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I enjoyed this roaring Chicago foursome’s 2011 second EP The Death of…, comparing their punk-fueled hard rock to Windy City behemoths Naked Raygun and The Effigies in The Big Takeover issue 69. But the departure of their fervent singer Johnny Pierro in 2013 threatened to be a big blow, as if Lizzie Borden had “whacked” the band’s prospects with her infamous axe (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Amazingly, despite the loss of Pierro, the six-song Saturday Night Loud is easily the most electrifying of the band’s six-year career. Like collegiate exam crammers consuming caffeine pills, the remaining three members – brothers Tom and Todd Rutledge on guitar and bass, and drummer Marc Harman – have tightened up their attack tenfold, trading in their caterwauling crunch for a much more lightning fast, forward-thrusting punk-with-a-pop-edge drive. More crucially, they’ve replaced Pierro with female dynamo Kati Olsen, whose personality, poise, and powerful pipes are invigorating and irresistible. (She’s such a knockout, I even searched the net to see if she’s been in any other bands, but had no luck. Where in tarnation did they find her?) Olsen immediately makes her presence felt on the prodigious, pulse-quickening, catchy-as-all-heck opener “Lawrence,” delivering purring and pouty, yet tough and taut vocals with a vampish valley girl hiccup and a seductive swagger. And on chugging, Fastbacks/Muffs-evoking pop sparklers “New Wave Sunshine” and “Change Everything,” both complemented by the Rutledges’ spot-on harmony, backing, and co-lead vocals, Olsen sounds both honeyed and heavenly.
If the EP had ended with those three songs, it would still deserve high praise as one of the year’s most pleasurable pop-punk platters. However, Olsen and her bandmates ramp up the urgency and intensity levels on the final three tunes. Each one of these pulverizing, more-punk-than-pop pounders gathers momentum like an out-of-control rollercoaster, producing plenty of edge-of-your-seat, white-knuckle thrills. On the breathtaking, blasting “Switchblade,” Olsen and Rutledge trade off distressed and draining diatribes, like two desperate, dread-filled Bonnie and Clyde fugitives coming to the realization that the jig is up, punctuated by hoarse, hardcore-inspired hollers and Bad Religion-like “whoa-whoa” warbles. And on the storming, Sex Pistols-meets-Ramones standout “Little Boy Blue,” Olsen delivers her most stimulating and sensual vocal. On it, she persistently and perversely pursues a pitiable, panicky dance club patron like a tireless temptress, as he attempts to avoid her advances. It would be hard to top those two, but the rapid-fire, rumbling, Read and Burn-era Wire crossed with Minor Threat closer “One Trick Pony” manages to out-flank each in terms of its frenetic, furious pace. Olsen’s tantalizing talk-sung trill here reminds me of Tracy Van Voris of similarly styled, now-defunct Atlanta punkers Crumsy Pirates, as she frantically tries to keep up with Harman’s breakneck beat. With Saturday Night Loud, The Forty Whacks have become ready for prime time players. (moriartyrecords.com)
