We could use more bands like Los Frankies these days. The Los Angeles outfit is a feral, unflinching flashback to the days when rock’s underground was testing the limits of good taste in some outlandish ways, whether it was the New York Dolls’ trans-glam performance art or the all-in guitar-hero debauchery of Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers. Singer/guitarist Frankie B. Clarke has already kicked open some doors as the leader of Frankie And The Studs, opening for the B-52’s and Billie Joe Armstrong’s the Longshot, the Struts and the Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock. Armstrong even made a special appearance on the Studs’ Life’s A Glitch LP earlier this year.
Clarke is now engaged in this not-so-dissimilar side project, co-anchored by guitarist Frankie A. Salazar. “I’m On Drugs” is the first single from Los Frankies’ upcoming debut LP, D.E.D. City, recorded at Hollywood’s legendary Sound Factory.
“One of my favorite albums of all time is Elliott Smith’s XO, which was recorded there,” says Salazar. “We even took photos in the tile bathroom because Elliott took photos there. I feel like this album ended up somewhere between the White Stripes and Queens Of The Stone Age. (Producer/drummer) Miles Deiaco and I originally bonded over our mutual obsession with the Mars Volta when we met in San Francisco back in 2008.”
“I’m On Drugs” may not win any style points for subtlety, but that’s hardly the intent. “I’ve lived the night we’re singing about more times than I can count: wide-eyed and chemically induced,” says Salazar says. “Miles has been there for a lot of those nights over the years, too.”
We’re proud to premiere Los Frankies’ “I’m On Drugs.” The self-released D.E.D. City is out March 6.
—Hobart Rowland
