For me, a good rock and roll band needs little more than pounding drums, a loud guitar, and someone yelling some vocals (loudly) into a microphone. If you can’t get that foundation working, no amount of bells and whistles is going to make up for it. But when it works, it works. When I got to hear “Don’t You Hear What I Say” and “Vampire,” a couple of yet-unreleased tracks from Newport, KY’s The Nailers, I knew from the downbeat - it works. Loud, chunky guitar? Check. Loud, pounding drums? Check. Loud, yelling vocals? Check. And all with the addition of a bari sax.

The tracks have a retro sort of vibe, like they’re from a time when all rock bands were formed in garages, but before there was such a thing as “garage rock” to pigeonhole them into; on their Facebook page, the band describe themselves as “Rock ‘n’ Roll upside your head,” which certainly fits. These songs feel like the lost punk-influenced recordings of the Flat Duo Jets or The Meteors, but with a distinctly unique identity. Two songs was a nice appetizer - now I’m hoping for a full-length album.