Living In the Future

Beat Beat Beat may have been playing the clever irony card when they named their debut album Living in the Future, because this band sounds as if they're desperately trying to turn the clock back to 1977, so they can hang out with the Clash, the Dead Boys, the Damned and a whole bunch of other old-school punk acts who clearly inspired them. Don't think that's a criticism, though — Beat Beat Beat have the goods, and play with the kind of energy, snotty attitude and fast/loud tunefulness that would make their leather-jacketed forefathers proud. Living in the Future's 12 tunes zip by in about 28 minutes, and Beat Beat Beat make every moment count — vocalist Josh shouts with authority, guitarists Warren and Steven reel off the jackhammer riffs like they hold the secret of the universe (and maybe they do), and bassist Brannon and drummer Mike sound so tight you'd guess they were joined at the hip. Lyrically, this album's prime concession to the 21st century is to namecheck Daria Morgandorfer's favorite television show, but if these guys rant about most of the standard punk rock stuff (namely all the stuff that cheeses them off), they do it like they mean it, and punk has always been a genre where commitment outweighs nearly everything else. So maybe Beat Beat Beat aren't doing much you haven't heard before — on Living in the Future, they still sound like they've just found the noise they've always wanted to hear, and that makes it a righteous kick.