R.I.P. TAB the band

Picture this: you start a band with your brother and a friend. You have a pretty good run in the five or six years you’re together, touring with some great bands and earning a slough of film and TV placements. Even better, you put out three strong records and eventually bring on a great lead guitarist to round out your sound. There’s plenty more battles to be won, but there’s one problem: You’re stuck with a name that was perhaps the least creative thing you’ve ever done: TAB the band, taken from the three founders’ initials. Despite your hard won history and where you’ve made it to, you take the plunge and change it.

Enter Dead Boots and their first (fourth) album Verónica. This could loosely be called “classic rock” or “garage rock” but it really is that and so much more. Cracking into the first track “On The Rocks” it would be easy to write Dead Boots off as just some “heard it before” rock-and-roll band, but the chorus comes in with sweet “I’ll be” backing vocals and you really start to see how locked in and on point the band is. They sound like a band, not some studio creation.

The album continues with more great harmonies resting on crunchy chords, with fuzzy solos and power-pop hooks. Singer/bassist Adrian Perry crosses the pond at times with his inflection, but that never hurt anyone particularly in the setting of a good rock-and-roll band. “So Long” is an absolutely scrumptious track, with touches of everything great about the ‘60s. Perry’s voice is so inviting and warm, and the harmonies… oh my. In fact, “So Long” is a part of the album’s middle block which contain the record’s strongest songs. However, the band never gets too sweet, always keeping things firmly grounded around an electric guitar. The latter half of the album gets a little more bluesy, a little Sabbath-y, but still has one of the more intense emotional moments with “Love Without A Fall.” If ever there was a soundtrack to a break up, this song is it.

With a proper name and a fantastic new record the band are primed to continue their winning streak, without the curse of an early oversight putting a damper on things. No question these Dead Boots will continue to kick some serious ass.