The Bizarros

“After the rain you can smell rubber,” and after 25 years of their absence from the studio, one Akron band proves that they can deliver an expressive blend of musical candor rooted in punk rock and referential, quixotic lyrics that speak to a diverse listening audience. Can’t Fight Your Way Up Town from Here, the newest release from rock quintet The Bizarros, is a refreshing and long awaited comeback album that echoes the bittersweet transience of the rock scene since the band’s last full length LP of 1979. Songs like Charlie, written by lead singer Nick Nicholis about German-born beat writer Charles Bukowski, exude a raw sentimentality about growing up in a rapidly changing world where the faces of heroes shifted from politicians and authority figures to artists, authors, and musicians.Some of the band’s self-proclaimed influences are Roxy Music, Leonard Cohen, and the Velvet Underground, whose front-man Lou Reed is recognizable in the vocal stylings of Nicholis. The mood of Can’t Fight Your Way transitions steadily from fast, edgy beats like those of 67/77 to songs laced with nostalgia and ballad-like lyrics, such as Desert Shore, a sincere and heartfelt tribute to late singer Nico.Seasoned musicians they might be, but their music refrains from being labeled anything mainstream and recalls the spirit of punk/new wave’s heyday while infusing new insight and original sounds into the spirit of rock and roll today. -AN