A recent signing to Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! Label, psych-garage trio Awesome Color do little to hide the fact that all three members of the band grew up together in Ann Arbor, Michigan before relocating to Bushwick (a.k.a. “New Williamsburg”), Brooklyn. “Free Man,” not to mention practically all of Awesome Color’s recent debut LP, is straight-up Stooges pastiche, from Allison Busch’s insistent Asheton-ian snare thwacking to the sleepy-eyed, jaded vocal of “Awesome” Derek Stanton, a dead-on approximation of Raw Power-era Iggy, barely rising above a whisper as he clues the listener in on the fact that he’s a “freeeeee maaahhhhn.”

Fortunately, Stanton’s also a hell of a guitarist, powering the track with meaty fuzz solos aided in part by excellent production that, while leaving things sounding plenty grimy, is crisp enough to indicate that these guys (and gal) care. “Free Man” isn’t exactly what you’d call original, but it still sports a killer groove, and offers much proof that Awesome Color are plenty capable of bringing the rock while emulating the Stooges’ key aesthetic of utter nonchalance. Nobody’s about to make a better American Rock Album than Fun House, but Awesome Color captures its underlying spirit rather nicely. In a newfound era suddenly bereft of Sleater-Kinney and teeming with Wolfmother, that’s more than we deserve.

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