"Nearly seven years in, and it shows: Philly combo Beretta 76 are battleship–tight and really hitting their stride right now as they merge power–pop, garage–punk and classic ’70s–style arena–sized hard rock into one whip–smart attack. Onstage singer–guitarist Camille Escobedo’s vocals, tough ’tude and allure might have you thinking of a threesome (artistically speaking, of course) between Pat Benatar, Joan Jett and Shirley Manson, while the rest of the band ably and often achieves their goal of making it ”blunt, unprissy, immediate, pissed–off, melodic and raw–rocking.” Bonus: They do a roaring cover of AC/DC’s ”Whole Lotta Rosie” that could probably wake Bon Scott from the dead."
- Michael Alan Goldberg, Philadelphia Weekly
Not quite what I was expecting. What I expected was a rock’n’roll über-assault, but what I got was the black ops going on behind the lines of the blitzkrieg. So once I got over my own expectations, I rather liked this one. Imagine a smoky, opiate-laced version of the Donnas—swirling and hazy, yet straightforward, with Camille Escobedo’s vocals wrapping around the listener like an anaconda around a goat, slowing throttling and crushing sensibilities. Funny how I wrote that without looking at the cover which has a woman with a snake wrapped around her, and she’s blending with and becoming the snake at certain points; it may be a bit of a stretcher, but the cover serves as a metaphor for the music. I think that I’m deconstructing too much now. Final word: this rocks, but in a more seductive, alluring fashion rather than simply a brutal assault.
Have a listen to “Hit Parade” from Philadelphia’s own Beretta76 off their self-titled debut Black Beauty and wait for the glorious waves of harmony in the chorus and tell me that it doesn’t bring a smile to your face! “Hit Parade” is just one of a number of incredible, sexy and full-bore crunchy rock and roll songs that will have you replaying this CD time and time again. I only got this sucker last Friday and already I have played it about 20 times as well as featuring “Hit Parade” on Rock and Roll Report Radio.
Whether you like a bit of punk attitude, hard rock sneer or power-pop shine, Black Beauty has it all in spades and I highly recommend you check it out ASAP. Tell’em The Rock and Roll Report sent ya. A great summer CD for those days when the sun is glaring, the beer is cold and the beach is hot. Works for me!
Beretta76 Black Beauty
Self-produced
www.beretta76.com
Jack: I like the drummer. And the singer's got a presence. Pretty stuff.
Walt: Pretty good hard rock with a female singer who does a good job with the material. Sometimes poppy, sometimes '70s rock, sometimes more modern, with lots of hooks all around.
Gerry: This reminded me of a cross between The Runaways and The Go Go's. Good rock 'n' roll, but with a little punky edge. The singer definitely reminded me of Joan Jett. Very polished sound.
Bridget: Clean power pop.
Holmstrom: Nothing earth-shattering but a good punk band with a good girl singer. They can sing well - some great harmonies on this record, and that's not as easy as it looks.
Chicks with balls are sexy. No, I’m not into tranny-porn – I’m thinking more along the lines of AC/DC’s “She’s Got Balls.” And it’s just that type of straight-up, no-B.S. Rock’N’Roll that Beretta76 blast out of my stereo speakers. The Runaways and Joan Jett are obvious comparisons, but they work, so I’m stickin’ with ‘em. Four-four downbeat rhythms propel the bar-chord riffage and lead guitar licks, all of which are topped off by a tough-chick vocal snarl that is both seductive and dangerous. Once in a while, the band veers off into Suzi Quatro Pop Rock territory, giving the CD a nice balance to the fist-pounding rockers that define the Beretta76 sound. If you’re looking for a solid, no-frills Rock’N’Roll album to keep you company, Black Beauty has what you desire. (www.beretta76.com)--Jack Rabid
City Paper Sound Advice, March 22, 2007
If you haven't heard Beretta76 by now, dear reader, you're not hopeless. But I do feel like we haven't been seeing eye to eye recently. Let's reconnect at the next Sugar Town ladyfest, which is this Friday. Camille Escovedo and Co. will lay down some catchy, vampy garage rock and we'll both agree that they're great, this is great, rock 'n' roll is great.
--Patrick Rapa
The Trolleyvox, Beretta 76 didn't deserve this reception
By A.D. Amorosi
For The Inquirer
If great reviews in the indie music bible Pitchfork and year-end nods by this paper's top critic were gold, the Trolleyvox and Beretta 76 - Philly bands both - would be millionaires.
