Orlando's Awesome and the Ass Kickers return with new album 'Lucharoos'

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Awesome and the Ass Kickers. But at last, the Orlando comedy punk band have returned with their first new collection since their Chinese Rocks​/​Paranoid EP with late Misfits drummer Joey Image came out six years ago.

To make up for the absence, new album Lucharoos is a whopping 18-track drop, their most extended release yet. Moreover, the record features career-spanning contributions from all band members past and present (Johnny Dingleberry, Puñeta, Horchata and OG members Jose Verga and Muchacho), as well as a star cameo by Adrenalin OD’s Dave Scott Schwartzman.


This time, Awesome and the Ass Kickers have rebooted in a fresh, literate turn. No, of course they haven’t. The last things any band named Awesome and the Ass Kickers are concerned about are intellect and innovation. If you like your punk rock like that, go listen to Fugazi. As for fans of AAK, well, luchador masks and degenerate humor will suffice, fuck you very much.

Rest assured, the Ass Kickers have not matured one iota. As new titles like “Butt Nugget,” “Masturbate,” “Big Dick” and “Small Dick” can attest, they remain single-minded in their pursuit of puerile delights. If there’s a pig anywhere in you, then there’s mud galore on Lucharoos in which to revel.

That said, the songs are notably solid. With a stout guitar charge and big hooks, these anthems are tailor-made for group chants and pit cheer. There are some nice moments of punk en español (“No Te Reprimas,” “Negro Gato”), a little country twang (“Boy Scouts”) and some local love (“Will’s Pub”). But otherwise, Lucharoos keeps the punk jams straightforward.

The humor even gets self-deprecating in “Halftime Report” and “Wrap Up,” intermission skits featuring Real Radio 104.1 FM personalities Sabrina Ambra and Fritz (aka Orlando music scene omnipresence Jeff Ilgenfritz) negatively recapping the album with especially funny burns by Sabrina.

Lucharoos is the biggest and probably best batch yet of AAK’s rude, crude and catchy rock. Deliberately stupid but also fun-loving and merry, it’s juvenile escapism done better than it even needs to be.

Lucharoos now streams everywhere. But it’s also available on limited-edition red vinyl through Bandcamp, a collector’s item made even more special since it features album art by a legendary punk artist (and the Descendents’ go-to illustrator), Chris Shary.


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