Mutts “Stuck Together” 2019. Romanus Records, “Tin Foil Hat” variant, very limited edition (45 copies). From Chicago (though singer/frontman/keyboardist Mike Maimone just moved to Nashville a month or so ago), Mutts are one of my favorite Midwest bands: at times all-out rocking and others bluesy, jazzy and soulful – all with gravely Tom Waits-ish vocals – Mutts also put on a hell of a show (we last caught them at Appleton’s Mile of Music this past August after a tremendous rainstorm).

Stuck Together is Mutts’ 7th or so release in the past 10 years (including EP’s). My top tracks are (not surprisingly) the rockers like “Better Believe It” (check out the insane Mad Max-inspired video they shot for this – it’s also funny because it’s as if Mad Max had an 80′s era band van and because the characters Mutts inhabit are really nothing like how they are in real life: from my interactions with them, they are really really nice guys), “Treason,” “Tin Foil Hat” (another hilarious video, this one shot a few years ago) and “Let’s Go.” “Let’s Go” is so damn good – they re-recorded or remixed it for Stuck Together; it has previously appeared on their 2017 Stick Together EP (so did “Tin Foil Hat” and the opening track on this LP “I’ll Be Around;” the 2017 EP also marks the addition of current drummer Ian Tsan who replaced ) as well as their 2019 retrospective LP Hey, We Are All Mutts. It deserves to be on all three releases because this song is fantastic – in my top 10 for this past year. I also really dig the heavy beat hypnotic (sort-of) title track “Stick Together” which closes out the album.