A little over a year after their self-titled debut, Taste Testors return with Come Back, out now on Moodkiller Records. Eleven songs, no messing around, and the kind of record only lifers in this corner of garage pop punk and power pop could pull off.

Call it a Seattle supergroup if you want. Steve E. Nix (The Briefs, The Cute Lepers, Steve E. Nix & The Famous Lizards), Leif Larson (Appaloosa), Nils Larson (The Greatest Hits), and Hollywood Hudson (ex-The Cute Lepers) know exactly what they are doing. The blueprint is strict: “all downstrokes, no bass lines, no guitar solos, no filler.” Those rules lock the band into a Ramones-style framework, but they never feel boxed in. There is enough melody and personality here to keep things moving.

The record comes out swinging with I Don’t Like Working On The Weekend and I’m Waiting For Something Lame, the latter boosted by those sweet “oooweehooo” harmonies. The fast ones hit hard and stick, I’m Gonna Be Buried in Hollywood Cemetery plays like a ready-made ramonescore staple, and Little Baby cranks the source material by The Blue Rondos into overdrive. Elsewhere, midpaced tracks like I Might Be Thinkin’ About You and It Isn’t Very Pretty slow things down just enough to add some breathing room, leaning a bit more toward straight rock without losing the thread.

This is all killer, no filler done right. Tight, catchy, and played with total conviction.

The appeal might look obvious on paper given the lineup, but Come Back does more than deliver.

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