Cle-Punk lifers will recognize most of the Nick Wolff Band as a reconstituted version of Pride of Ohio, the gritty punks who sang odes to the Ohio underground in the early days of the 21st century. Wolff’s new band began as a goof, but took a serious turn when Amps II Eleven guitarist Aaron Dowell joined, playing rallying bass lines behind Perish’s ecstatically anthemic guitar and Wolff’s gruff vocals.

They’ve all been around long enough to remember an obscure fact about their genre: Underneath its grimy veneer, the best punk rock is fun. And Wolff’s debut is the musical equivalent of cheap beer: unpretentious, good-time, no-message-no-problem rock. You can actually clap along to “White Trash Love Story,” and the raucous “Ready to Go” will surely incite some old-fashioned slam-dancing. “You’re stuck with us tonight,” growls Wolff on the opening track, as though that were a bad thing. It’s totally not.

This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2007.