Bad Sports

Kings of the Weekend (Dirtnap)

Bad Sports has mastered the art of atomic delinquency. Produced by the Marked Men’s Mark Ryan, the Denton/Austin trio’s second LP, Kings of the Weekend, hot wires the starry-eyed bravado of 1960s teen bands with the cocksure stoner cool of punk’s original blank generation for 14 gems on narcissism (“I’m in Love [With Myself]”), couch surfers (“Can’t Stay”), and schizophrenia (the Who-like mini-epic “I May Be Cruel”). Local leader of the brat pack, OBN III’s vocalist Orville Bateman Neeley III has a proven track record for earworm hooks, but snotty sock hop “Teenage Girls” and proto-punk tipping point “Get Your Head” raise the bar. More importantly, Neeley finds an ideal counter in bassist Daniel Fried (High Tension Wires, the Mind Spiders), who pulls the ripcord in opener “Off Switch” and the North Texas dead-end anthem “Days of Denton.” That combination coalesces in the commando bop of “Can’t Just Be Friends” and “Inside and Out,” both proving Bad Sports the ultimate Weekend warriors.

***.5

This article appears in October 21 • 2011.

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