Dietrichs

These days it seems that for a band to be credible, it has to reference some predecessor or style, preferably prefixed with "post." There's "post-ska punk à la Reel Big Fish," "post-hardcore minimalism screamo," and pretty soon, there will simply be "post-post." This is not the case with Glendale's Dietrichs and their deeply planted ska rock, captured brilliantly on their debut LP, Violently. The six-piece outfit, fronted by dark and dynamic alto Liz Dietrich, constructs a multilayered urban horrorscape where paranoia crawls out of the speakers and underneath the listener's skin with lyrics like, "They told me bats are death in disguise/Television my religion told me otherwise" ("Bats") and "You talk like an angel/But you walk like a disease/This town is a cemetery/Each home an open grave" ("Town Called Nowhere"). Meanwhile, sly and understated percussion, swinging guitar licks, and spicy harmonizing from the brass section creates the remarkable movin' and shakin' danceable energy that fuels the band's live shows. There's nothing "post" about this down-to-earth music.