Breaking Artist: Bang Camaro Burn Rubber Reviving '80s Metal

Who: Boston band that lovingly pays homage to the big-hair metal they loved as kids with anthems built out of chugging riffs, wailing guitar solos and choruses (no verses!) sung by not one, not two, but upwards of 17 lead singers. Led by guitarists/indie-band vets Bryn Bennett and Alex Necochea, the band released its self-titled debut in February 2007. A for-fun throwaway song called "Bang Camaro" landed big on MySpace, and the rest is spandex-n-Aqua Net history. As Bennett puts it, "Just because you've started reading serious music criticism doesn't mean you can't love Def Leppard anymore."

Chorus Lines: Tracks like the Motley Crue-esque "Pleasure (Pleasure)" and cowbell-heavy "Out on the Streets" boast the kind of nudge-nudge-wink-wink wordplay that made the Darkness famous, but Bang Camaro also know the virtue of a great, simple lyric, like "Push Push (Lady Lightning)'s "Ooh, come on / I want to take you higher / Ooh, come on / Let's make electric fire!"

Hear It Now: Fist-pump your way through single "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" from Bang Camaro, then catch the band on tour this summer.

Watch It: Check out this clip of the entire crew from Bang Camaro introducing themselves in all their unironic glory [video by Rob McLain].

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

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