Texas Platters

Sons of Hercules

If the Sons of Hercules had originated in late-1970s New York, they'd be venerated like the Dead Boys or Richard Hell in punk annals. A Different Kind of Ugly unleashes the same kind of muscular one-two blasted in that period, a neat trick for street-walkin' cheetahs from San Antonio's early 1990s. As tightly knit a musical outfit as they are, they still revolve around their lanky, charismatic frontman, Frank Pugliese, whose uncompromising love for 1960s garage rock soaks every track in anthemic beat. Among blistering new songs ("Numb," "Brain Dead," "Still Waitin'"), the Sons have covered the Lazy Cowgirls' "Rock of Gibraltar" and the Saints' "Misunderstood" with appropriate growl and panache. And these boys need no seal of approval to take their place as San Antonio's premier garage band. They reclaim that turf the way the Alamo was won, with blood, sweat, and beers.