The Static Minds — Electricity. Out officially 11/12 on Custom Made Music, stream it here in advance.

I know nothing about punk. Or hardcore. Or post-punk. Or, really, ’60s and ’70s heavy rock and roll outside of what gets played on 96Rock in the mornings. At all. I mean, for Christ’s sake, I’m reading Please Kill Me as an educational experience, not to relieve memories or anything. So when Erik from the Static Minds sent me their new album and described it for me, my first question was not, “Will I like this?”, but rather, “Can I write about this without sounding like a moron?”

The answer to the first question is yes, yes, I do like it a great deal. The answer to the second question is, um, well.

Probably not, but I’m going to give it a shot, because this album dovetails exactly into things I am trying to do: broaden my own musical horizons, and see more new-to-me local bands.

I will let Erik speak for the genrefication of his band, because he told me that they’re high-energy late ’60s/early ’70s rock and roll; not punk, but certainly a predecessor to punk. Detroit rock and roll, the MC5, the Stooges, Alice Cooper. And you know what? It is not my normal bag of tricks. (Banjos, beards, blah blah blah.) It is not something I would hear described and say, I think I would like that album. But I do really, really like this album, because if nothing else, outside of genre and influences and style, the Static Minds are super tight rock and roll band: crazy proficient guitar licks, phenomenal drumming, and vocal lines that earwormed me for days, people. It’s a catchy, super danceable, well-written and expertly played rock and roll album. There’s nothing bad in that at all — that is, in fact, the definition of good.

Sometimes you just want an album to have a living room dance party to, and this is an album you can do that with. Granted, this isn’t exactly the scene I run in, in the Triangle, but I’m a little frustrated that I’ve gone this long without stumbling across the Static Minds — those are months of live shows I could have been rocking at, and now I just have to catch up, belatedly. (I actually met Erik for the first time at a book reading back over the summer, so I could have been on this train earlier, but Slim’s has $4 whiskey and gingers and he was wearing a wig, so the whole evening is sort of blurry.)

I did, in fact, have a living room dance party to this album last week. The cats were unimpressed, but what do they know? They’re cats. I think this record is fantastic, and I am pleased to have my horizons broadened. I will not, however, forget my earplugs on Friday, because I would like to retain some of my hearing in my old age, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to get my face rocked off.

The Static Minds release Electricity at Kings Barcade in Raleigh, with the Loners & Maldora, Friday 11/12/2010. Kings is new enough that the bathrooms are still clean and not terrifying, and that should be a selling point even if excellent rock and roll isn’t. But excellent rock and roll should be.