Picture yourself for a moment, sitting at a basement party on a Saturday night. Things are a going alright, the keg is about half gone, and then some guys pull out a bunch of instruments and start rocking this music that has everyone getting up to dance and generally go nuts over. That scenario pretty much sums up my album for the week, Welcome to Miami. The band is Slam Dunk and it is actually their second album, but the first we have seen at the station. If it doesn’t have you doing the toe-tap along to it there is something wrong. To give you a better sense of the style, think punk music but with more brass and pieces of 50’s surf rock thrown in. The vocals aren’t the most refined and occasionally it just turns into yelling or but for the style they add to the gritty feel of it all. I bet these guys would put on one heck of a show, and still be up to give ‘er into the wee hours of the morning.

This has been the first week I’ve had a hard time picking out a couple tracks that stand out in the wicked album. Each song has the same in your face style, but they are all really cool in their own way. Listening to the opening track “Can’t Stand It” I just see some drunk guys at the jukebox singing their hearts out to their favorite song. “Da Dunda” has me, one of the last people you will see on the dance floor, wanting to get up and start doing some jigs (or whatever it is people do out there). With the track “Peter” the musician in me loves the way they use rhythm, offsetting the emphasis to be on beat 3 instead 1, something you don’t really hear carried throughout a track in music today. I could go down the list but all I will say is check it out! Slam Dunk will be the highlight of any party play-list you put together.