Pity the fools who missed this.
....Speaking of venom, you couldn't get better than Beretta76 and its snotty soprano Camille Escobedo. Though officially the opener to the Trolleyvox, B76 played last; a perfect place for its guttural midnight-rambling, garage-band bluster.
While fuzz-tone mastering guitarist Pete Rydberg and the boys in the band were color-coordinated in red and black, Escobedo, wearing white, pursued quiet ire and sexy disgust through chugging glammy tracks such as "Legs" and slow raw snarlers like "Johnny."
Spitefulness and sprightliness - this show had it all.
"Once you hear the way Camille Escobedo screams "Oh, yeah!" on Black Beauty's opening title track, you know this is going to be good. The 10 bracing, catchy tracks on this Philadelphia band's self-released debut pack plenty of power-chord crunch, and the quartet doesn't let its skepticism about the "Hit Parade" talk it out of constructing song after song full of catchy hooks. Escobedo has got her Joan Jett-Suzi Quatro snarl down cold, and Black Beauty teems with the unpretentious energy of a not-too-polished garage band ready to take on the world."
1. Tom Waits Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (Anti) [CP Top 21]
2. Lupe Fiasco Food & Liquor (Atlantic)
3. Sonic Youth Rather Ripped (Geffen) [CP Top 21] 4. Beretta76 Black Beauty (self-released)
5. Spank Rock YoYoYoYoYo (Big Dada)
6. Man Man Six Demon Bag (Ace Fu) [CP Top 21]
7. Ruth Naomi Floyd Root to the Fruit (Contour)
8. Plastic Little She's Mature (Tonearm)
9. Theo Bleckman Las Vegas Rhapsody (Winter & Winter)
10. The Situation The Situation (Elephant Stone)
"Though you can trace their hard and hooky songs to institutions
like the Pretenders, Cheap Trick and the Ramones, Philly's Beretta76
sounds totally unconcerned with what's cool, what's hip, or what will
get bespectacled bloggers all atwitter. Having kicked around locally
for a few years, the band is still anchored in South Philadelphia
while other indie rockers have hightailed it to the northern
neighborhoods. The brand-new Black Beauty sounds like what you'd
hear blasting from a suspicious van idling outside Goretti. Only
fitting, since the cover - a pulp erotica image of a python wrapped
around a scantily clad damsel - looks like something that would be
airbrushed on such a van. Black Beauty is an amped-up affair where
singer Camille Escobedo's talons-drawn tenor pierces the pop-minded
skin of guitarist Pete Rydberg's carefully constructed tunes. It's
a winning mix of blood and sugar." -- Patrick Berkery, Philadelphia Inquirer
"Generally lumped in with the neo-garage scene, Philadelphia's Beretta76 actually casts a far wider appeal. Remember rock music, people? Remember loud guitars and big hooks? Remember the days when radio programmers played music not because it catered to a fashion-driven youth market demographic, but rather because it was good? Remember when radio programmers actually got to pick the songs they played, instead of being forced to rotate the 25 crap songs mandated by corporate playlist czars? I know, I know: I'm ranting here. But that's only because Beretta76 reminds me of a time when the term "mainstream rock" wasn't completely synonymous with "dogshit". I'd wholeheartedly recommend this band to anyone who enjoyed album oriented rock radio in the '80s or modern rock radio in the mid-'90s.
Taking on everything from Joan Jett-ish commercial hard rock to candy-sweet radio pop to Magnapop/Veruca Salt mid-'90s alterna-crunch to high energy powerpop, Beretta76 is a band that cannot be easily pigeonholed. And lord knows we need more bands like that these days! It's a simple concept, really: bring together an amazing vocalist with some immensely talented musicians, write good songs (that don't all sound the same!), go into the studio, and make a great-sounding rock record suitable for the teeming masses....."
"If you're seeing Joan Jett this week, you might want to check out
one of her rightful heirs, Beretta76 frontwoman Camille Escobedo. She
and guitarist/songwriter/head of 1935 Studios Pete Rydberg started
the Philly band in 2002, winning a Jane Magazine demo contest soon after.
