Me for Rent are an old school rock n’ roll band from Italy. I can’t say I’d heard of them before, but they have been knocking around since the mid-nineties and this album is the product of a band who’ve clearly been around a while. It’s a slick little piece of punk rock that fits somewhere between later Rocket From The Crypt stuff and the Hives.
Punk n’roll is a much bigger phenomenon in certain parts of the continent than it is here and I only really learnt this from repeated trips to said countries. Me for Rent are clearly a product of this scene and it looks to me like they are doing alright for themselves in their native Italy. There is no reason why they couldn’t do alright in the UK – this album is tight, perfectly produced and the songs are pretty damn strong too. Anyone with a Backyard Babies album, or a fondness for old 3 Colours Red would probably love a bit of this. Even Against Me! could accuse the band of ripping off an idea or two.
If I have any criticism its that there probably won’t be enough depth to keep this one spinning in my CD player for too long, but it’s as solid a punkrock record as I’ve heard in a while.
Mike