Punky Reggae Party

DOMINION STATUS
THE BLAME GAME
BAMBOO GROOVE RECORDS
(10-TRACK CD)

Dominion Status brand themselves as "reggae-influenced power pop," which is fine and all, but not the whole picture. Read that word "reggae," and you usually know exactly what you're getting, yet these guys go deeper. Is an accordion necessarily "reggae"? If not, someone better tell them because they've got one wheezing through the whole title track, a loving paen to forgiveness that's as warm as a lipstick sunset. Is rapping "reggae"? Then, hey, you try shutting Dereck Blackman up as he rattles off rhymes with such a kick-back ease during "The Fallen" that it's as if he has had them memorized for decades. Are loud, screaming electric guitars and punky drum abusings "reggae"? Then skip right over the album's best song, "Honest," one of the best get-in-the-car-and-stomp-the-accelerator tunes we've heard in a while, even though the lyrics are more about bald declarations of love than reckless vehicular abandon. It's an anthem, really, something that sounds like the greatest Pearl Jam song they never recorded. So let's get this labeling thing right: Dominion Status aren't really "reggae-influenced power pop" as much as they are a straight-up rock & roll band. Then again, calling a band "rock & roll" these days can bring about a whole other canon of misfired definitions, so call them whatever you want—just as long as you listen.

Contact: www.dominionstatus.com; teakhouse2001@aol.com.