Credit: Courtesy of the Rotten Bastards
Way back in 2010, Cleopatra Records released the Rotten Bastards’ debut, Year of the Bastard. Recently, the local (two members live in Cleveland, and a third calls Los Angeles home) gutter glam band acquired the rights back from that album and has just released the follow-up, Bastard of the Year.

“The songwriting has matured, but the Bastards have not. We’re like boys in men costumes,” says singer-bassist Dale Baker in a press release. “The music and lyrics are still about sex, love and pain, but with 11 years of experiences under our belts, and I mean directly below our belts…Really, the biggest change fans will notice is that Christian, the lead singer on Year of the Bastard, was unavailable for recording, so [guitarist-keyboardist] Skyla [Talon] and I split up the vocals, melodies and lyrics.”

The group just issued the new album’s snotty first single, “Here’s to Us.” It also put out an accompanying music video.

“We just wanted to get the songs out of our heads and into the universe,” says Baker, who says the band recorded the album remotely. “We don’t have a message. We don’t care about politics. We don’t care about being PC. We just want to rock, and I think that comes out in the tunes.”

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Jeff has been covering the Cleveland music scene for more than 25 years now. On a regular basis, he tries to talk to whatever big acts are coming through town. And if you're in a local band that he needs to hear, email him at jniesel@clevescene.com.