Lyons Lane's "Don't Shoot The Messenger" Hits Like a Shot of Pure Rock Energy

Lyons Lane comes out swinging with "Don't Shoot The Messenger," and I was hooked inside the first ten seconds.

The fuzzy electric bassline owns this thing from the jump. Thick and growling, sitting right up front, and the music keeps building around it. Handclaps and tambourine keep the rhythm loose, giving the whole track that garage-rock bounce and you catch yourself bouncing your knee.

Then the lead vocal hits. It shifts from a gritty, gravelly mid-range into a soaring falsetto that climbs so high it almost shouldn't work... but it does, and it floors me every single time. The group chants stacked behind it push the energy further still. Call-and-response, loud and in on the joke, like the room was already warmed up before anyone touched a mic.

vintage without nostalgia, and modern without abandoning the past.

That's exactly what "Don't Shoot The Messenger" sounds like. Rockabilly spirit, power-pop punch, something urgent and alive. Two years at Rustbelt Studios in Royal Oak paid off for this five-piece. The debut EP You'll Talk About It! opens with real momentum behind it.

I've run this back four times. That bassline won't leave me alone.