The Dents. The Dents

Every once in a while an album comes by in my digital mailbox that just provokes a single question: Why isn't this band huge? It happened again today when I listened to the mini album The Dents from Boston released last week. Everything on it is so incredibly good, urgent and well, whatnot?

Until recently I had never heard of The Dents. The single 'Homeless' was released preceding the album release. The song was loud but also fleshed out, perhaps even a little pretentious in the right sense. I truly liked it and wrote a short review on it. But, it did not prepare me for what was to come.

Clicking the record on, has anyone ever written that before?, unleashed a musical storm that did not lie down until the final seconds of The Dents were over. This album is a total punk rock experience created in punkrock heaven. 'Last One Standing' is the name of the opening song and in its 2.19 minutes it tells it all, leaving everything and everybody out of breath. What a song, what a statement, what excitement.

The Dents is a band from Boston that played and recorded in the mid 00s but never broke beyond the Boston city limits. Having missed out on all the fun then, I'm so glad that I'm in on it now, with thanks to Rum Bar Records. Front ladies Michelle Paulhus and Jennifer D'Angora (recently also on the blog as part of The Shang Hi Los), together with, alleged, guitar God Craig Adams and Kevin Pickering make up the band. Not since 'Eight Arms To Hold You', the mid 90s Veruca Salt album, has a female fronted band blown me of my feet this hard. This is rock and roll as it is meant to be played and then some more.

Here I was thinking that 'Shady Rock and Rollers', Watts' recently released album on Rum Bar, would be my favourite rock and roll album of 2021 but within a week it has already been topped. Man, this is the real thing alright. The songs on The Dents are so tight. It's almost as if its a computer setting the rhythm. Adams plays ferocious guitar solos over it all. These short sound explosions light up the night. Paulhus and D'Angora sing solo and together but always melodies that I just want to sing along to. That I just want to dance to. Even just listening is a more than great option.

How is it possible that a band this good has not been noticed before? There are a million reasons. It could even be that the members did not want to break big. Should that be the case, a more average album in 2021 would have been advisable. The Dents is devastatingly good, folks. If punkrock is your thing, you better check it out, fast.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order The Dents here:

https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-dents

or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g