Freewheelin’ (Small Stone Recordings)

Flea made headlines recently with his rant about how rock is dead. Meanwhile, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dark Necessities” single saw them go cornball disco-funk, so no wonder he thinks that. Yet, if those pickled peppers had ever heard La Chinga, they’d be singing a different tune.

The Vancouver power trio of bassist Carl Spackler, guitarist Ben Yardley, and drummer Jay Solyom is a pure example of a nose-to-the-grindstone, balls-out, scissor-kickin’ rawk-with-an-awk band. They couldn’t care less about image. Fuelled by visions of Thin Lizzy, the James Gang, and vintage porn, they proudly wear their influences on their vest patches.

On the cover of their sophomore album, Freewheelin’, they’re flying a Plymouth Duster with a GET SUM vanity plate across the galaxy, in search of gone Gypsies, white-witchy black magic, faded angels, mountain mommas, the dawn of man, and the mother of all snakeheads. Lord knows, they’ve found them all. Stillwater couldn’t have nailed the hard-rock tropes on this album better, and they had Cameron Crowe directing them. If rock is dead, La Chinga is Lazarus with a hard-on.