballad crackling with barely suppressed fury, as they do for the quick R&B Uturns of "Backstreet Nothing" or the harsh Creedence guitar drill of "Mary Don't Change."

One minor quibble: For a band as sharp and unpretentious as the Del Fuegos, the simulated bathroom echo piled on here is an unnecessary concession to radio etiquette. Fun like this should be taken straight, with no chaser. (RS 444)

DAVID FRICKE