Brad Marino – Looking For Trouble

Brad Marino’s first post-Connection album, False Alarm, carried on the Ramones style garage pop he had established with partner Geoff Palmer.  With his latest, Looking For Trouble, Marino ups the ante with a record that’s markedly better than his first – and rivals the best of his former band.

The record starts out with a rip roarin’ Stones-like track, “Even The Score”, with some simple but effective guitar and the memorable lyric “I got a hole where my heart used to be and a whole lotta women talkin’ shit about me”. That’s poetry, goddamit. “Local Show” offers some humor and a speaking part for fellow power popper Kurt Baker. The up-tempo “Something for Nothing” is classic power pop with guitar chime and a catchy, sign along chorus.

The best (and title) track from his prior release, False Alarm, is here, too along with a half dozen more originals including the sonic blast of “At Night”. It starts out with a weird organ part before the tune bursts out of the gate like a race horse. There’s a really fun cover of the old 1910 Fruitgum Company’s “Indian Giver” for good measure.

In total, this is Brad Marino’s best to date and one of my favorite albums of 2021 so far. Looking For Trouble is set for release on June 5 from Rum Bar Records. GET YOUR COPY HERE.