Album Notes

"Those who missed the late-70's and early-80's explosion of often exhilarating alternative music - then called punk although in retrospect it wasn't all that punky - can relive those heady years when listening to this incredibly accomplished debut release. Atlanta's Sonia Tetlow Band, reduced to their initials, grab wiry, edgy melodies and wrap them around a tight three-piece that knows when to play loud and when to lay back, resulting in an album as incendiary as the first Pretenders disc of anything I've heard in the 20 years since.

Tetlow's husky voice, a ringer for a Chrissy Hynde/ Siouxie Sioux combination, alternately sputters and purrs, driving the songs down a bumpy road they call agit-pop, while making the most of a three-piece lineup. Even without printed lyrics, you'll be able to sing every one of these songs after the first listen, but it's the raging energy here, especially exemplified by bassist Lee Kennedy's jazz-like adeptness, that slaps your face like the first time you heard Patti Smith blow dust out of the radio.

Poetic, tuneful and, above all, rocking with a barely contained intensity, the STB locks into a groove and hangs it tight. Whether it's the grinding, slowly creeping closing track "Night" of the crisp brevity of "Running Out of Time," this album is as timeless as the best, and most classic releases of punk's early hey-day. Ignore the blurry cover, nondescript art, blandly initialed band moniker and vaguely offensive title, and dig into one of the most powerful first albums from an Atlanta band in years." -- Hal Horowitz" - (Above review by Hal Horowitz, Atlanta Press)

"Snarling, frantic, yet downright majestic." - (Jeff Clark, Stomp And Stammer)

"Sonia Tetlow is a little package of high explosives with a short fuse. Her full-length debut as STB is a surprisingly powerful collection of edgy and agitated rock music which finds her singing in world-weary voice." - (Lee Smith, Southeast Performer)