Black Beauty, Beretta76's new, full-length debut, provides what all
good rock records should: party songs, revenge songs, and songs that
are a little of both. Beauty's part punk and power pop, with bits of
Cheap Trick, the Muffs and even Wreckless Eric." -- Sara Sherr, Philadelphia Daily News
"Alongside pals Mondo Topless and Jukebox Zeros, Beretta76 form an
impressive phalanx of Philly garage rock, though they're not on
everyone's radar. Frontwoman Camille Escobedo's fun snarl fits the
band's crunchy sound, which should bowl over fans of Magnapop and
Visqueen... Recorded at 1935--the studio co-run by Beretta axman
Pete Rydberg--the tunes wed racy riffs with smoldering atmosphere. The
power ballad "Pretty Baby" even recalls Cyndi Lauper circa She's So
Unusual, right down to the dramatic echoes and bittersweet center." -- Doug Wallen, Philadelphia Weekly
"Boy, this is sure some great stuff out of the Phila, PA area that's full of pure needles and sleaze punk rock n' roll. Well, Beretta76 have a sound that's full of catchy and bouncy punk licks and female fronted vocals that have Jett style howls. This band has a sound that's very NYC sounding with a lot of guitar action tht mixes new wave, punk and rawk and roll together for a sound that fans of Joan Jett, The Kowalskis, X and The 440s can really get into." -- BW , Toxic Flyer Fanzine
Beretta76 released their debut CD - the self-produced Black Beauty - after being together since 2002, having Jane Magazine choose one of their songs to appear on their 2002 Reader Produced CD, posting an eponymous EP, and have opened for acts such as Fountains of Wayne, The Fratellis, Cracker, Earl Greyhound, Shonen Knife, The Muffs, and The Fleshtones.
No Philadelphia quartet deals with whiskey nights and stark urbanity like they do. That attitude seeps through the pores of the band, even when raging through Beretta76's thickest wordless passages. But throw in sex, beauty queens, one hour stands, attitude-y princesses, more sex, old rock scribes throwing dismal dinner parties, and even more sex (there's a woman wrapped in a cobra on the cover for a reason, hoss); make it blunt, unprissy, immediate, pissed off, melodic and raw-rocking without lacking in precision; toss in the punch of power pop and the cutting clarion foxiness of singer and guitarist Camille Escobedo... it's a brutal Beauty you got in your hands. It's a record that hones their acerbic agit-power-pop into something that's sleek, tender, taut and tough without ever embracing rock from a feminist aspect.
Beretta76 will be featured on this weekend’s “Pennsylvania ” episode (2/13-2/15) of Undiscovered.
You can catch the show on: KBRE in Merced, California; WOSC in Salisbury, Maryland; WHBR in Parkersburg, West Virginia; WAMX in Huntington/Ashland, West Virginia; WAQX in Syracuse, New York; and WTFX in Louisville, Kentucky Four of our affiliates stream their signal on-line so you can hear the show from anywhere (links on our website)
Undiscovered- we bring Indie music to broadcast radio!
Dear friend There are some new tunes online….you would like to rock? Com in and check out….. stop by and listen sometime. I'd be happy to spread your word via my page.
thank you very much for your time.... thank you very much for your friedship…..
You guys rock the camel's ass! Seriously, you guys put on one hell of a show! I'm trying to spread the word far and wide. Thank you for coming to the wilds of Trenton, NJ to rock out with us. Next time I want to book you guys in Asbury Park - where REAL ROCK is still KING!
so you guys will be at the tritone this friday right? i will be spinnin all them savage garage punk platters for your dirty ears, along with live performances from: the griefs, mondo topless, dark horse and the carousals, and the get quick. doors at 9!!!!! support the new philly family of fuzz!!!
OK, so you've disabled HTML comments or whatever...but that doesn't mean I can't TYPE that we're playing this Friday, Oct. 12, at Tritone along with Hotwired Hearts and Mean Streets. And the cover? A meager $6. Thats right, $6.
What does $6 get you anymore? Can you afford NOT to be there?
Check out this weeks “Female Fronted” episode of Undiscovered (9/16/07) as we’ll be featuring music from Beretta76 and many other great Indie artists.
Remember, when an artist is on Undiscovered, they are heard in 6 markets- WBZT in Greenville, SC; WEGW in Wheeling, WV; WHBR in Parkersburg, WV; WAMX in Huntington, WV; KERX in Ft. Smith AR; and WAQX in Syracuse, NY! FOUR of our affiliates stream their signal on-line, so check the affiliates page for airtimes.
Undiscovered- we bring Indie music to broadcast radio!
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