Whatever happened to rock and roll? I'm serious. This is not a rhetorical question. Look around you and you will be hard pressed to name one band on the radio today, you can have ANY station of your choice, who is simply a rock and roll band.

Rolling Stones? No, sorry, they're Classic Rock.

Foo Fighters? Nope! Alterna-pop.

Even Wilco? Sorry, they're Alt-country/rock.

I have a good friend who is a singer in search of a band to play with and today he told me about a band who contacted him. He said they described themselves as a cross between ska, punk, nu-metal and reggae. Wha - wha -what???

We are in an age of popular music where the labels have taken over. No one is a rock and roll band anymore. There's rap/rock, nu-metal, alt-metal, alternative rock, alternative country, but never do you see a band labeled as a "rock and roll band". Here at musicmisfits we're just as guilty of it as everyone else. Almost every review that Will and I have done have mentioned the subject in the context of what musical niche the listening public has stuck them into whether it be emo, techno or just a plain bad idea (Vanilla Ice - "Bipolar" is a fine example of the latter).

Luckily for us, we get free CD's from bands wanting us to review them. Luckily for me, I check the e-mail faster than Will so I get the cool CD's more often than not. Otherwise, I might never have heard of Stateside.

Stateside is a rock and roll band at a time when the world really needs a good rock and roll band. Describing their goal as "trying to take classic Tom Petty-style songwriting and give it a more modern Foo Fighters-type big guitar sound," Stateside manages to pull off an incredible debut album. It's twelve tracks of solid songwriting, fantastic guitar playing and choruses that will stick in your head so fast you'll know the lyrics to the whole album in three listens.

Songwriter John Paul Keith was originally going to release the album under his name. An ex-member of the V-roys, Keith founded The Nevers and then went on to play with Ryan Adams as part of Adams' backing band The Pink Hearts. Finally, Keith put together a backing band of his own and started playing around Nashville. My only guess is that the band started feeling like a REAL BAND and not a backing band. Thus the name change. That may be speculation on my part, but listen to this disc and you'll be thinking the same thing.

This is music that SHOULD be on the radio. This is the stuff you used to call up and bug the DJ to play over and over again. Starting with "After Dark", a song that sounds as sinister in places as it does sexy in others, the disc is simply seamless rock and roll. Midtempo rockers like "Twice As Gone" will remind you of the Wallflowers only without the monotone delivery. "Salt In The Wound" is a good old fashioned kick in the ass as is "Little Black Dress" which has Ryan Adams dropping by for backing vocals.

My favorite on the disc is the dreamy "Saturday Night Forever" with its' slide guitar courtesy of Bucky Baxter (Bob Dylan, Steve Earle) and closing time lyrics. John Paul Keith's voice is as incredible as his songwriting and the songs are filled with harmonies. The rhythm section of bassist Billy Mercer and drummer Brad Pemberton is solid and Adam Landry's lead guitar work throughout the album is fresh and fluid.

You can download "Twice As Gone" by going to their website: www.statesiderocks.com

Give it a listen and then order the CD. It's on Disgraceland records (God, I wish I'd thought of that name first) and it's worth the money. Trust me.

Read the review at www.musicmisfits.com.