Fricke’s Picks

June 15, 2007

The title song on Rentacrowd (Wicked Cool), the fantastic second album by English avenging0garage trio the Len Price 3, is two minutes and change of spangly ’65-Who-ish spleen against Britain’s hysterical addiction to flavor-of-the-month bands who are supposed to save rock & roll with fab hair and half an album’s worth of decent songs. The 3 – singer-guitarist Glenn Page, bassist Steve Higgins and drummer Neil Fromow (there is no Len Price) – have a right to feel superior. Rentacrowd is packed with perfectly vintage dynamite (“Julia Jones,” “Girl Like You,” “Cold 500”) that pays outright homage to the primal Kinks and the R&B whiplash of Dr. Feelgood but with a contemporary, fighting trim to rival the Arctic Monkeys. Rock & roll doesn’t need saving; the cure’s right here.