Sporting a Black-Crowes-meets-Asylum-Street-Spankers vibe, The Bad Reeds flash a host of influences on this debut release, most notably licks and riffs that hearken as far back as Zeppelin (as evidenced on “Voodoo Woman”) if John Fogerty had some songwriting credits. Certainly the heavy reverb and meandering arrangements put the band in the same ballpark as CCR at times, and it comes through as a group of young dudes who appreciate such early rock ’n’ roll building blocks. Referential bullshit aside, this is blues-rock with a modern energy behind it — nothing overly complicated here, but if you’re hardcore, it certainly works. The production is just hands-off enough to give it the proper starkness and to let the band’s intensity break through when it needs to (“Quick to Be Bad” really revs up at about the 3:15 mark). Rock ain’t dead, kids.