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The four young men of Four Star Riot understand this perfectly.

Over the course of five years and three independently produced releases, Four Star Riot have risen to the top of the Tampa Bay original-music scene by ignoring trends in favor of crafting their own take on the catchy, soulful rock ‘n’ roll that’s been frightening parents and giving their offspring libidinous ideas for half a century. This Clearwater, Florida quartet doesn’t take much influence from the last decade’s worth of punk posers and angsty post-Eddie Vedder clones. Inspired by the unimpeachable rock ‘n’ soul that the genre’s originators stole from their R&B forebears, Four Star Riot update those warm, earnest grooves to modern-rock eclecticism and an inescapable and stylish power-pop edge. And as grunge, nu-metal, garage-fuzz and any number of other target-marketed fads have come and gone, FSR continue to refine a sound equal parts familiar and new, danceable and ballsy, sweet and gritty.

Burn So Bright, Four Star Riot’s brand-new fourth effort, finds the foursome effortlessly and infectiously blending sex, sass and soul with their strongest batch of songs to date. Songwriter Steve Alex’s mesmerizing vocal presence and instantly resonant lyrical style have never been more effective. Whether describing a young lady who wants to feel like a woman (“All They Way”) or wearing his own heart on his sleeve (“Numb”), Alex is the archetypical rock frontman, enthralling to hear and engrossing to watch. Guitarist Joe Sanders’ evocative liquid playing echoes Alex’s bare-nerve humanity, at turns bluesy, funky and hard, and always for the good of the song, be it a rave-up like “Still My Girl” or the last-call seduction of “In Your Arms.” In the end, however, a rock ‘n’ roll band lives or dies on the strength of its rhythm section, and drummer Mike Chilton and bassist Johnny Deliz deftly guide Four Star Riot through the stompers, ballads and slightly ‘80s-flavored hard candy – including the syncopated Police-meets-Rick-Springfield surprise highlight “No Good Actress” – with their dynamic propulsion.

Four Star Riot and Burn So Bright aren’t custom-tailored for emo kids, or classic-rock obsessives, or indie scholars, or headbangers, or rhythm ‘n’ blues aficionados – and yet they are. This is a band and CD for anybody that still believes real rock ‘n’ roll should move the heart and soul as well as the head and the feet. And the group’s four members suspect that’s what everybody who really loves rock ‘n’ roll wants, or maybe needs, from it.

Four Star Riot have supported Lit, Jimmy Eat World, Def Leppard, Sum 41, Sugarcult, Saliva, and Bon freakin’ Jovi, among many others, and have performed at Austin’s annual South by Southwest industry to-do, as well as Atlanta’s Atlantis Music Festival and the Florida Music Festival. The group has also garnered multiple awards and kudos from the hometown press, and national ink in outlets such as Music Connection.

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