Stomping Grounds

Stomping Grounds, the 2015 album from Ohio-based Circus Devils, blasts off with a full side of brash, catchy rock n roll featuring the vocal bravado of Robert Pollard at full tilt. The album's flipside takes a detour into more psychedelic territory, offering a mixture of weird and pretty vignettes. Themes include the wasteland of regimented work-ruled living, sexually active geezers, lost girls, sick doctors and impressionistic recollections of the stomping grounds of boyhood. The album closes with the standout track Sunflower Wildman (Remember Him?), an anthemic, prog-rock story song about a shut-in with dementia who chases boys away from his sunflower-choked yard. Stomping Grounds is high listening adventure, and probably more exciting than 90% of the movies you will see this year.