Peepshow

Welsh band The Scooters follow in the vein of British pub rockers like Squeeze before them, pumping out song after song of catchy and pleasant rock & roll. The arrangements may be relatively conventional, but the songs themselves are so damn catchy that they speak for themselves regardless of inherent similarities to other bands. On this, the Scooters' debut EP, the band burns through a batch of tracks with remarkable breadth in only about a half-hour. If the chugging guitar lines — seemingly ready to ignite at any second — of "Bones 2 Ashes," arguably the EP's finest track, had been released in 1980, the song would surely have been a hit. The dark, brooding "RPM Adrenalin" could easily have been a hit in the late '90s as it would sound right at home next to Radiohead or 13-era Blur. Likewise, if the British-invasion pop of "Dwti" came out in the mid-'60s, you'd think the Scooters were the next big thing. It's not destined to happen, but Peepshow is a damn fine EP — and given the constraints of that particular format (the inability to stretch out like on an album being the biggest problem), it's amazing that they managed to hit the mark with each of their eight original songs. (Peepshow, at 38 minutes and ten tracks, is practically a full-length album; the first eight tracks are band originals and the last two are live covers. Despite being far inferior to the bulk of the EP, the last two do fill out the running order nicely and almost make this into a full-length debut).