What we don’t have here is “Omelette Punk,” or “Country-Rawk,” or ANYTHING but stripped-down ROCK’N’ROLL from Missouri’s STILL ANIMALS. The 10 tracks on this eponymous debut are short, and to the point. In a perfect world, real kids everywhere are dancing to it on real radios while ditching real lame study hall, and they Look Kool doin’ it.

This is the sound of St. Louis: the city’s lead and limestone from a dead era, revitalized, and without a lick of gentrification. A couple of the cats here picked up their axes for the first time for this band, and the others cut their teeth touring with some excellent punk and hardcore combos. “Still Animals” fully represents uncharted territory for this crew, and it sounds to Slovenly like they were born to kill in their simplicity and ineptitude. We demand they don’t get any “better” (it’s in the contract).